Solar Sheds & Other Non-t6 Solar Projects - How We Done It -

[roadtripper]

Don't forget the load terminal of a Victron MPPT is very flexible too, worth using for at least the battery protection if possible.

The terminal is capable of switching the same load as the charger is rated for so of you're fusing the small inverter at 10A that could work, depends how long the memory of the timer lasts without power as you head into shorter winter days.

Must get on with my shed project, I'm trying to hunt down some decent 12v festoon lighting to run, most seem to be either very "Christmas Decoration" style or 24v.

These seem the sort of thing but these seem a bit spendy as I might need a few sets

Techmar Festoon Party Lights 12v Low Voltage Lighting

Techmar low voltage 12v 10m Festoon Party light set with 10 led lights. Connect max 5 sets to form 50mtr run. Great bundles also available. 3000k led lights.

gardenlightshop.com

 

[Anakin]

I've now fitted a power meter, as the MPPT was the cheaper, non BT version. However these cut off when the voltage drops overnight. As it was a pain to remove the solar wires each time to reset the meter, I've now fitted a mini resetable inline fuse/breaker which makes the job much easier.

 

[Dellmassive]

This sunny weather is smashing it for the solar.

We are seeing some perfect sunny days giving a perfect sun PV curve through the day.

It's now sunny enough to provide all the power we need to....

Run the house while it's sunny,
Fully charge the battery bank for over night,
And getting some export when the battery bank is full charged.

This means I've not switched off the overnight top up charge from the grid.

Id been slowly reducing the top up charge as the weather go nicer......

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[Dellmassive]

@Grim Reaper now has a domestic solar setup.

He's posted some pics on the T6FORUM Domestic Solar group

Drop some pics over here Dave to show others your Victron setup.

 

[Dellmassive]

@Wanderlust also now has a Sun sync domestic solar install.

 

[Grim Reaper]

Self installed system, 12 470W Aiko Solar panels on Fastensol mounts split into three strings of 4 panels.

These feed into three Victron Smart Solar MPPT 250/60 charge controllers, which charge a GobelPower 314Ah/16kWh battery. A Victron Multiplus II 48/5000 supplies pretty much the whole house with power,

only a few high current circuits are grid fed.


I have been off grid for 4 weeks now (21/06/25) and apart from having to avoid turning the kettle on at the same time as the oven or hob everything is doing as it should.

 

[Dellmassive]

Cracking setup.

@WeaWar also has a Victron ON/OFF Grid setup.

 

[Sackmycook]

The way forward. Now get an EV

 

[roadtripper]

Still no progress on the shed project but I have managed to get the full export set up on the house battery, which includes months of getting the existing FIT solar system paperwork sorted out and on to metered export.

So now the house (mostly) runs off time shifted overnight electricity via the battery, most of the solar gets exported and I'm still getting the FIT generation payments. Running the EV has dropped the diesel bill a lot, without really making any noticeable impact on the electricity bill.

Realistically I'm going to break even around the 9 year mark of a battery with a 10 year expected life span, but it's fun and geeky to automate and track everything and having the whole house on battery backup is extraordinarily useful when your day job is full time remote working, if my network and power goes out it's not just missing The Traitors I don't get paid...

 

[Sackmycook]

Having had our 7th powercut this year (thank you Northern Powergrid), I'm pretty jealous of your set up

 

[roadtripper]

Having had our 7th powercut this year (thank you Northern Powergrid), I'm pretty jealous of your set up

It's not perfect, when you simulate a grid outage obviously it can pick it's moment and go off grid pretty smoothly - so much so that the hair trigger UPS on the main network doesn't notice.

When it happened in anger recently as luck would have it the EV was charging so the house battery was too and it had to swing from 5kw charge to around 4kw discharge and that's a big ask and the UPS was needed.

But certainly we're getting to the point of having house batteries big enough in capacity and inverter to do this as a solid side benefit.