Truly Off-Grid thanks to Cyclone Alfred! Did we have enough battery backup?

Glad you guys made it through with minimal issues! Sounds like it's time to make room for more solar panels. 😂

Man, you have fish tanks for days! :P

Why don't you power up your main panel. Close all the sub breakers . Open only needed breaker.

Now we know that victron system is not good at all...
Many high voltage MPPT and inverter, all in one is much better...
Andy, why you don't test better device to understand better that your victron is not good at all...??
I'm living on 60kWh capacity from battery (51.2V)
And my PV voltage is bubble from your system...
Never have issue with it, and it is working off grid...
What is wrong with your system?

Hi Andy I trust you have power back now and all is back to normal. Are you able to say who all your Victron equipment from? Do they have direct technical support? Thank you

Hi Andy
Doesn't your Tesla have powershare?

52,70v =36% battery capacity 😮😮😮😮😮

Your comments are at times driving me crazy. One moment your talking ampere hours and then later you revert to Kilowatt hours. Please to keep things simple so the majority of people understand please refer to your battery storage in KWH. Also you fail to identify the size of you system at the start and for those of us who have not watched before we have no idea if your talking about a 5KWH system or a 60 KWH system. You later stated you have a 102 KWH system but you dont comment on the size of the solar system you are using to power the batteries. Have you actually sat down and worked out what your maximum demand of your house is as compared to how much power you really use. You are very confusing.

Im disappointed that you could support more of the house, especially using a generator

Exact reason I got into solar.
Hot water is a luxury during grid down.

Would you consider a Victron Quadro to run your entire house and devices from all of your battery. That would mean your mains will go to the Quadro first and will be your backup power grid. At the Quadro you would combine your solar and your mains and your battery. Advantage is you no longer need this extensions lead across your entire house. if you like we can talk in more detail and I can show you my solution.

I am a bit disappointed. No change over switch. 😮

You might want to look at Neutrik PowerCon connectors for bidirectional power supply cables as both their male and female plugs and sockets are protected from touch. Much safer...

They’ve been keeping their cards close to their chests for several months now… hoping they’re further ahead than you fear.

Generator transfer switch would be nice house update if its legal there.
Just run the cable from the garage to the house socket and enjoy.

I expected your hot water transfer switch to have been labelled Andy.

Andy.. have a backup for your battery backup with a generator and an auxiliary charger.

We have here a generator that boosts the batteries so it can be disconnected at night as to not annoy neighbours or have it stolen.

For the house, run a permanent cables to you Grid supply and fit a changeover switch. The installations I get involved with the main consumer unit is fitted with one. Next time just a matter of throwing the switch over which takes seconds to do after 'de loading' the house.

Building batteries for others means having access to chargers. Ideal combined with a dirty alternator generator..

Glad you're OK..

Look at a BYD PHEV with V2L, I have one which can provide 2KW for 7 days……

If I may suggest, for next time, just run a single cable from the garage to the house and back feed through a heavy use breaker connected to a kitchen stove outlet or a dryer outlet. Total up the loads you want to support and make sure the cable and breaker is heavy enough to carry them. Shut off all of the other non-critical breakers including the main breaker(s) or even remove the main breakers, if possible, just in case. There would be nothing worse than frying some poor soul somewhere on the main grid. That way all of the extension cords would not be needed and the fire hazard they pose would not be present. I don't know how the panels in Australia are set up, so a back feed may not be advisable. For next time, you might have to find a heavy breaker that fits your panel and that is safe to back feed through. A hot tube set up would be ideal and comes in kits.

Doing this back feed connection worked well for a niece of mine in Texas when they had a weeklong outage during a cold snap a few years ago. As I recall, we used 2 Blue Eddies (I think but not sure) with a backup generator and solar panels to power a large fridge and freezer and powered their furnace also. Somewhere along the way, someone scrounged a small RV propane water heater to use for showers and dishes so that the water heaters did not have to be used. The furnace was important as it was so very cold, and the pipes would have frozen and burst. We probably could have put the fridge and freezers outside because it was so cold, but they wanted to retain some sort of civility. By the way, the gas supply eventually became unreliable too because the gas utilities in Texas do not put line driers on the gas lines, so we did have to rig up some small electric wall mount heaters as backups to heat critical areas where there were water pipes. The plug-in heaters could not be had as everyone was doing the same thing that we were doing, and most stores were closed because of the power outage.

Good luck with the next hurricane!!!

Cyclone, is that what usa call a hurricane?

You love fish tanks. That is a lot of weekiy cleaning work....Had a one 55 gallon tank.. Your tanks are very good looking....

Hope you have a generator?

Love your house. Thank you for sharing.

Very interesting to see what is possible, keep up the great work Andy!

Very interesting to see what is possible, keep up the great work Andy!

😎

ANDY!!! What are you doing with all those cables running everywhere?? How do you not have a "change over switch" transfer switch installed for your house yet?? Unsubscribed 😜

❤ um gerador é sempre uma solução para carregar as baterias em caso de emergência 😊

Why don't you install solar heater for hot water? you don't stress your solar system at all and you can use electricity only at night and extreme conditions.

This feels like more of a low generation problem than a storage problem. It looks like you have 3-4 days of autonomy but could use more panels or higher producing panels.

I have found there really is no end to this right. 😁 I started with an EcoFlow Delta Pro. Then bought the first set of panels. Then a 6000xp and a server rack battery. And then started building DIY batteries. Then upgraded panels from 275W EA to 650W bifacial. Now I need another inverter... And on and on. 😆

ch habe ein MultiPlus II von Victron mit einem Raspberry Pi mit Venus OS drauf, mit einem JKBMS und ich nutze den Serial Battery Manager mit einer Do-It-Yourself-Batterie. Wenn ich Optimized with Battery Life aktiv habe als ESS-Einstellung in Venus OS, dann pendelt er am Ende um die Floating Voltage immer umher mit 50 Watt plus und minus im Sekundentakt. Ich glaube dass dort sogar steht "ESS entladen und dann ESS extern controll" je nachdem ob er lädt oder dann gerade entlädt. Wenn ich auf Extern Control einstelle, dann steht am Ende Idle bzw. Leerlauf und dann hat er die Floating Voltage erreicht. Jetzt frage ich mich nur, warum pendelt er bei Optimized with Battery Life um die Voltage drumherum und ist nun in der Extern Control im ESS als Einstellung die Sustained Voltage mit berücksichtigt?

a car with V2L would be nice, but a swasticar will never have it ;-)

nice test

Have you considered putting your hot water system on a timer so it can use power from your solar instead of your batteries? ie. treat the hot water system as a heat battery.

imo more panels is like the saying give a man a fish (battery) he consumes for a day teach him to fish (more panels) his consumption is met for the future

going totally of-grid i think getting more panels is more economical than more battery, now naturally you want to have a big bank if totally off grid (which you have allready)

now naturally you can't have an array that can supply all you need on the worst solar weather day, thats where the extra battery comes in
imo you want an array that can meet baseload on semi crappy solar days to limit the days that you need to rely on battery to meet daily consumption , you want to have very few days where solar is less than consumption in a totally off-grid setup

South of the storm's eye it was very wet. We had over a metre of rain, but surprisingly our grid power supply stayed on. Roads were cut for days. We had already stocked up expecting a long isolation and outage.

Can you not pre-charge your batteries with grid power? At least start out with 100%. That's what I was doing, using the free grid power in the middle of the day to charge up the off-grid battery and also the car, then using the car's vehicle to load to charge the home battery later in the evening. 35 kWh of off-grid battery and another 51 kWh available to discharge from the car.

Having over 100 kWh of home battery seems like way over capitalising just to cope with a rare event. Better to just have a generator on hand to recharge the battery, or a car that can do V2L (i.e. pretty much anything but a Tesla).

Honestly I am disappointed u did not prep your home for off grid situation in the real sense of it.
I hope you will learn from this inconveniences u have let yourself in.

People should buy t.p. and similar must have things every time they go out , needing it or not. Unless you have no place to store it. Maybe have a couple months supply , and at least canned food enough to feed everyone for a month eating 2 small meals daily. And water, about 1 gallon/person for a week minimum. Stored in about 20 litre containers, or 5gallons, and don't forget pets, they need food and water also a 5gallon/20 litre for them also, and circulate the food. Buy new items once a month, and eat the oldest stuff. (The water needs to be circulated also. About everything two years) use the water for drink and coffee, replace it when it's gone , open another old one, last thing you need is a sever storm pass, and have a bunker of spoiled food, and stuff growing in the water. Also having pet food , a 20lb extra dog food for example inside a air tight control, a large vacuum sealed bag would be excellent. Maybe replace it 6-12 months checking the dates. And everyone should have at least a couple 12v lithium batteries and 2500-3000 watt inverter . With 1200-1800 watts of solar, and a DC to DC charger so the vehicle can charge the batteries, mount the inverter and batteries to a hand truck, or cart with a 50'/15 metres roughly of 10 gauge extension cables, two with a couple plug strips on the end of each, with two 40 amp DC to DC chargers connected to a car with 100-150,200 amp alternator. With all lights off, no heater fan, or AC on, it should charge a 200-400 ah lithium battery fairly fast. Especially with an additional 1500 watts from solar, 14v x 40 amps x2, 1100-1150 watts, and 2000 -2500 watts is a fair amount of power COMPARED to having ZERO! With nothing except maybe a match and flashlight... You can keep the refrigerator running, unplug it to use a microwave to cook food. Run lights and a fan if needed. Run a 500 watt heater and the refrigerator, a couple lights all at once , maybe a TV , keeping the food from going bad is important, and having a propane camping stove , or at least a Sterno / canned heat stove , or an alcohol stove. Or know how to make one. Using tuna style cans, cotton balls and 91% alcohol or better. With the cans sitting on a insulator with a grate to allow pots and pans to sit over the fire. This can also provide heat, but definitely have a couple windows cracked open. **The propane camping stove and lanterns are much better , as far as SAFETY**) AND don't forget you need water to go with the t.p. many places require power to keep the water going. It may work for a while. When the water towers are empty that it. Having a 55 gallons drum outside to catch water after going through a filter like a gutter going into a 5 gallon bucket of fish tank gravel with a 50mm pipe (2") x2 + into 1,2,4,+ 55 gallon drums used for food would be best, (easily cleaned for one reason) and a 12v pump can be used with a garden hose to fill the toilet tank and the water can be ran through a couple carbon filters
and used for other things maybe UV-C light TO KILL BACTERIA, and it can be used for coffee, if you have shingle roofing maybe use a fine sand in the bucket filter with the gravel. Layer the gravel and sand. A really fine granite gravel nearly sand with , a cotton gauze separating the layers a more coarse gravel on the bottom, and top. A 1/4"-5/16 gravel, about 2" on the bottom with 2" barbed pipe fittings screwed into the bottom, or use pvc 90° elbows somehow. It a single 4" using PVC and a toilet flange, (a new one😂) attaching it to tge bottom of the bucket with plumbers putty and stainless bolts. With a out 4 layers of stainless screen over the hole turning each layer 45° and screw down with the flange. Add the large 1/4" gravel, 2" high. With a layer of cotton gauze, then the fine sand 100-200 mesh sand, about 4", a layer of gauze, then the fine gravel 1/8" mesh 4", gauze,4" of sand , gauze, a layer of about 3/8" / 8mm gravel about 2"- 3" leaving about 4"- 6" for water in the bucket. With a 4" PVC y with a (90° elbow below it, with each reduced to a 2" PVC pipe, with 2-4 + 'Tee fittings on each with the 2" (or 1" - 1.5" ) pipe going to the barrels.1.5" or 2" will be best , the bucket lid can be replaced and cut out for 1-2 gutter down spouts. Anymore may cause a backup in large down pours. It would not hurt to use this system constantly, all the time. The non clorinated water is better for the septic tank. Allows the bacteria to grow faster, the clorinated water supposed to keep bacteria from growing in the water. It can slow it in the septic system, it's not going to stop it. A 12v pump and a 50 ah battery with a 1 amp charger. Keeping the battery to 13.8v should be safe to use constantly, it can be plumbed in permanent using pex pipe, the pump has a pressure switch. So the toilet tank gets full the pump will shut off like normal. Also the inverter can use romex wiring, use the same wire used inside the wall. If extension cords aren't available. Just add a male plug and a couple or more receptacle and boxes on the opposite end, use GFCI receptacle for safety, with a 20 amp breaker. And maybe add a 10-15:amp breaker to each receptacle on the end 15 is best. Using 10/2 with ground especially if it's 50' or more. 10-12 gauge per 2500 watts at 120v a strip of boxes with a total of 6-8 outlet pairs having one receptacle with one switch to control it is best, so the refrigerator can be turned off to use the microwave, without having to unplug it. Or put it on a timer, so the refrigerator only gets power every 3-4 hours, for 30 minutes . with the temperature turned down about 5°-10°f . Or to 38° in the fridge. With no sun running the car for 1 hour twice a day should get you through the day and night. possibly run it for a hour before bedtime to get 85% charge if possible 75-85% , the fridge a lamp and a efficient TV should be able to run all night to charge again the next morning. A solar 1200-1800watts and 1000 from the car it should take 20 minutes, 400 ah should not take much over 15-20 minutes with 1kw-1100w from 0-100% just shy of 3kw 10-15 minutes or less in a perfect world. So 1 hour run time daily should keep it charged without sun. With sun the solar should have it charged and power 50% of everything. We all need a little bit of power to help ourselves in storms! ✌️ have an awesome 🎉day. Forgive the rambling ✌️👍

Beautiful fish tanks. I miss my natural plant tanks.

Time to get Starlink!

lol...i'm surprised you turn off the Spat fridge at such a high percentage.

Thank you for sharing your experiences during the off grid situation due to the disaster and best regards from Bremen, 🇩🇪 😊

If you would have had wind power during the power outage, you could have charged your batteries even without sunshine. All you would need is wind.

I need your help, please.

I’m using a JK-B1A8S10P BMS board for my battery-powered wheelchair. JK is generally fine, but the password issue still hasn’t been resolved! Plus, the Bluetooth signal is weak!

I used to connect it with my iPhone, but I had to reset the phone, and now I can’t connect anymore!

Every time I try to connect, I have to go to the website and get a new password!

Since I had this password issue, I tried using another phone with Android 14, but that phone didn’t detect the BMS board at all! It didn’t connect! However, Android 11, 12, and 13 work fine. This seems ridiculous to me! I don’t understand how JK hasn’t fixed this issue yet!

On the other hand, Daly BMS boards don’t have this problem. I used a red Daly 150A BMS, and its Bluetooth signal was strong. But I stopped using it because it didn’t have active balancing.

Then, I tried the blue Daly 100A Active Balance 8/24 BMS board, which was great! Active balancing, Bluetooth signal, and WiFi connection were all excellent. However, it gave me a sensor error, so I had to stop using that one too. :(

I heard that a new Daly model has been released with Active Balancing + WiFi + Bluetooth, but I don’t have the chance to test it right now.

Now, I bought the JK-BD6A24S10P board. To increase the Bluetooth signal, I soldered a wire onto the Bluetooth chip, but I haven’t tested it yet. If this board also has a password issue, I don’t even want to bother with it. :(

Dear friends, what do you recommend? Can you please help me?

Best regards.

If I remember correctly you have net metrring on your house and law will not let you hook to your off grid

its about time you did a transfer switch so you don't need all them cables

Why don’t you use a change over switch in your switch board

What a nightmare of extension leads !! We lost power here in Redland Bay for 6 days, i only have 6.6 on the roof and 10kw storage hard wired into switchboard. 2 phases coming in from street A phase is backup for solar B phase is for cooktops oven and HW booster . Did have to run generator for 2 days when we had zero sun but enough light to bring batteries back to about 70% to run fridges and freezers overnight. Once we got a bit of watery sun all back to normal and kept my neighbours running as well

Next time. Do a male male plug. Plug it into a normal house plug. Down main fuse. And you will have your normal light