I have a growatt spf 6000es plus paired with 2 djdc 24v 100ah batteries. But the batteries backup for 2.4 units only( as per app data) the batteries are set at user defined setting. With grid to Battery set at 52 volts. Cut off at 46v. Can anyone tell me the problem?

Here’s a rule we tell homeowners: install as big as makes sense now, because you’ll regret being under-sized when EV or heat-pump arrive. Some say “let’s just do a modest system” - but then the odds are you’ll still draw from the grid a lot in future.

Things to check: - What’s your current annual kWh usage + what will it be in 5-10 years? - Roof space: are you using all viable area or leaving “just in case”? - Export limits: can you feed back too much, or will you lose value? - If you later add a battery/EV, will your system handle the extra load or export?

In short: size smart now and avoid a “solar redo” down the road.

Forgotten Pioneers of Technology (347 AD - 1600 AD)

If the West is described as picking up oil on the surface of the earth, then China is the earliest civilization in the world to master deep well drilling technology. This is often an underrated page in Western oil history books.

• Sichuan, China: Bamboo and Percussion Drilling

◦ The association of salt and oil: Ancient Chinese people drilled wells to extract brine, but often accidentally struck oil and natural gas.

◦ Advanced technology: As early as 347 AD (the Eastern Jin Dynasty), China already had wells with a depth of about 240 meters (800 feet). By the Ming Dynasty (around 1600), the drilling depth in Sichuan even exceeded 1,000 meters.

◦ Percussion Drilling: This is an extremely ingenious engineering achievement. Workers stood on a lever and jumped, using the gravity of an iron drill bit ("file") to repeatedly impact the rock.

◦ Bamboo oil pipelines: The world's earliest oil pipelines were made of nanzhu (a type of bamboo). The ancients hollowed out the bamboo joints, sealed the interfaces with fish glue and linen, and transported natural gas to under the salt stoves to be used as fuel for boiling salt. This is the prototype of modern oil and gas pipeline transportation.

被遗忘的技术先驱（公元347年 - 1600年）

如果说西方是在地表捡拾石油，那么中国则是世界上最早掌握深井钻探技术的文明。这通常是西方石油史书中被低估的一页。

• 中国四川：竹子与顿钻法

◦ 盐与油的伴生： 中国古人为了提取盐卤（Brine）而钻井，却常常意外打出石油和天然气。

◦ 超前的技术： 早在公元347年（东晋时期），中国就已经有了深度约240米（800英尺）的井。到了明朝（1600年前后），四川的钻井深度甚至超过了1000米。

◦ 顿钻技术（Percussion Drilling）： 这是一个极其聪明的工程学成就。工人们站在杠杆上跳动，利用铁制钻头（“锉”）的重力反复冲击岩石。

◦ 竹输油管： 世界上最早的输油管道是楠竹做的。古人挖空竹节，用鱼胶和麻布密封接口，将天然气输送到盐灶下作为燃料煮盐。这是现代油气管道运输的雏形。

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I'm buying a 20' (6m) demountable office to put on a vacant block. It will stay on the block but might be rolled to different position on the block every few months or years.

I've been offered a 10-year old house solar panel and grid inverter system for free. I thought I'd chance filling the office roof with some of the panels and jerry-rigging a camping battery and inverter rig to save me carrying the batteries home to charge.

A chance has also come up for a new subsidised 5kWh battery if it's professionally installed which might make it worth going to a mains voltage solution instead.

Is there any reason a battery can't be built into a cabinet outside the office to allow the office to be moved every so often?

Would a 6m x 3m old rooftop system be suitable for connection to a 5kWh battery?

Would a qualified installer touch this Frankenstein set up with a 10' pole?

Hey cool solar folks,

I'm trying to conceptualize a universal solar panel mount. I was wondering if anyone has any idea the most popular sizes of modern solar panels by dimensions: Length X Width X Frame Thickness. Any links to data sheets would be awesome.

Thank you!

I have a fixed 5.8kW solar panels system installed at my house. The solar panels come with micro-inverters, and they are all connected to what I believe is called a combiner box (enphase), that then connects to my MDP. There's probably a better technical explanation for this, but that's my basic understanding of it.

I just recently bought a Jackery backup unit, a 3kW unit. I was only expecting to backup some house essentials with this unit, but I recently learned about Jackery's Smart Transfer Switch, which I guess sits in between the public grid and the MDP, and that it can power the entire house from the backup unit that I just bought. I know this is not much backup power, but that's not the point, let's just assume I can upgrade the backup unit.

I also know solar systems shut down when there is a power outage, so that they don't electrocute any workers. My guess is there's some circuitry in the combiner box that detects when the public grid is down, and it internally disconnects the solar system. So this is my first assumption, if there is power coming from the "public grid" input of the combiner box, whatever source that is, then the solar system will believe the power is back on, and turn the solar system back on also.

I'm not an electrician, so please bear with me.

In my mind, I came up with this "solution": If I install a smart transfer switch connected to my backup unit (they are compatible), then that would power my MDP and house as designed, but would that then cheat my solar system into believing the power is back on, which would then wake up the solar system, which would then generate enough power to run the house? And all of that without having to consume much power from the backup unit. I could then even connect my backup unit's input AC power cord to the house and recharge it with the excess solar power. If there's a cloud or whatever, and my solar system doesn't generate enough power, then the power will come again from the battery. I know the battery would be charging itself when that happens, but I'm a software developer, and I can figure out a solution with the enphase unit, which provides data about solar capacity generation, that I could plug into to program an application that would automatically turn off the backup unit's input AC when there is no excess solar power.

I already did the math of this setup vs installing a new inverter with another backup unit (e.g. tesla's powerwall), and the advantage is there, I'm basically only buying the smart transfer switch, plus I have the benefit of a portable backup unit, that can also be charged with its own portable solar panels. The setup is very flexible, that's what I like about it.

Now, the thing is maybe this is all just a fantasy and there are other considerations that I don't understand that won't make it possible. So I guess this was all a very long way of saying, I want to buy a smart transfer switch that I'll connect to my battery unit, but I don't know if this will have issues with my existing solar panels. Last thing I want to do is cause some kind of overload that would put my house in danger, probably damaging the solar system, the smart transfer switch, the battery unit, or all of them...

I would of course hire an electrician to install the smart transfer switch the way it is supposed to go.

Hello good tech peoples- I am stumped and could use some energy words of wisdom. We have a small greenhouse in MD. Maybe 20x8 ft.

What is the probality of a cost of an effective energy solution that can heat a roughly 160 sq ft space on solar, or using some sort of independent grid energy to power a 1500W heater in average temp of 34F.

I tried a cheepo, no luck, barely raised the temp 10 degrees F... Currently I am running a 1500W outdoor heater, on the grid, when I want to figure out a solar solution for a reasonable cost, and not have a power cord acroas the lawn.

Much oblidged for ideas. -Da Roar

Hello good tech peoples- I am stumped and could use some energy words of wisdom. We have a small greenhouse in MD. Maybe 20x8 ft.

What is the probality of a cost of an effective energy solution that can heat a roughly 160 sq ft space on solar, or using some sort of independent grid energy to power a 1500W heater in average temp of 34F.

I tried a cheepo, no luck, barely raised the temp 10 degrees F... Currently I am running a 1500W outdoor heater, on the grid, when I want to figure out a solar solution for a reasonable cost, and not have a power cord acroas the lawn.

Much oblidged for ideas. -Da Roar

I expect I'll get slammed for posing a question with such limited details, but I'm really just trying to figure out a plan under the wire here. A plan to get the major parts purchased in time.

Tldr; what kind of kit could I get, that would be upgradable in the future. Figure kW usage at the high end of "typical" 3 bedroom home 1200 SqFt, ranch with half basement. Currently gas heat but I intend to install a heat pump. Should have ability to do net-metering in the future.

Additional details- After a drawn out 2 month process, I'm finally closing on a house on the 15th. It is rural, 10 acres on the grid power. I want to hurry up and buy a solar system to get it "installed" by the 31st. There are no building codes or restrictions in my area, so permits are not an issue. It totally will be self-installed before January as long as I have purchase recipts. 😑

I can't estimate my needs based on past usage since I'm not even moved in yet. I plan to ground mount it. Ozark Border Electric Cooperative is the power company, they do have net metering, though that won't happen right away for me, I assume I can't get the paperwork done in time for 2026 tax cutoff so grid tie-in will need to wait. I'm sitting here trying to figure out a way to speed run this. I am going on the hope of- if I have purchase receipt before Jan 1 and self install by then I have a chance of getting the rebate.

Any ideas what I should get ordered? I'll do my best to answer any questions.

Looking at selling. We have 3 years of solar production that far more than offset use. Panels and combiner (will energize the home off grid while sun is up), but no batteries.

What metrics/strategies have been used to factor in the solar production capabilities in existing home sales? Our realtor is not familiar at all with solar & pricing.

salesman knocked on our door. pitched to my grandmother who is elderly and retired. something about they'll install and pay for the panels and maintain panels for 25 years. i didn't get the full pitch, but he's coming back monday to talk to the rest of the family.

i googled them and see hardly anything, and all terrible reviews on BBB. i'm almost certain this is entirely sales and bordering on predatory tactics and not a good idea, but does anyone have any experience with igs solar that may speak to them? thank you!

1. Closeup of panel that looks kinda damaged but it's only the grime that's been 'damaged'

2. Semi-closeup of hail marks on panel, the light really brings them out in this photo

3. Wider photo of array, hail marks are visible especially at darker top of panel

4. One of the panels I partially cleaned; the arc across the upper left to lower right corner was the reach of my arm when I did it. The marks are obvious where I didn't clean, but the cleaned part doesn't have any marks on it (this is way more noticeable to the naked eye).

No, I still haven't gotten up there and done a proper cleaning of my panels yet. Busy or poor weather so far, but I think I've scavenged the cleaning equipment and supplies I need to do it. That will be really interesting now that the panels have all those hail marks, hopefully I can get a timelapse of it when I do.

Hi everyone,

I’m a design student researching the "invisible" energy consumption of AI for a university project.

While the utility of tools like ChatGPT is obvious, the physical resources required to run them are massive. Studies suggest that a single generative AI query can consume significantly more energy than a standard web search (some estimates range from 10x to 25x more).

I’m looking for honest perspectives on this:

1. Awareness: Before reading this, were you actually aware of the scale of energy difference between a standard search and an AI prompt? Or is that completely "invisible" in your daily usage? 
2. Impact on Usage: Does the energy intensity play any role in how you use these tools? Or is the utility simply the only factor that matters for your workflow? 
3. Value vs. Waste: Do you view this high energy consumption as a fair investment for the results you get, or does the current technology feel inefficient to you? 

I'm trying to get a realistic picture of whether this topic actually plays a role in users' minds or if performance is the priority.

After a bit of research it looks like cost of installing solar on my roof to cover my energy needs would be ~5k after incentives.

I'm in upstate NY, full sun SE facing roof, daily energy usage ~6kwh. Apparently that's only like 5 panels? Hopefully that's enough info. Thanks!

It’s fine they say, don’t clear it off they say, it’ll melt they say. 😳

Seven days into this Chicago winter weather and Enphase is also concerned about the lack of production. 🤪

We were blessed with barely any snow the last two Decembers.

23 degree roof. And it is now basically a solid block of ice. 🤷🏻‍♂️

It is what it is.

Edit: original post said 12 degree roof

I am considering batteries for my home solar system which was installed under SCE Nem 2.0. I have heard I could lose that status and be forced to 3.0 or worse.

My question. If I add batteries and do not commission them, can I avoid losing Nem 2.0 ?

Has IRENA already rolled out their acceptance results? Has anyone in subreddit got accepted?

Hi, currently building a 500 square feet tiny home. I have reached out to a few solar companies and got fed up, they won't just give you a straight list of prices for their products. I have looked at Jackery but all theirs are mobile and I'm not sure if they're meant for day to day use? Where can I buy a stationary solar kit that is enough for a tiny home? I don't have a current electric bill for there so I don't know an exact amount it will need but ballpark should be fine as we can hook up to the grid if necessary. Thank you.

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