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groingo
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# Posted: 4 Jun 2025 12:19pm - Edited by: groingo
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The key problem with my solar is the batteries which have been failing alot due to poor build quality and ZERO Customer Support. BTR Power used to be a good battery but over the past year I have had chronic problems with their Bad BMS's and ZERO Support especially if purchased from EBAY (customer support now AI no humans) and BTR Power who don't answer emails. Oddly enough Battleborn does try to help with issues but getting the battery examined or fixed is cost prohibitive due to high shipping cost for Hazardous Materials, the BB batteries have never produced the AH listed and degrade quickly as well as being grossly over priced.
My electric cars are unable to be charged by solar because of a combination of charge battery issues and the cars algorithms not matching power source, the reason for going off grid is the never ending price hikes by PSE my power utility (three since Jan 01 25) with no end in sight.
Being that I use very little energy to start with 2KW hr a day and the EV's requiring me to be on grid to charge as well as their high Licensing fees (which under Trump will double)and I still have my 93 Geo Metro, the two EV's must go because they force me to be grid dependent to charge and the Metro sips at 50+ m.p.g. and just goes no fuss.
Or I could stay hooked to the grid which costs me $25.00 (less EV charging) a month or less and bite the bullet for the ease and reliability which these crap batteries have not delivered on.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 4 Jun 2025 04:46pm - Edited by: gcrank1
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If I had grid power it would be about $30/mo for being hooked up and our usage is pretty minimal so maybe $35/mo? For 'outages' my simple bat-bank would more than adequate.
Factoring the costs of becoming my own power company, in money And time, that low monthly would be a bargain.
My initial hook up would be the bite, but even that wouldnt be more than building a solar system that couldn't provide anywhere close to the flip a switch grid.
We only run the gen (and cant remember the last time) when we want the microwave, toaster or corded power tools.We dont have to support a fridge though. Now if on the grid...simple on demand as needed/wanted.
I wouldnt want to run a gen, even our quiet inv-gen, except occasionally. The gas would be the cheap part, the 'wear and tear' and over time replacement cost would eat up any potential/projected saving over the grid in my mind.
All that to say that with life-style changes and energy conservation the grid, if available, is pretty sweet.
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 4 Jun 2025 06:09pm
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groingo, get a hybrid or even a plug in hybrid, not grid dependent to work.
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Brettny
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# Posted: 5 Jun 2025 06:03am
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I am by no means a hybrid person but a few months ago I found a 2010 prius with 94k and with the price I got it for I couldn't pass it up. The thing gets 47mpg, at current fuel costs that's $.06 a mile. Idk how any EV can compare to this not to mention EVs are expensive to buy, charge at public locations and I dont wait hours to charge for 300mi range.
I calculated that replacing a former car that got 20mpg with this prius getting 40mpg this car would pay for its self in 3yrs in the fuel savings.
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paulz
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# Posted: 5 Jun 2025 08:39am
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Good job. I have been combing CL lately too, old hybrids under 10k. Though my old Ranger got 15mpg last time, whoopee! I’ve been a pickup guy since getting my property and building the cabin, plus I have to drag the wife’s wheelchair everywhere. Don’t see hybrid pickups..
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Brettny
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# Posted: 5 Jun 2025 08:45am
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They made made tahoe hybrids starting about 2007 I believe. There really hard to find.
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 5 Jun 2025 03:50pm
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Quoting: paulz Don’t see hybrid pickups..
Pickups, ie Tundra, Sequoia, Tacoma, Landcruiser, Highlander, RAV4, all come in hybrid. Landcruiser, only way you can get it now, Hybrid.
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paulz
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# Posted: 5 Jun 2025 10:53pm
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When I started the cabin I had a VW Caddy diesel pickup. It got about 50 mpg but who cared, gas was cheap back then. Eventually it died, probably something simple but I offed it. Sure wish I had it now.
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paulz
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# Posted: 6 Jun 2025 08:16am - Edited by: paulz
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Well we seem to have varied off the subject of your original post Groingo, at least the title. So you want to give up on solar, mostly because of battery trouble and poor support? Seems to be more the exception than the rule around here. Off grid power has been wonderful here lately with good sun, fridge and TV on all day, even a load of laundry in the washer yesterday.
Electric vehicle charging is not something I have any experience with, on or off grid, charging stations.. I hope to come up with an electric cart to run up and down my hill with, nothing in the wind so far and haven’t been shopping.
Anyway keep us posted how you end up.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 6 Jun 2025 08:55am - Edited by: gcrank1
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Maybe the batteries you have been using have been overstressed by the loading trying to charge EV's?
What is the charge rate youve been set at?
What is bad about the Bms's?
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travellerw
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# Posted: 6 Jun 2025 11:07am
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This is the exact reason my new system will be grid tied. Use the grid as your battery and don't worry about messing with on site storage.
However, that isn't an option everywhere and you power usage has to be high enough for that to make sense.
Battleborn's used to be the gold standard in batteries. However, I think the explosion in popularity of LiFep04 has left them struggling to compete. They have dropped component quality and shifted suppliers for cells. Unfortunately it seems that has not worked out for them.
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groingo
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# Posted: 6 Jun 2025 11:30am
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gcrank1
The Solar charging has been at the 120 volt 15 amp low end or Lvl 1, the Leaf has a very sensitive algorithm that has been the problem, they can charge off of a generator but refuse to charge off the solar, ultimately come winter I lose the sun and over 5 hours daylight and would have to put in a much larger solar setup, to make up for the lack of sky.
The problem with the BMS is the Fetes keep crapping out and are sealed inside the battery itself.
I have yet to charge an EV from solar.
Battery stress is minimal requiring only 2 kwh a day split between 4 12 volt LFP batteries run individually as needed.
My old 94 Geo Metro wins BIG because not only does it regularly get 50 M.P.G. in winter and just over 60 M.P.G. in summer (summer blend gas), Licensing is free since my car is over 30 years old, insurance is dirt cheap, and no Trump (upcoming 200+ dollar a year fee) for simply owning anything with over a 16 KWH battery, plus I can haul a lot more in the Geo!
Currently I am caught between staying on grid for backup power (with 4 rate increases just since Jan 01 25 with many more on the way) or cutting the cord and regaining my freedom, plus I like a challenge!
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DRP
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# Posted: 6 Jun 2025 07:15pm
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We have a client with grid tied solar and several EV's. We've talked about batteries, they have them at their primary residence but this is just a grid tied, no backup, system. Prius, Tesla, Leaf, no problem. He gave me his Husky chainsaw last week, going battery. They will be burning no fossil fuel on site very soon. I'm envious, but I sharpened and smiled. They are spending more time here than there the last few years, and he played music at the farmers market all day today  .
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 6 Jun 2025 07:45pm
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Are bms's failing because the High Voltage Disconnect is triggering at top charge repeatedly? They are intended to be the last resort cut-off not a regular stop charging cut-off. They are kinda like circuit breakers, they have a reset life, the more they trip the closer you are to end of life.
I typically use 13.8 to 14.2 as my recharge voltage for my 12v lfp's and the bms never trips (nor should it).
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ICC
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# Posted: 6 Jun 2025 08:14pm - Edited by: ICC
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Quoting: DRP grid tied, no backup, system.
We have a battery backup that can operate the fridge, microwave and lights for up to a day at my new place. But not the split mini A/C the whole time unless we limit the rooms cooled. The old one was 100% off grid. I may increase storage; we'll see. . No EV or hybrid at present. A good friend installed a solar system on a new home built in 2019; grid tied with small battery backup like we did, 100% electric house, 2 EV cars, plus 1 older ICE collector car.
Quoting: groingo My electric cars are unable to be charged by solar
It's not clear to me, does that mean charging the EV directly from the PV panels? ....not PV --> batteries --> inverter --> EV charger --> EV batteries?
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travellerw
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# Posted: 6 Jun 2025 08:44pm - Edited by: travellerw
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Quoting: groingo I have yet to charge an EV from solar.
That really surprises me. We have charged our Tesla out at our cabin from our solar system. That system is made up of 6V golf cart batteries. It charged the Tesla no problem, HOWEVER that was only charging on 115V@13A. The charging was %100 off solar as the batteries were already full.
We actually tried to charge the Tesla from a portable generator one time as an experiment. Would not charge. Turns out most generators require modification to the grounding to charge a car. Who would have thought.
I know SolarEdge has a charger that talks with the inverter to charge with excess solar. However it requires a complete SolarEdge system. However any inverter should be able to do this as long as you have a reliable battery backup, or are grid tied.
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groingo
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# Posted: 6 Jun 2025 11:16pm
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gcrank1: The blown fets are due to the bad firmware over voltage settings, normally I would have max charge rate at 14.6 as recommended but have turned it down to 13.7 as a precaution to see how it goes.
ICC, Yes I am charging via Grounding Plug, Battery, Inverter, Car at 120 volts @ 13 amps lvl 1 but neither Leaf will accept it yet it works with my Inverter generators no problem.
travellerw, The Grounding plug goes into the outlet of your generator, it fools the car into thinking it is grounded, is made using a Nema 5-15P Plug and two 100EPS12100K 100K ohm resistors 1/2 W, 5% can be gotten on Amazon super cheap. Here is a photo of the plug.
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 6 Jun 2025 11:34pm
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Is it a quality Pure Sine Wave inverter?
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 7 Jun 2025 11:23am
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Quoting: DRP He gave me his Husky chainsaw last week, going battery.
Nice! Any idea what cordless they are going to? I'm curious. I have an E-GO and a neighbor a Husky. I saw a Stihl at a farm n ranch event that cut like a champ on the demo logs.
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travellerw
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# Posted: 7 Jun 2025 10:53pm
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Quoting: groingo travellerw, The Grounding plug goes into the outlet of your generator, it fools the car into thinking it is grounded, is made using a Nema 5-15P Plug and two 100EPS12100K 100K ohm resistors 1/2 W, 5% can be gotten on Amazon super cheap. Here is a photo of the plug.
Cool to know there is a workaround. One of the generators we have has a copper lug on the front that is wired directly to the ground pin. Its a Chinese unit and the picture instructions show clipping a wire with a nail to that lug, then sticking the nail in the ground. I planed to try that unit on the Tesla to see if it "accepted" that ground.
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groingo
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# Posted: 8 Jun 2025 07:31pm
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Where the heck have you been, last time I read any of your stuff was when your place got zapped by lightning!
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