Setting Up Your Off Grid Equipment Properly!

It is useful to learn a bit of the lingo pertaining battery operated systems. Charge stages such as Bulk, Absorption and Float are a MUST to understand for battery health. In your instruction manuals you will find acronyms such as SOC (State of charge), LVD (Low Voltage Disconnect) and many more.

Before commissioning your new off grid electrical components, it is important to familiarize yourself with the programming of your equipment. It is helpful to have a good understanding of electricity and safety measures to prevent injury or worse.

Charge controllers and inverter chargers usually come with conservative factory default settings to charge batteries. However, to be eligible to make a warranty claim for a failed battery for example you need to contact the battery manufacturer for specific settings that are right for your energy storage. It is recommended to do frequent testing of your batteries and to document the findings. This will provide you with the ability to detect trends that would indicate deterioration and early detection of a failure. Another very important value to set up is the low battery shut down voltage for your inverter. In my opinion that should be set to no less than 40 % charge level of the batteries. Repeated deep discharges will shorten the battery life.

One tool that is absolute paramount to own is an Amp Clamp. https://offgridisbetter.com/a-must-have-for-diy-off-gridders/

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