Renamed: Solar, Inverter, Battery, etc Q & A

[terracore]

Good to know. What kind of batteries are you using?

[randomq]

Costco GC2s. They are made by Interstate and have an electrolyte that minimizes plate corrosion but requires higher charging voltage. I'm pretty pleased with their performance, coupled with an MPPT charge controller to squeeze out a few watts even on rainy days.

I use a 24V 1000W pure sine inverter made by Microsolar. $150 but it works great. Wish I could order another but it seems discontinued on Amazon. I'll probably buy some 3000W to use for the occasional cooking/tool use on sunny days, and as a backup to the 1000W.

[terracore]

How do you handle the higher charging voltage?

[MarkP]

My old APC SmartUPS3000 would flash all lights at once, indicating a fault condition, during the equalization sequence imposed by the solar charge controller but it did not shut down.

[randomq]

My cheapo mppt charge controller is adjustable into the mid-30's, and my string of panels is higher voltage, so no issues charging at 31v (or higher when equalizing, aside from the inverter).

[ericlp]

Inverters are kinda a mixed bag on usage.

If your going OFF GRID... would you rather have an inverter that has 5% failure rate? Or one that has a 20%? How much does all that food in the refrigerator going to cost you when you inverter fails and you come home to spoiled food? What is the customer service like? Will they answer the phone to ship out parts that covered under warranty? What good is a warranty if you never get through to the support desk?

Outback / Magnum comes to mind...

Tho, if you don't really care about that since you hooked up to grid power, and have a nice generator you can swap in case of something going wrong. No big deal I guess... Buy a cheap one and see how long it runs! But, not all inverters are created equal. Usually you get what you pay for. Like cooling fans. Are the fans run 24/7? Or only when under load? Are the fans quality fans that only blow air over the exposed heatsinks? Or do they just run air through the entire box sucking in dust and humid air and depositing on every component in the box? Is the unit sealed for bugs and dirt? A cheap unit, expect to open the box and clean the fan and dust out of them ever 6 months... Heat kills components fast. Nothing worse than a bunch of dust clogging an intake fan. Also, if you get a cheap o unit, do yourself a favor and get a QUALITY PC case fan and replace it! Even if you have to modify the unit, say, drill holes in the top of the box and mount an extra fan, do it!

If your gonna be spending less than a grand... get a cheap unit and roll the dice. More than a grand? Get something made in the USA and has the best warranty (yes even for lightning strikes) and great customer care.

[kalakoa]

If your gonna be spending less than a grand... get a cheap unit and roll the dice.

...and have a generator, and keep plenty of spares, and be prepared to spend your day off rewiring the system after running out to O'Reilly for some fuses (plus a quick stop at Home Depot for some more wire and another terminal lug).

[randomq]

I can restock my little fridge and re-order my cheap inverter about 6 times before the break-even point.

[terracore]

"Here's a 2000 watt Samlex for only $360. What's wrong with it?

[LINK DELETED SO NOBODY ELSE GETS SUCKERED]

Wow. It went up $5 in less than 5 minutes. It's 365 now and climbing!"

I guess the price was too good to be true. I bought a "new" "sold and fulfilled by Amazon", an "authorized retailer" of the Samlex brand (important for warranty claims).

Unboxed it upon delivery and it was a used, 1000 watt inverter in the 2000 watt box. The terracore curse continues...

I spent substantial time with them to try and force an investigation of the issue. The reviews were FAR to low to be from a legitimate Samlex product. I finally made them listen, though it was probably pretend listening.

[terracore]

Well it looks like Samlex moving their production to Asia has taken it's toll. I paid extra for the Samlex name but the inverter died 9 days after the Amazon return window. Fortunately, they made an exception to their 30 day return policy.

ETA:

"Two golf cart batteries in series would give you over 200 amp-hrs"

Costco sells 12v golf cart batteries. Two in parallel provide 300Ah and no load balancing required. At 85 pounds each they are about as heavy as you want to get (you would think at that weight they would come with a handle or something to grab onto other than their slimy sides). These are the models they carry: https://www.interstatebatteries.com/prod...e=golf-car&subcategoryKey=&ignorecategoryid=true They are $220. Four of the 6 volts ($99 each) would have been a better price point per Ah but that's twice as much maintenance, opportunity for failure, load balancing, etc. The verbiage on the interstate web site also led me to believe the 12v model can handle deeper discharge (and more discharges) than their 6v. So with my luck they will probably fail or catch fire a day after the 12 month warranty expires.