All Solar Articles
A complete collection of solar, energy, and backup power articles.
This page contains every article published in the Solar & Energy section of the site. Here you will find how-to articles, product reviews, resources, lessons learned, system documentation, and practical discussions related to solar power, backup power, energy independence, and preparedness. Together, these articles provide a broad collection of knowledge, experience, and insights gained through nearly 20 years of learning, planning, building, and operating real-world energy systems.
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Great Solar Upgrade – Day #3
Day #3 come and gone! Okay, it’s getting old. Yup, working 12 hour days is getting to me and I am ready for quiet. Yes, the generator has been a blessing, without we would have…
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Great Solar Upgrade – Day #2
Day #2 come and gone! Day #1 was without incident, problem, or even a hiccup…for which I am grateful. Day #2…not so much…but not bad at all. First off let me explain that I had…
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Great Solar Upgrade – Day #1
So late last week I actually began the “Great Solar Upgrade” here at the glamstead. I began labeling electrical boxes, installing wire tension lugs, and some other pre-work tasks. Yesterday was Day #1 of actually…
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Victron Lynx PowerIn – Class T Fuse & Battery Switch
In a recently installed solar system I use a Class T fuse between the Trophy battery bank and the inverter. A Class T fuse is a fast-acting, high amp rated capable fuse. I installed a…
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Victron Lynx PowerIn – Used as a Battery BusBar
I’ve written about Victron’s Lynx PowerIn before…and how really cool I think it is. Today I am showing you how I used it for a busbar to connect three 105ah LifePO4 Trophy batteries into a…
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Keeping Lithium Batteries Warm
As you probably know, it is harmful to a lithium battery to charge it when it is at freezing temperature or below. That means 32F for us normal people…and 0 centigrade for those folks who…
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Victron Energy Lynx Distribution System – Lynx PowerIn Part #2
Welcome to Part #2 of the Victron Energy Lynx PowerIn article! In Part #1 < click here to read Part #1 > I shared a bunch of information, here in Part #2 I will show…
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Victron Energy Lynx Distribution System – Lynx PowerIn Part #1
The Victron Lynx Distribution System is a modular busbar system that incorporates DC connections, distribution, fusing, battery monitoring and Lithium battery management. The system consists of the following components: Lynx PowerIn Lynx Distributor Lynx Shun…
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Tip/Trap: Solar – LiFePO4 Batteries
I am hearing considerable feedback regarding a particular problem with LiFePOWER4 batteries. The problem seems to occur in larger parallel strings of batteries, 3 or more. If the batteries aren’t brought up to 100% State…
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LifePO4 Battery SOC Charts
Yup, those are actual LifePO4 battery cells with a Battery Management System (BMS) attached to the side. In other words…a LifePO4 battery…without a fancy case around it. In my early days of solar system design…
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DC Wire – Types, Size Chart, and Fusing
One of the things that can get confusing, but is extremely important, is knowing what size of wire to use when working with DC circuits. And once you get the wire size figured out…then trying…
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Third Battery Arrived – Trophy 220E-1
note: This post should have been made 6 days after the initial post regarding the battery purchase, but it was delayed along with the first post. Well, you know by my last post regarding my…
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Ordered My Third Battery !
note: this post was written on December 6th, posting was delayed for a number of reasons. As promised before, I am posting about my experience with Trophy Battery…and purchasing the third battery in a bank…
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Our Solar System Upgrade
There seemed to be a bunch of interest in the solar stuff I have been posting. And, I decided a couple months ago to upgrade our system. Seems like a perfect time to share more…
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TIP : Solar – Check/Tighten All Connections…regularly
A dangerous, potentially catastrophic, situation developed with my solar system and I was almost unaware of it. Thankfully I caught it in time and learned a couple lessons along the way. And that is what…
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Our Glamstead Solar System
Here we go…I was asked to supply the info and diagram of our solar system. I hope this can be of use to folks who are thinking about going off-grid or grid-tied. After working through…
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TIP : Very Energy Efficient Air Conditioning for Solar Systems
As you know we have a solar system…3.8kw Canadian Solar PVs, 400ah LifePo4 batteries, 5kw Victron inverter powering a 120vAC household system. Originally we were not going to have air conditioning…but a summer of me…
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Our Solar Well Pump System
OK, let’s talk water, solar power, splicing, planning, plan changes, and gasoline prices… Back when we bought our place in 2016 we were lucky enough to buy a piece of property that already had a…
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2021 Solar System Configuration
I received a couple requests for more information on the solar system design I mentioned in two earlier posts regarding some of the equipment. So I have attached a PDF file that shows the design…
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TRAP: Solar – Growatt Inverter/Charge Controller
The Growatt SPF series of inverters has problems…serious problems if you don’t know how to fix them. The inverter unit also contains an integrated MPPT charge controller built in. And the unit has a great…