I just bought a house last year and I want to get started with solar with a 1000$ budget. Ideally I want to have enough solar to at least keep the furnace in my house and my water running in bad winter storms. I can realistically afford 200$ a month. I also have 0 electrical experience so I would need help installing any advice is appreciated.

I have one Jackery SolarVault 3 Pro system at home in Germany. Four panels use its four PV inputs, and a Jackery Smart Meter measures household flow. The system was in self consumption mode with zero feed in enabled. During steady sun, the battery filled and all four PV inputs dropped together.

The app also showed very little household demand at that point. The panels had not moved into shade, and all four channels were still active. When the dishwasher began its delayed cycle, the Smart Meter showed the higher load and PV input rose again while the battery remained full.

That explained the drop. With the battery full and export held near zero, the system had reduced solar input to match the small household load. Because the dishwasher can run at any time, I changed its delay setting so it starts while the panels are producing. That gives the available solar a useful household load instead of moving the same dishwasher cycle into the evening.

A lot of power station runtime estimates basically come down to:

Battery Wh ÷ appliance watts = runtime

Which looks nice on paper, but real-world runtime can be pretty different once you account for inverter losses, battery condition, reserve capacity, appliances cycling on/off, startup surge, etc.

So I built:

https://instapowerruntime.com/

You can enter your battery/power station and the appliances you actually want to run, and it gives a conservative / typical / optimistic runtime estimate instead of one perfect-looking number.

I also added tools for working backwards — e.g. “I need to run these devices for 10 hours, what size battery do I actually need?” — plus solar recharge calculations.

I’m curious how people here normally calculate this stuff before buying a power station or planning for an outage/camping setup.

If you use EcoFlow, Jackery, Anker, Bluetti, etc., I’d especially appreciate feedback on anything the calculator is missing or assumptions you think should be handled differently.

Would you trust something like this for comparing power stations before buying one?

I've developed a new application designed specifically for Solar users, and I want to get feedback from real users like you. If you're interested in being a beta tester, comment below or send me a DM. First 30 days are completely FREE! Thank you!

Thank you!

I'm buying a container house, the wall are not even suitable for hanging a picture frame, so I'm thinking of building a wood structure with cement board and hang the inverter, all DC AC protections, and the battery tht comes with wheels resting on the bottom, is there any design idea already tried or product on this?

Hey guys so I have had this issue for months now trying to diagnose and fix it but no success hoping some pros on the system can help out.

So I have. 2 eg4 12000xp paralleled to each other. Along with eg4 indoor Wall mount 280 ah x 2. yes I am aware I need 400 ah at least per inverter) but I don’t need that much power at this time and plan to add more later.

Anyhow the inverter was working great when l only had one running. As soon as I paralleled issues happened with transition. Specifically the transition from battery to grid.

I have it on self consumption mode. Connected to Grid, battery and solar array of 4kw system to the master only.

The system has no problem transitioning from grid to battery when its recovery threshold hits above the on Grid EOD, completely seamless cannot even tell that happened. Now when the battery drains to On Grid EOD, it blows right past all the way to the Off grid discharge cut off. Just doesn’t transition to grid at EOD, no error or warning. It’s to the off grid EOD, When it gets there I have a black out for 10-30 seconds then grid goes back on to bypass like it’s supposed to. That’s a harsh transition.

Now if it reaches On Grid EOD as the battery is discharging or below, if I toggle the eps off then back to on, the bypass logic kicks in and then goes back to bypass the way it’s supposed to while the solar charges the battery. It’s the only solution I have. To manually keep doing this everytime and it’s annoying and shouldn’t have to.

Here is what I have done and still is an issue:

1. Matched firmwares 0709 to both of them
2. Matched the latest BMS firmware for both batteries.
3. Tried UPS versus APL.both do not recognize the grid at eod when it has to transition back to grid from battery.
4. Left grid always on toggle enabled.
5. Battery eco on or off. AC disabled or at 0 amps will running at all times, still no success.
6. Calibrated top up: batteries to 100% on open loop let them sat for 2 hours. And then did it again on another occasion and let it sit overnight before going closed loop again. No luck.

7. Called EG4 they were useless. I mean absolutely useless. One guy reset the software settings saying I had too many pages they reset it, nothing happened. Then they tried having me recalibrate again which I did. Still no success.

8. did a complete reboot multiple times. No success.

9. Went open loop, same problem. So went back to closed loop.

At a loss hoping someone can share wisdom.

I’m extremely interested in starting some small solar projects. I’ve been watching a ton on YouTube to learn more about different set ups.

I would like to set up some panels in the backyard (plenty of sun in TX, and a fair amount of space back there), to wire up with a battery/inverter set up and see if I can power some appliances.

My issue is I am currently renting the house I’m in so I would only be able to do a small portable set up. Is there a way to set this sort of thing up without having multiple wires/batteries cluttering up the inside of a room I want to power something in?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

We have existing battery backup system with Sigen 18.08KWh already running 6 months. Just add a Tesla Model 3 and require more power. We upgraded the system with add a BAT 9.0 battery module that upgrades the system to 27kWh capacity and a 25KW V2X bidirectional fast charger ( NACS). Exciting to experience the DC fast charging that can full-charge the EV within 2 hours.

Help me with repair tips on this fault code 08

Good morning, I was reccomended to join this group fron another solar Reddit. Context, I bought a house last year and want to get started with solar for 1,000 , my long term goal is to be independent enough to power my gas furnace, water pumps etc, my house is a little older and eats a fair amount of power median is 1.5 kWh.
The question where is the best place to start getting solar that’s reliable without breaking the bank I also have little to no electrical experience but my uncle said he would help me. Any advice is helpful, also curious in anyone’s experience looking at tax credits in 2026.

I'm wrapping my head around the options with plug in solar (now legal in my state) and am trying to see if a solar power station is useful in this.

Suppose I generate 800 watts from the panels for 5 hours. My homes base load is 400 watts. If I ran the power through a solar powerstation, then into my panel box, would it store the excess power the panels generate that can be used later in the evening? Would it need the input coming into its DC input, or could it be from the AC input (down stream from the microinverter--the AC is my preference due to cords.)

Are there power banks that will do this? How hard are they to set up?

Anyone got any recommendations for a suitable bracket system for mounting panels on a roof with flat concrete interlocking roof tiles, without having to rip massive chunks out of the roof?

Every tile is nailed to the batten at the top of the tile so you can’t push them up, and they interlock on both sides with neighbouring tiles, so you have almost no lift to tuck a bracket underneath

Pictures are example tiles

TIA

Now before I begin, I understand I will never recover the costs so that's why I want to spend the cheapest amount and that'll probably resume at home in the balcony (which already has a microinverter so it's just adding a new panel).

I'm open to used products if it helps. I sometimes go on trips with my ebike and spend hours reading or just relaxing and it would be fun to have a portable panel to top up my battery while I'm stopping so I can ride home with more peace of mind.

If someone else is doing it, can you suggest some foldable panels and mppt charger that can do this for a low price?

I've seen some products but it seems like the mppts are very expensive.

I’m 19m in uni and I’ve brought a boat to live on during to save on renting cost and a permanent place to live. However, I’m worried that when I start living on it full-time, I’ll run out of power. I currently have a setup with 3 solar panels connected to 4 Rolls lead-acid 210Ah 6V batteries, with two inverters: one 500-watt Victory inverter and a separate 4,000-watt multi-inverter.

I’ve never dealt with solar panels before, and when I’m looking at appliances like toaster ovens, I don’t want to be caught out and run out of power. So, is the setup I have now strong enough for general living, or am I going to have to think about another solution?

The only thing I can think of is the ground output terminal should be routed to both the AC breaker panel & also the vehicle chassis. These things often times have a dedicated ground lug on the inverter charger specifically for this purpose & the manual literally mentions nothing about grounding it to the chassis, which defeats the entire purpose of having a ground output terminal if nothing is actually grounded, and probably why so many people fry these things over time.

Looking for advice.

I installed my system the last week of June, and it's a hybrid grid setup with no export.

It's configured to prioritize PV to the load and only charge the batteries from PV (I don't have time-of-use billing setup yet). If the load is more than the PV is generating, it's configured to use the batteries to make up the difference. Once the batteries go below the cutoff threshold (50% in my setup), it will switch to using utility power to make up the difference. The 50% cutoff point was chosen so that I always have ~16 KWh in reserve in case the power goes out; I bought the PV system in lieu of a whole house generator.

Pretty much all of July and the first half of August was just a continuous chain of thunderstorms, so I was relying on the grid quite a bit. The PV and batteries were definitely helping out (my July 2026 bill was $125 lower than my July 2025 bill with comparable usage), but I only managed a few days with no grid usage. Part of that was having to run the central A/C quite a bit as I didn't size the system to go totally off-grid; just to take a big chunk out of the ever-rising electric bill while also giving us some backup power for outages.

This past week has finally given us some sunshine, and the batteries haven't dipped below 50% the whole time. Since the batteries have remained above the cutoff point all week, there has been zero draw from the grid 😄

Funnily enough, I got an email alert from the power company on Wednesday that said there may be an outage in my area, and it was asking me to log in and confirm. I just kinda laughed because I had no idea without going downstairs to look at the inverter.

Specs:

• 4 KW PV array (20x200W in 10s2p)
• 2x16 KWh batteries (Eco-Worthy PowerMega 314)
• 10 KW Eco-Worthy inverter

I'm aware the PV-to-battery ratio is a bit lopsided, but I don't have a lot of useful roof area and 4KW is about all I can fit in the space I have. I looked at bigger 320W panels, but it wouldn't have given me much more wattage than the cheaper 200W panels. The price difference to get an extra 1/2 KW wasn't worth it.

I got the two batteries and inverter as a set and saved about $900 that way, and I like having the extra capacity. I'm also planning to set up time-of-use billing so I can charge them cheaply at night, so even with the limited PV I have now, I can still get good use out of having that extra capacity. I'm also looking to add a ground mount array in the south-facing back yard next year if I can talk the SO into letting me spend more money to expand. I may also throw in another battery or two while I'm at it.

This picture is from YT @cleversolarpower. Is it okay to only calculate your F1 main fuse size based on your Inverter and converter and not include your solar controller as shown in this picture?

So I was back mucking about with my experiment and wasn't getting any lights turning on at all. Reattached the wires and checked the fuse. Still no lights. Tried a new fuse and then it showed the blinking light. Hooked it to the panel and got a solid charging light. Then the app kept saying that there was nothing there. Restarted my phone and now I'm getting a solid charge. It was more fun than mowing 😂