They want me to go to rehab! I said No,no,no,no!
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Well, if you have to go to rehab I guess I’ll have to join you.
I have:
EB3A
AC60
EB70
AC180
AC200P
AC200Max
PV120 x 2
PV420
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Yes! You most definitely have to go with me!
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Solar panels and solar generators are very addictive. There are worse addictions out there though. Since April I got the following:
Eb70s
Ac200p
Ac200max
B300
6X 200 watt PV’s.
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Yes it most definitely is and that’s not all of the products I have
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Haha, i would just say that you infected by powerstaion fever^^
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Oh I know I am! The addiction is real…
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Should have just bought two AC500s (for 240V) with six batteries each, then you wouldn’t be able to afford anything else😝
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I can’t explain why it’s so addictive, but well, sharing 2 years of addiction in a few pictures:
- Started tinkering with cheap items found on Aliexpress
- Nothing beats tinkering to learn (by making mistakes, and being lucky to not be shocked)
Then discovered Bluetti… oh dear. That’s when my wife became thankful my middle-life crisis was about solar energy, not about starting a rock band or god knows what else:
That got me badly into solar. Had to setup a solar reactor in the basement, but sorry about this, using Victron as Bluetti isn’t ESS certified in Belgium.
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I guess you are the person where people in go to and beg to charge their phones when there is a prolonged power outage.
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I just have an AC300 standing besides my computer and sound equipment, charged and off to feed into my ICT UPS system when there is a longer power outage. Not half as interesting or advanced but I like the buffer.
My ICT UPS only lasts 30 minutes on it’s battery. My Bluetti more than 8 hours.
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Well I feel a bit more normal now :) I have a few power stations, including 4 Bluettis (oldest is a EB150 I got in 2019). My biggest is a simple DIY. I’m setup to hook a 3000W inverter to my electric riding mower when power goes out. It has 4 LFP 12.8v 100ah batteries in series. I think it works out to about 5100ish wh.
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This is very impressive setup
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Grid is ageing badly here in Belgium. It’s been left unattended for decades and the country is forced to make massive upgrades to match new EU standards in a short future. Solar power owners (grid tied) are experiencing more and more remote shutdowns of their inverters; the grid owner slightly modifies the AC frequency to either reduce production - or even completely shutdown production like they do in the area in case off intense sun). Gird is overloaded by charging EVs and solar surplus, as most grid-tied inverters sold here can’t « add » power from the grid if loads are drawing more than the inverter’s production. In that scenario, « prosumers » are charged transport on injecting 100% of their production, and again on what they consume (thanks to smart meters). It’s organised, state-funded theft really.
Blackouts are likely to happen more too.
- solution 1: an increase in electricity transport fees of 80% was approved, so consumer literally fund the grid upgrade
- consequence: injecting surplus production is going to cost money to ALL grid-tied solar owners
NB transport is already expensive enough to make it unprofitable in most cases as only a few energy suppliers purchase surplus electricity at a higher price tag than the cost of transport. - solution 2: add a new tax, « prosumer tax » to charge a yearly fee based on the inverter’s power in case you don’t have a smart meter yet (tax on a 9kW inverter is about 800eur / year)
Consequence: people whose roofs don’t enjoy proper exposure are paying the same tax in spite of lower production; people can’t even ask for a new smart meter to avoid this tax. It’s not their call, but the grid owner’s to plan the upgrade.
A decoupled system like Bluetti or Victron won’t inject surplus so isn’t considered (yet?!) a prosumer device.
So yeah since the building houses 2 families and my company’s office, going for a full-blown system with batteries and a grid-decoupled system made more sense.
That victron system is just like an AC300 unit as it can be plugged into the grid in case of batteries running low. It’s also capable to add power from the grid when the house needs more than the converters can output.
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would be a super good feature on the AC series btw. Needs 7kW? Instead of overloading the AC300 unit, it’d simply output its 3k and draw the remaining 4kW from the grid. I think it’s called « load shedding ».
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last but not least: rooftop companies have the market in stranglehold - their waiting lists (9mo to 1.5y) encourages them to set abnormally high prices on everything (installing 6mm2 grounding wire at 3.5€ per meter or panels like longi or trina worth 100-130€ sold 300€ a pice).
Finding the right suppliers (France, Netherlands) and a qualified technician allowed me to install this at 40% of what a rooftop company would ask. Crazy, we’re slowly turning into a 3rd world country.
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@_Traveldiva2 Thanks for sharing your BLUETTI family! 
That AC60 is the one you won at the forum’s Mother’s Day giveaway, right? 
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Yes! I won the AC60 on the forum! Thanks Bluetti
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Hey @Derceto - thanks so much for these insights. I’m in Bulgaria - just starting my journey with solar - but it sounds like we have a pretty similar situation here as you in Belgium. Where I live the grid is pretty stable (at the moment), but I’ve heard of places where it cuts out all the time.
Bulgaria is also a country with less budget for infrastructure, so it’s possible things gradually get worse here. At the same time, I do see more and more solar plants being built here, which makes sense because it’s a good country for it - plenty of sunshine. But combined with the state of the grid I’d expect that over time, we might see the same measures happening here as you describe for Belgium.
But on the other hand, you don’t see so much solar on roofs here - people just don’t have the money for it I guess, so maybe overcapacity won’t be such an issue yet.
Perhaps a hybrid system like you have makes sense here as well. Being able to sell some of your overproduction to the grid would be nice.
2 ep500s 2 ac500s with 8 batteries total and 1 small p70
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Happens to everyone, just like you’ll rarely see a musician with just one instrument; I have 8 keyboards:stuck_out_tongue:. I could have bought a Steinway Grand Piano for what I’ve shelled out.
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