excellent video.....

peeling back all the hype of solar power to a REALITY system

This is the most honest financial analysis of solar I've ever seen! I'm in AZ and power is cheap here also. I had fun building a solar system on my RV for off-grid camping. Love the technology. But, trying to justify solar on my residence where cheap grid power is available and reliable - its just not cost effective. Your example with running the AC unit 4-5 months a year was excellent. One other factor I consider when doing the financial calculations for a payback period is the "opportunity cost." In other words, if you spend $5000 on a system and calculate your payback period to be 10 years, you should also consider how that $5000 COULD have worked for you over that 10 year period invested in stocks, bonds, or even high yield savings. Anyway, thanks for a great video!

In Costa Rica, our power company charges $0,12(USD) per kWh in the lower consumption range 0-200 kWh, for more than 300 kWh the rate increases to $0,2(USD) per kWh. My monthly average consumption is 348 kWh (11,6 kWh daily). I figured the same conclusion as you wisely advised, it is more profitable to reduce the average baseline for a greater ROI, in my case I just need to generate 5 to 7kWh solar per day, probably that means

You have identified some of the problems with grid tie solar systems. There are more. In order to get around all of those problems, have power when the grid goes down, and get set up for expansion, for slightly more money I would suggest just making an off-grid system. Instead of purchasing a $40 grid tie inverter, my suggestion would be a $15 charge controller and a $50 inverter. Find an inexpensive 12 volt deep cycle battery, or better yet a pair of used golf cart batteries that test still good from a Golf Cart Company. This will give you a great start, be able to use all that the panels produce, and give you experience on how to run a larger system. You can then add panels, batteries, and other components as you can afford them. This will help you to avoid having to ask permission from the utility company, fill out reams of their paperwork, possibly need to get higher insurance, pay any fines that they decide to give you, and deal with them shutting off your electricity. I have heard of all of these things happening. Good luck and be safe.

Using microinverters to cover the base energy (e.g. routers and other constant drains) is very clever. Up to now i've focused on segregating those loads and the lighting of key rooms to a separate circuit feed by my solar and batteries. The refrigerator and freezer are the highest energy loads in our home..... my next target.

Glad i found this video. UK is having an energy crisis and my tariff renewal is showing at 60p a kwh in my area up from my old fixed rate of 13.5p. Base usage is around 600W in my house and I was about to go for a whole battery system and 5kw array. Only problem is that I cannot have any grid feedback so i will probably save my money and setup 500w instead using a micro grid tie inverter. So not only am i saving on upfront cost but also able to move it with me when i move houses - something that isn't talked about often with solar.

Great explanation of the different systems.

Fantastic ...short and sweet, straight to the point..ty

Spent 5k tossing a 3kw system with 10kwh 48v batteries, I just keep it isolated from the grid and run things off cords for now. It can run my gas furnace/fridge for a few days if grid goes down, but I do get use of the power daily for the most part.

I really like your analysis. I live in Mexico City and here, homes have a great subsidy for the first monthly 75 kWh (0.07$/kWh), a not so great for the next 65, and if you consume more, they'll charge you 0.25USD per kWh. If you consume more than 250kWh per month, your rate rises to 0.38usd/kWh! "Domicilio de Alto Consumo" (High Consumption Residence), and you don't have any subsidy, even if you consume 1kWh. Your normal rate only resets if you stay below 250 for 6 months. The options for "selling" power to the grid are just like the ones available in the US, you need a pretty expensive (and certified) setup and a two phase service (it's a higher consumption setup; a normal home only uses one phase, as nearly no one needs heating, AC or 220V devices). They pay near 0.04usd/kWh for solar energy, so in my opinion, it's not worth it! I'm planning to install a small setup just like yours, to stay below 250 monthly, and ideally, I'll take the benefit of not paying those expensive kWhs if I'm in the range between 140 and 250. So my system should pay for itself while I keep myself in the highly subsidized rate.

This is very informative. Thanks.

So interesting because for one thing, we're practically neighbors (I'm not kidding) and I can see you have that nice North wall for the array...I too, have a nice empty North wall 😁. I've been checking into portable Solar Power kits and trying to justify this and that but this video gives me more to work with. What I'd really love is to have enough to power my Midea mini split window AC, should we have a power outage (usually from the WIND). Thank you so much! 👍🏻

Amazing video, Very simple explanation with spot on recommendations on best diy solar system. Well done 👏 ✔️ 👍

I have a 425 watt grid tie setup on a timer to where if the power goes out it closes a relay to send power to my mppt to charge a battery. To keep the battery topped off that same relay gets it's power off of the same line the grid tie is connected to and that is plugged into a timer switch so at 530 pm each day it turns off and same thing happens as if power goes off it sends all energy at that point to my batteries. It's very simple

Interesting approach

Great information!!

Great job! You can tell he has struggled with power companies in order to provide us with this valuable information! Thank you for sharing!

If you want to expand, what I would do is find ways of increasing your constant load, for example get a window A/C and a timer to have it always run during daylight hours, that will save you from running your main A/C as often.

Great finance perspective on solar system. In California, now we are getting more power outages. Electricity company has changed settings to trip off power even small tree branch hits power lines. No power for a day means food in the fridge is going to damage. So backup generator or battery is becoming necessity.

been following for years, you always have the best real-life data. Thank you for all you are doing...

Electricity is about the same price where I live. I learned a lot from this video and your other recent vids about the solar panels. Now I know why the power company installed that fancy meter on my house a year ago.

Nice video well explained.

@VRR I know this video is like 2 years old however the Growatt XH line of grid-tie inverter was on the market, and they have the Zero export grid tie function similar to limiter setting, for most people like me that pays up to 40cent during super peak and 22cents during peak shaving over 90-100% during that window gives a quicker payback than just shaving off the base load during that same window, point is i have a 4.2kW grid-tie setup with no net metering agreement and I paid off my system within 7 months, saving $228 per month plus got 30% tax credit, so it does not matter if your system is capable of producing more than you need at times, because the cost of electric is so expensive it’s actually better to have a bigger system then needed, in your case i get it your area is crazy cheap seem pointless to even build out a system as you are not saving a few hundred dollars per month, just a few dollars with risky cheap devices, still look like a fun setup.

Great video and solid advice about the economics of solar. One small detail, the power meter only has one current sensor. Both legs of the 240 line go through it, one of them backwards. The currents sum. If you are drawing 200W on one leg but producing 100W on the other, the meter sees it as 100W consumption. You don't need to worry about balancing as long as the total combined power is not negative.

You made the perfect point. Base line power consumption is the way to go. Super informative. In Texas we have Reliant and power is free at night so we can cheat by using the base line solar in the day and then running everything else at night. Thanks for what you do.

i wanna have these tie inverter with limiter, but theyre is a "lag" when it detect that you are producing to much and cutting it, do you think that lag is a probleme and will push juice back into the grid enough that they notice it?

The best video about GTIs .All the informations you need r in this video.Thank u so much sir.

Straight forward video. Here, you'll need an additional meter for net metering plus there's a monthly fee of 60 dollars for that second meter. And yeah the power company only pays you 3/4 of the kw price for the energy you produce. I have 4kw. We make sure we run the dryer, dishwasher stove ac as much as possible during the day for the "free electric". Also the smart meters here do not run backwards, they'll charge you per kw for electric entering AND leaving your home

THis is a honest video so Thanks very much, On internet basically what you find (for solar reviews) are sales speaks very hard to find a user that talk about his real experience from the economics, for me I came to the same conclusion as you, justify SOLAR where eletricity have good prices dont make any economic sense (I live in Texas), that why many goverments are artificially raising price from normal eletricity by heavy TAXES. great video and Thanks.

Curious I stumbled upon this video. That's pretty much what I'm installing! A small grid tie inverter, PV panel and literally that's it! ;-) Nice information package!

Thank you for common sense solar!

Great video. You really seem to understand return-on-investment calculations, so I bet you are good investor and a frugal by nature. If someone installs something like this, it makes most sense to run your appliances while the sun is shining. A/C, vacuum, clothes/dishwasher, EV charging, etc so you consume as much of the energy you are producing. That's of course assuming you don't have measured rates. I still have a "dumb" meter that would spin backwards so I could probably size my system up a bit, right? I don't want to draw the attention of the PoCo, of course, by ever having a negative bill or too many months of near zero usage (or have it spinning backwards when they are reading it). So would it be best to pick my lowest usage month and size it around there? I get pretty good sun year-round.

Good thing about having say a 2kw grid tie hooked to your (avg) 1kw usage house is that you aren’t stressing the unit that might not be built to the highest quality level. It’s like driving on the highway but your car has a 10hp lawnmower engine. It has to be pinned to the floor all the time.

EXCELLENT presentation ! If your explanations don't make perfect sense to someone then that person should really be hiring someone else to set up their system. There is another scenario you didn't mention - but it probably applies to very few people, and I happen to be one of those few. I live in North Louisiana where it is hot and humid as Hell for more than half the year; but winters do get quite cool somtimes so heating and cooling sucks up the majority of my power usage. A couple of years ago I was working for a solar installation company and my boss gave me a lightly used 4KW off-lease grid tie system in lieu of a pay raise.( Super boss - he even paid the entire crew to spend a day installing it for me ! ) I had got a great deal on a house that I remodeled and presently live in and one of the improvements it needed was an upgraded HVAC system. I ended up buying a solar hybrid AC/DC mini split heat pump that pulls from the grid only when my panels aren't producing enough but it also never exports to the grid. Yes , I was out about $1800 on the heat pump but it only took 16 months to recover that cost. I'm not absolutely certain but I've probably got the most cost efficient air conditioning system in the Southern United States - LOL !!

I use 400 watts per hour for my grow lights so a system where lights go on on a timer and off I could use a grid-tie system to grow veggies indoors and will produce 0 exceess as I know the EXACT power of the led grow lights. This is something I would be interested in.

Im in the Reno area power is cheap ! Solar salesman are like wild sagebrush out here , there cost you won’t pay the system off ever maybe 30 years ! I’m getting Tesla solar at 60-70% less still will take 10 years to pay off but long term it’s worth! Great 👍 vid 100% on point

Your lucky your power is cheap. Not so for us in Texas so ruining an inverter with limiters was the way to go for me saved a good bit especially in the summer. Great video.

Lots of good points. Definitely not a good idea to borrow a bunch of money to try to eliminate your electric bill. Better to start small and add to it over time if you can use more.

Well I tell you what I did 24 years ago about 28 years ago I bought four small solar panels and for a little bit bigger but still small solar panels my electric bill is $145 a month I started unplugging things when I wasn't using them and I use some things with solar not nearly enough but in return I was only paying 35 bucks a month for electric that that time after I got the solar panels which saved me a lot of money which paid off for the two systems in one year yes those systems were very expensive over the priced I still use them today and had more solar panels since then just not enough I have 2600 Watts electricity my kitchen stove oven uses 3600 Watts electricity I know I need more solar panels to run everything in my house and I have more than 240 volts than just the kitchen stove or 220 volts and I also have a lot of 120 volts How much electricity I need I know how much electricity I go through and I know I want much more solar panels than I ever will need like a hundred times more solar panels than I would actually need to run my house.

good idea. I have an issue. i live in an area where there is powercut more often. How can I use solar power at least during the day when during outrages? I do not need to back at times when there is no sun. need something to trick the micro tie to trick so that it work when there is an outage

This makes total sense. As long as your panels are making power you are always using it. So much better than having an investment sitting doing nothing. I think if you wanted to use more solar than this in an on the grid situation you would be better looking at some kind of cheap solar thermal system to preheat the water or even a very small offgrid setup to run a few devices in an emergency but then you are probably getting into batteries unless the devices have their own batteries. Possibly you could even have some PV heat a tank of water instead of using batteries using an immersion heater or something. What you have done seems like the best on-grid solution and I hope it is still working for you! 😇😉

My electricity is .31 a kw. I have a little 100watt panel and a 300w grid tie inverter. Did your power provider provide you with your useage chart, or did you measure your usuage your self and if so, how?

When I first got into a solar panels that's what I thought the electric companies would pay me was 7 cents but my understanding is they might pay a little bit more than that so I was thinking maybe about 9 cents but it might be a little bit more than that I do not know but it doesn't matter I know how much solar panels I need to make as much money as I want if it's only 7 cents how many kilowatts are that you have to make and still have enough kilowatts and solar turn everything in my house.

Very interesting. I am in Ontario Canada where we get a much greater shift in the solar insolation. In winter we see only about 25% of the insolation we get in the summer and the day is ~8h instead 15h. We are permitted to net meter, but as you correctly suggest, the cost of all of that makes it hard to justify. The government has some incentive programs, but these are moving this idea from impossible to iffy. I say this because these systems degrade over time and you would have to factor that into your returns. I agree that I am not interested in waiting 10 years for a breakeven and then have to have my roof redone and have the entire system removed and put back on. What I would LIKE to do is use the 800W of solar I have on my RV that most of the time is doing nothing and run that to offset what my home is consuming. However, I really do not want to get charged or fined for back-feeding if something I have fails or the power goes out and I am still live. I do agrees that if you are plugging in a microinverter to the home plugs that it would seem to be the same as if you removed a load. Question. If you have a larger inverter, can you plug one into one phase and the second plug into the other? Do your charges drop based entirely on consumption or are there administrative charges that you have to pay anyway like customer fees and whatever?

Thank you, very informative. I have two comments: Another possible easy solution would be a solar panel connected to devices that are conditional on power. For example a small heater for the winter. In this case you are not connected to the grid, but you reduce the heating costs if you have another heater on a thermostat. Equivalent to a heater would be a miner. You could mine and heat up the house at the same time. A second comment is that I think that these days price and money return are not the only considerations. You might want to become as carbon neutral as possible, and be willing to invest to get there. But of course the calculations and explanations in the video are still important.

I absolutely agree with this entire video. This is the way to go! Batteries decrease efficiency of the system and also die after time. Powerful inverters also die because these are worn down by enormous current. And it all prolong your payoff.

Any help with ac cable Brown blue and yellow? Which hot neutral and ground?

For anyone paying a lot for electricity it seems worthwhile to get something like an Ecoflow Delta Max and connect the solar panels and an AC charger to the input (the panels are used first) and wire the output of the inverter to an off-grid ring main (house circuit). This device can supply 2000W AC and stores 1600Wh while allowing 800W solar input. The Pro model can do about twice as much. They are portable although the Pro model weights 45 kilos.

If I have net metering system for the next 20 years, can I add more power with solar that doesn’t go back to utilities but is 100% self consumption?

I bought the limiter, it's ten years roi. All in one inverter off grid is next on my purchase for power outages and survival. The limiter is paying my overhead while I accumulate panels. There's nothing free but electric earns more than savings for ten years.

I paid off all i need in 2 months. Its getting better and cheaper by the month.

In the north ny area I’m using average of 1400 kWh per month with a rate of .00756 service and .045 for delivery average utility bill $200 dollars or more I would love your thoughts

You may get better results if you faced your panels straight up, rather than at an angle. I found that tying my lighting circuits into my battery /solar system takes them completely off the grid. The utility companies have figured out how to make solar power worthless. The bill for delivery and other things makes up most of the bill and the actual power usage costs very little. Net metering literally steals your electricity... if you do not use it, you lose it. So, without going totally off grid, reducing your bill is the most you can hope for.

Very honest and clear explanation. I live in the Netherlands. Energy is expensive here. Can you give me advice on which inverter I can buy on amazon and connect a maximum of 300 watt panels to it. I want to link it directly to the net. Thank you for your great video. PS we have here 220 volt grid power.

Woah, over here, atm 1 kWh is about € 0,70 (it was € 0,20 before the War in Ukrain). We have 3 phase + N and ground, 230V each phase, and 3 phase (420V) with a 120 degrees phase shift. The grid is owned and managed by the "netbeheerder" (Network operator, which is regulated by the government) and the electricity is sold by other reseller companies (a ton of them). Over here you're a lot more free to use PV-panels, with (or without) net metering as long as the equipment meets EU-standards. To stimulate solar power, in our country we have the "salderingsregeling" which basically means that every Watt you produce will be subtracted from your yearly use. When you produce more electricity you get a small fee (between 5 ct and 35 ct per kWh, depending on the reseller). So basically, best practice is to install a system that produces your yearly usage. The sun doesn't shine very intense over here, so every Wp installed delivers 85% anually. I.e. a 4800Wp system delivers approx ~ 4100 kWh annually. However, the downside of our system is acting up, there are so many systems installed that during sunny moments the grid voltage rises and the inverters shut down (when 253V is reached regulation). I had to reconnect my system to another phase to prevent my inverter resetting every 5 minutes.

backup battery system will catch extra for use at night. 14 cents Kw in TX and lead acid battery is MUCH more affordable and last just as long. And, when the power goes out....

HOWdy V-R-M, Thanks COOP ...

I agree, but..... bigger is always better. 😁 haha good video 👍

Excellent overview. Solar costs are an important factor for all of us to wrap are heads around. A question I've been considering: How much is emergency power worth?

i live in the Uk got pretty much same set up as you have ,have a 250watt solar panel and a micro grid tie inverter ,been doing this for about 5 years works great , iv just bought another grid tie inverter used cheap on ebay and looking for a used cheap solar panel to go with it , iv refused a smart meter as you can in UK, so im a bit better off than you in some respects ,but i keep it low as i don't want to give them my power back to the grid anyway. Thanks for video was interested .

If I understand correctly, a micro inverter itself will not function unless 'connected to the grid' (I guess that means it sees the 110/220/230/240 V depending on where you are ?). Is it possible to have a micro inverter run without that connection ? If so, couldn't you then push your power into a power socket (as you described) WHILST you have deliberately disconnected your premises from the grid (to avoid any pushback) ? I guess the question becomes what acts as the sink for the excess electricity ? Please help me out here.

Yeah as you mentioned it depends where you live. here in California we are paying an average of 40 cents/Kwh - and during peak (4pm-9pm) was paying 58 cents/Kwh. Got sick and tired of $400 a month electric bills. Put in solar two years ago and it covers my annual use (with net metering). With our historical power outages I added a battery. It will take 8 years to pay off but I’d rather put money into my house than pay it to money grubbing utility company

Very simple way to avoid grid tie is Use a transfer switch for 6-12 circuits like (generator)(solar PVs )instead. This switch isolates these curcuits from grid power. Battery banks can help store power during the day when usage is low Like refrigerator

Thought I where talking about the Milky Way there for a moment. Seriously

Every year I loose power due to storms for up to 3 days. Battery backup makes sense for emergencies so I can keep my All-Electric home heated or cooled from -24 degrees F to 105 degrees F. If I do not mind sweating in the summer or letting my pipes in my home freeze in the winter I could live without it. I do have kerosene heaters for winter use to keep my home above freezing. I like battery backup to also stop all the power outages during thunderstorms, etc. Although Biden and the Democrats hate natural gas, I would love to have it in my home but whomever built it was an idiot and chose all-electric which used to be popular until people saw water flowing out the walls and roofs of their homes after the pipes thawed from freezing in power outages. Natural gas is a dream come true and works even in power failures. OK, NG may stop due to an earthquake.

I would suspect a larger GTIL inverter may pay for itself rather quickly if you compare your savings including your peak usage throughout the solar day to just your baseline using a micro inverter during those same hours. This would also eliminate the possibility of backfeeding when your load does drop below baseline (reboot router, unplug something to relocate it, etc.). Thoughts? Would love to see a video of a GTIL implementation if the numbers work for you (your explanations are easily understood and greatly appreciated).

The most economical way is a grid tie inverter with power limiter, 24v battery, and a mppt charger with solar panels of course. In day time you produce not only the base of your house power consumption but you can produce all the electricity consumed, the excess you store it in batterys and in the night you draw the power stored in your batterys and feed it to your appliances without injecting into the grid. This way the investment will pay itself very fast because you are using all the energy produced by solar panels. A grid tie inverter with limiter is no more than 400$ but you can supply to your appliances not only the base consumption but almost all the energy used. You keep your grid just for loads bigger than the max power produced by the inverter. If you don't want to buy batterys you can store the surplus energy produced in a water boiler that you use for heating water for shower or you can run it as a preheating for your house heating system.

Can I use better a 700w inverter for a 400wp panel? Less heat for the inverter. The Chinese inverter can overheat.

If you have a low wattage phase and a high wattage phase you can install a grid tied inverter with power limiter to the high wattage phase and just save money on that line.

Doesn't any electric dryer also use a 240?

Seems to me it’s cheaper just to go off grid then to be tied to the utility. Not to mention safer with less legal hassles.

in my country problem comes when grid is down and its fair for technicians to no findspilled energy to the grid unless MY apliances trip after any shortage! and system stops producing!!! plus if whole neighborhood has many then any electrician out there try to fix problem might be in danger by that production!!!!! europe has 240v so its aa bit spicy situation with micros or grid tie.. it even needs to send papers to company so they know you have it and a special expensive some kind of box and auto switch!!! i guess they might try to communicate with you to drop your production when there s outtage if is in tie mode

Can you show how you hook up the solar panel on the wall?

No matter where you are battery banks are in no way a scam. I am at 0.119 per KW. You can use batteries at night to kill the 500 watts as well. what makes some people have to buy new batteries so often is that they do not use nor charge them right. So therefore the life span is shortened.

i think your looking at the wrong chart on nv energy i live in norther NV. the one you are looking at is the 15 min chart solar panels are rated in watts they can produce per hour under ideal conditions and down in vagas you get 6 hours of full sun a day so if you only counted 3 hours befor and after 1pm or 2pm because output would trim off i think your lowest base would be closer to 1kw and with loss in efficiency you should be safe but say 750 watts to be on the safe side thats 3 times the size you have now. but you would have to check every day for like a year. if you try please let me know im like 80% sure about this and plan to set mine up this way. but i plan to set it up for summer power and dump the extra power into the ground though diy simple geothermo wells and using the heat like a sand battery in the winter.

i would still buy a battery for emergency cases and to also clear anybills with current surges on my system

I guess grid inverter does away battery bank. Just use existing house receptacles. Monitor the current pumping into the ‘grid’ True, electric bills are very very low in some states. Not worth the effort to ‘save’.

I appreciate the honesty of this video and the realistic analysis of other systems and their payback periods. The only issue with the system that I can see is that you could produce dangerous feedback to the grid in a power outage situation which is dangerous for line workers trying to restore power. If there is a way to kill this power during a power outage, then you would have a complete and safe solution; otherwise, I would choose the next system which monitors what is being drawn and never exceeds this. In this scenario, you are safer and don't have feedback to a down grid. You also could get the benefits of offsetting more power consumption during peaks beyond the base. I know it has a slower payback, but overall it is safe and will offset MORE of the power bill once paid off.

Any links with Romania?

I think my electric stove does use a 240

How much are you paying now for a kilowatt? In the UK it is over 40 cents and that is the government capped rate for private consumers. At higher rates it is worth using that power to heat the hot water tank and heat or cool the house but an off-grid part of your wiring is needed to do that.

I am in Southern California, my electric bill just went triple does this still works here now at year 2022?

The math on kilowatt hours is wrong. The utility company charges say, 10 cents per kwh. BUT, all their other charges are based on use. If you look at your bill, add up the other charges which amount to about 8 cents more per kwh.

You found the same as me then. One thing is that you can have a battery and it can pay for itself. If you're making power and charging batteries and then using that power, that's making money or rather saving money. Here the cost is more. 0.37kw, So if you have say a 4 kWh battery, for you that's 20cents for us that's £1.48. If you go lead, you would pay around £560 for the batteries. I have started a solar business, and can provide lifepo4 7.2kwh for £1,650. They have 6000cycles so that's a total of 43,200 kWhs or £15,984 of power here in its lifetime. Or £974 per year. The inverters are around £90-200 here. Solar panels about £100. So if we say a cost of £350 at 700w and 1.2kw at £650. That's equal to 1757kw If we then add a battery divide that by 16 years... That's £103 per year. Which is equal to 279kw This means that solar and a battery would need to provide 2036kwh in a year. That's break even. On average people use about 2500 kWh here... But after that first year, the solar and inverter is paid off. So you just have the battery to pay off. So what you make above 278kw in the years to come.

😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 what??? KY is allowing net. Metering now but they are trying to stop it. My sister in law live next to me so I would send my extra power to her lol. So if my power goes out withe the chock will let me still produce power to run my house?

When I use the microwave I plug it in when I'm not using microwave I unplug it when I use the washer I plug it in when I'm not using washer I'm plug it when I'm using the dryer I plug it in when I'm not using it I unplug it my kitchen stove is 3600 Watts I have a water heater it's electric everything in my house is electric anything you name that could be in my house is electric you won't find no gas no propane no nothing you're only fine electric I am plugged things I'm not using when I'm not using it help save on electric bills I have some solar panels not enough but my solar panels paid themselves off 23 and if you add up the savings they paid off for any other systems I'm buying now meaning every system I buy for the most part is all paid off unless I buy a big system and any more systems I buy and let them pay themselves off without paying themselves off with better savings I get and subtract what it was it would be if I didn't have the savings of course I saved a lot of money just by unplugging things some things I ran with solar which is very little now I run a little bit more with solar but still not the power of my house just some things in the house and my cousin's camper when it was here which it was a little lacking on that. I know I need more solar panels but when I ordered solar panels I think I was scammed this year because I have not received any of them but I try to do those sales thinking some of them might be good so far none of them seems to be turning up and most of the phone numbers don't exist that's when I know it's an actual scam now I call companies and that order except the one that I know are actually there because I go to their stores but affording them sometimes is really hard to do. Now if I were to actually save the money instead of used it another places I needed to use it I wouldn't have much problems but instead I had to use it here and there for other things and have all kinds of problems. I need solar panels and I'm going to need a real inverter or two and an actual real battery Bank or I can still use my lead acid batteries I don't care whichever one's going to work best or whichever ones I can afford.

Your electric is single phase, not two phases. It is split (split single phase). 120v each leg, 240v for the single phase.

Don't you know whether those chinese micro inverters produce pure sine wave?

You always have to use a power limiter when you are on-grid. Because the second you consume less than what the microinverter is pushing in your installation, then the surplus is going to the grid. You cannot guarantee you consume always 200w or 500w. If you reboot your router or it just stops working then 100w or 200w will be pushed to the grid. You are either off grid and then you don't need a power limiter or you are on grid and then you need a power limiter. Even if you are authorised to inject power in the grid, you still need the limiter. And the way you connected that microinverter with a plug in an outlet, that's another safety problem. People in USA use that system to backfeed power from a generator in their house during an outage. And that is how many people die from electrocution. That is why it is called a suicide cord.

Aren‘t there 3-phases mate? This sounds so odd to me, idk

When you say the power produced by solar needs to be less than the power you consume. Does that need to be per meter read (i.e. in one billing cycle, the total power you make needs to be less or equal to the power you consume) or instantaneously (i.e. the meter is never allowed to spin backwards)? I'm trying to spec a system, and since obviously you can't make solar power at night. I'm wondering if I should double my solar capacity, so during the day, I make 800 watts, and consume 400, and during the night, I make 0 watts, but also consume 400. That way it would zero out over the course of a billing cycle.

Single phase is split phase! We don't use dual phase

220 lika gas dryer 🤷🏻‍♂️

3:45 that is an atrocity. But it works, so you are forgiven.

Did you say Gas Dryer? that would not use 220v it would use Gas :)

1 amp is 240w in split phase! LOL!!!

Well if you have more power than 500 watts coming in maybe you should put a kitchen oven that runs 3600 w and have not enough power and that's what I run in my in my kitchen electric stove kitchen oven a microwave and a few other cooking utensils you plug in but I don't sell it like a company I have to pay the electric company cuz I have never got it set up for sale until electric company but some company offered to do that for me generac but I don't know when they're going to come I've been waiting 5 months now I hope I don't have to wait a year I mean you got a company and that's how far away from me but they build generator systems for something else and I know generic has other businesses here in the state I live in I don't know how many of them are action to solar and put solar on houses all I know is they told me they were out of state and it'll be a while before they get here they just didn't tell me how long my neighbor told me he works for generac and he told me that backed up through September well I'll find out then if I'm going to get solar on my roof and if they'll actually hook up my other solar if I get them all.

Why are your power companies so paranoid about people feeding power into the grid? In most places it's totally fine

Great video thank you! In sweden it is illegal to do this solutions 🙄.. If I keep it under my base usage ill be fine 😁