I don’t have pictures, but we’re running our house almost exclusively on solar in the summer months and supplementing with solar in winter. We’re in Scotland, UK.
One of the problems inherent with solar in a home backup scenario is that during winter when you don’t have much solar you tend to use it more sparingly. So perhaps just running low draw appliances like fridges. But with a big inverter you can end up using most of your solar to power the inverter.
This is where using generators beats grid tied backup systems hands down - you can fine choose what you run on solar an what you run from the mains for maximum efficiency.
We have 2 x AC200Max, 1 x EB70 and 2 x PowerOak AC30’s.
Our solar panels are mounted on woodstores in the garden, with a couple wall mounted - so it was a DIY solution.
We have our generators in a store room that’s cool and free of kids and pets. The simplest way to describe how it works is to think of extension cables running from the generators all over the house. However, for neatness we’ve run cables through the loft space and wall cavities and rather than an extension socket at the end we’ve used a standard 3 pin wall socket.
So in every room we have mains sockets, but also a separate solar socket.
It’s all controlled from the generator room - based upon how much solar we have we decide what generator (inverter) to use to power a given socket. If batteries are low we unplug the extension cable from the generator and plug it in a wall socket.
It sounds messy but really it’s very slick and you get every drop of solar that you generate in winter powering your devices and not your inverters.
I love it.
We’ve also got a woodburner and for much of the year our 4 bed bungalow can run off-grid.
I have EB240, Bluetti 200max and EB230 Battery with the aim, however difficult , of powering my entire house with these systems for at least 6 months of the next year.
I already used the EB240 to power my fridge and freezer successfully through the Summer. So now I turn my attention to running the rest of the kitchen.
Ovens use too much electricity so a table top 1200w oven saves money and happily runs on the Bluetti. My washing machine is just about ok as it does not get above 2048watt even when it is heating up,
My kettle is 1048 watts, small and economical. I want to get an electrician to perhaps connect the lower building lighting circuit to the mains via the connector though I have not seen where I can get this equipment as yet.
My solar set up is 3x 100w foldable panels 6x 120 watt panels for the main charging and 2x 150w panels which unfortunately are 58w VOC connected in parallel for the DO50s. I am not clear how good the last two are yet despite them all being sunpower cells. With these placed on an outside building roof which I can easily reach the plan is to get around 700w an hour total when the sun is out. But not much happening at the moment!
I am in Winter affected by distant trees, bad angles and endless reconfigurations. Series, Paralel,lSeries Paralel? Tried them all. Wish me luck, I will update here and on what may become part of my you tube channel with my experiences!
Thanks for describing your set up Poppy - I havent gotten any solar panels yet, but plan to next summer. Like you in Scotland, our winters here on the East Coast of Canada are limited in daylight hours and there are more cloudy days than sunny! Cheers.
Just an update - this summer I added a glass ridged 395 watt JA solar panel to my system. Mounted it to the side of my deck and ran the cables through side of house using a BOUGERV Gland box. In direct sunlight i have seen it get up to approx 340 watts input which I think is pretty good. A couple of weeks ago, we had a major summer storm -lots of rain and flooding and power was out for approx 39 hours. Was so glad to have my system - it proved its worth for sure. Looking for others to add to this thread and tell their AC200Max stories - please add pictures as well. I am sure there are lots of AC200 Max owners who are using their systems for home back up and have experiences to share.
AC500 and 5 Batteries powering everything here and more.
Also powering Fridge, coffee maker, washer&dryer, 2 ceiling fans, 2 AC window units running 24/7, music gear, 11 powered speakers plus sub, wifi/modem.
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Just got the rolling platforms rated at +300 pounds. You can’t stack both columns against the wall because those power cables are just a bit too short, so I had to position them like you see.
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My old Kill a watt meter bit the dust so I splurged for the Bluetooth/wifi model with bells and whistles. A lot easier to read on my ipad app instead of crouching over with a flashlight.
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Both ACs and Fridge run 24/7 and the solar panels take over before the batteries get to low. By 2pm they are recharged back to 100%.
@BLUETTI or Can someone please send me a diagram how to build home back up set up for ac200max. I am not an electrician or knowledge about electricity. I live in Philippines using 220v from the grid. thank for the response …newbie here.
Hello. I am also in the Philippines. Looking at a AC200Max and a couple of panels. I have no need for aircon. so this set up and later an extra battery would do. I wish to connect the set-up to my breaker box and distribute in the entire house. I only need the grid as a backu in case of not much sun. I am also looking for a schematic / idea. Did you receive anything? If you are interested we could chat in privat? Rgs Mike
AC200MAX is an off-grid machine that can be used directly by plugging in a load. However, its capacity is too small, so it is not recommended to connect it to the home power grid. We also do not have relevant wiring diagrams for it. Only the larger models, AC300 and above, have wiring documents available.
1 635W (3x 545W) on the Roof. 900W via MPPT and 500 via DC Enhancer. It powers my Boiler, AC, dryer, and Washing Machine and charges my Ryobi. And connected to Home Assistant. Absolutely love it.
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