#216 Finishing the Off-Grid Solar Array

maybe they want to stay with us Are you sure? You think they come? Yeah, they'll get out No, don't run! No..! Poor baby Give me something to eat too you want to try it?

Sun? Good. It's too salty? you don't like it? He's being difficult He wants to go to his sister Good! We go back there? You go to sleep now. Too much adventure Look at her, she's crazy beautiful

It is. It's like an egg. You want to bring them to their new home?

Yes. Here on the front. I have to bring some food. But at night we put them in the house? No, they'll stay here Keep them for a week or so, two weeks Okay, are you sure the fox can not...

I'm gonna fix that They are starting to lay eggs.

I think this was the brown one. No, the gray one I think she was uh Making noise. Yeah, I'm not sure if the fox is still coming. I've had the cameras off for a while. But now that the small chicks are downstairs I'm gonna put the cameras on to see if it comes by in the night still. Because it could give them some stress Because the the big chickens are sleeping outside. They don't like it in here for some reason. So I don't know why exactly, but I can imagine if the fox wanders around here in the night they feel stressed But two chickens are laying uh eggs now, so that's good. Okay all the solar panels are connected.

Have to clean up a little bit and protect the tubes over there. Everything's working Ten panels are connected to the Victron system. So that's 6 to the bigger MPPT, which is a solar charge controller, and 4 to the other one. And then two panels are connected to the EcoFlow. because the Ecoflow doesn't have that much capacity for solar panels. Uh it's around 950 watts. That's the maximum I can charge. So that's only two solar panels And I'm waiting for another battery for the Victron system and I'm replacing the inverter. It's a 24 volt system at the moment, 5000 Multiplus, which is can deliver 4kW, and it turns out to be too too small for the planer, that I was trying last week, so And I already ordered another battery so with two 24 volt batteries I can upgrade to 48 volts by connecting them in series And then the new inverter is going to be a 48 volt 8000.

So twice as much. And that should solve the problem with the planer. I read a lot of comments about it and recommendations and ideas how to fix the problem. One of them could for example be a slow starter Because the machine asks a very high current in the first secondsm just to get that cutter block running, which is heavy, It needs more energy for that. And once it's running, it needs 3kW And when you're on the grid that first second or two of very high current, it can usually deal with it Usually you pay for a subscription of like 6 kilowatts or 8 or 10. But if there's a machine that asks for 20 kilowatts, it will deliver it if your breakers are the right size. The breakers are the right size here, like C16 breakers. So those are fine. But the Victron system is just a bit too small for it So a slow starter kind of like minimizes that high peak in the beginning and kind of like ramps it up But because the cutter block wasn't running at all, it was just like stalling, I don't think it's gonna work.

I could try it, but then I think the system is still too weak. Another thing, the VFDs... like the frequency converters it's more.... I think for 3-phase machines, most of these machines are originally 3-phase powered. Um they will run better on it, but nowadays you often see single face motors, which this one is. So I have to do it like that. So I think the system just needs to be upgraded for a machine like that to work. So we'll see. I'm I'm waiting for the inverter and the battery, hopefully next week they come. And um yeah, I hope that fixes it. The music is back.

These are young cows. They were here last year too. They don't give milk yet. Yeah, they'll stay here for two weeks. I always love it to have the cows close by. It's a beautiful thing here in the mountains. And these bells that are always echoing in every corner here. Such a beautiful thing of summer. Sorry for that!

Beautiful chicks, they're growing up well. Solar panels are all finished. Excited about that. I think it looks good. It looks clean, no more hanging wires It's all aligned so when you walk past it's beautifully stacking up the hill. So yes, great improvement Much easier to clean, to cut the grass in the summer but also to clear snow in the winter, because they're higher up and there's just a lot more clearance around it for snow to accumulate The only thing I have to do is to put the steel pieces at the back, because the four arrays at the back they're able to hinge up I have to bolt on some pieces, but I'll probably do that in the season, in autumn when it's necessary. So yeah Then the new battery inverters should arrive next week, and then I can install those and then it's it's all finished, and then hopefully the planer works, and everything in there I used the table saw for the first time, which was very exciting.

It's a really good machine. So much better than the small lightweight saw I had in front of the cabin It really cuts... It's very precise, you know, the fence on that machine, It's just it's very rigid, and the cast iron top, just the whole weight and strength of it is... It makes your work very precise and much easier. So yeah, and then next week I'm gonna start clearing the second cabin and make a start there. And I think the week after we'll do the scaffolding and make a start with the roof. But first a lot of organization. T hings need to move out, find the place temporarily Maybe under the roof of the workshop, maybe some things under the solar panels have to have to see. But a lot of organization has to go on first before we can put up scaffolding, take the roof off.