Building a DIY Power Station DIY Start here! | Texas Prepper Projects #prepper #solarpower

Now do a video on daisy chained parallel batteries showing cumulative amperage across the wires.

A few years ago diy power stations were the most economical way to have a power station, now the prices of power stations make it not worth it. I just got a 1800w output power station with a couple a 150ah batteries.

Good stuff,looks like I'll need a 1gauge for a 24v 3000w inverter with 2 12v 100ah batteries

Great info! Only thing I could add is just jump to 48v systems! Did that 3 years ago and never looked back.

Great information as always. I love my watt cycle mini batteries. They are so easy to move around from one place to another.

Great thx.

thanks another nice video.
i switched to 24v just 2 days ago..
once i was running just a 500w load on the 12v system and was like aw hell nawl! this wire is HOT!!!
wish i had more batteries id just go 48V.
i only have 2 with my poor butt.

Appreciate the explanation!

I agree with everything you said but you didn't mention the single biggest item to add for safety. Adding a fuse between your battery and inverter.

2 gauge welding wire is rated for up to 205 amps, 2 gauge 12 strand copper / the stuff thats hard to bend is rated for 120.

If you build a 24vdc 2,000 watt ac inverter system can’t I use 4awg for the entire build?
Excluding the mc4 solar cables & the 24vdc to 12vdc buck converter? 24vdc system seems to simplify having multiple diff size wires in the system

Couple questions:
1 the higher the voltage the more risk of electrical burns/shock (with amperage being known as the killer) . Saw a post about you get into the danger zone with anything over 12v?

2. From what I’ve been reading PV wire for your panels should be 196 stands…..does # strands matter between battery-> Fuse -> Inverter .

I Needed to hear this. Thank you!

You are SPOT ON! I I presently have a Homebrew system I am building up. By the end of next week, it will have four 100 Amp Lipuls Mini's for the battery Bank- just over 5 Kilowatt Hours capacity. At this moment in time, I'm also running a Best Ten\k 500 Watt Pure Sine inverter like the one in this video. My Battery Cables are Currently 6 Gauge: This will BARELY handle the 500 Watt Inverter.
This has been a difficult Build-As-I-Go project because I'm 70, Disabled and on limited SSI. I add a little to it each Month until it will be done.
BEFORE I put this into full operation, the 6 Gauge Wire WILL be replaced with TWO Gauge Wire and 100 Amp Rated Quick Disconnects. I ALSO plan to have 80 Amp Circuit Breakers between each Battery, and another 80 Amp Breaker between the Battery Bank and the eventual 2000 Watt Inverter that will be installed.This is to allow for the "cushion" you made reference to.
I agree with you completely. You are a breath of Fresh air, and you know what you are talking about. BRAVO!

Good info.

My rule of thumb: Size for about 150 amp maximum continuous on the D.C. side. This allows 2 awg for a foot or two before you need to upsize for voltage drop. What that comes down to for inverter size:

1500w to 2000w on 12v
3000w to 4000w on 24v
for more use 48v. (It would be nice if higher voltage equipment were more readily available... maybe someday.)

The range is intended to account for product availability and surge ratings, so it means the smaller is the design normal max usage, the larger for brief starting surges. For example, your 12v, 100a BMS might support 150a to 200a for a few seconds or you might have two in parallel. If you want to plan for using that, that would be roughly an 1800w to 2400w surge at 12v. Do not believe the bold claims that your cheap 1500w inverter will surge 3000w for anything more than a fraction of a second and that is unlikely to be sufficient or safe for your equipment so you need a bigger inverter, hence 2000w. You also need to realize that 200a is going to have twice (edited) the voltage drop in your wires as 100a. Lower voltage means your inverter is going to need to pull even more current and be even more stressed. You should probably go up a cable size to reduce the voltage drop.

Good advice ... A hint to the subject of fuses in those systems (as crucial as wire sizes an wire materials) would have been great ...

Wow, I did the exact thing you explained a few months again with the little battery and a small inverter and I almost melted my cables. Good thing I was watching with a temp gun and I shut it all down before it started a fire. Good stuff I wish a video like this was around back then. Thank you for sharing.

Great info. I have gained experience by building a number of DIY battery systems using individual 3.2v LIfePO4 cells and adding my own BMS. But your presentation made me aware of something I had not considered. Thank You for that.

When you say 2 gauge , is that 2/0 or 2 awg ?

Great video! I always learn something new with your videos. I like the idea of 24v and thinner gauge/cooler wires, any reason not to just buy one 24v battery instead of two 12v?

Did you ever open up your inverter to see what the interior specs are like? I did on my 1500 pure sinewave inverter. It had 10 AWG wires attached to the interior lugs. So I have 2 AWG on the outside and 10 AWG on the inside. Yeah, it's only for 4 to 6 inches in length on the interior, but still...

Thanks a lot for this information. Was looking for info on diy stations or those expensive portable solar generators but so many numbers to try and grasp and match. This helped a lot 👍

ty dude

Building a system for the two back bedrooms using a 1200w power station to keep it portable with 2 additional 12v 100ah, and 260w of solar panels to charge the power station. For now the 2 batteries are charged separately. to complete I will need to get about 800w of solar and a MPPT controller to charge the batteries. My next build will be for the rest of the house larger to keep down wire issues will be in a fixed location, 48v with at least a 3000w inverter , 2 24v 100ah wired in series ( bought them already) , 1400w solar panels, and 60a MPPT controller. This will give me room to expand if I need more batteries or panels. Will stay on the grid to run the 240v equipment.

If you have four 100 amp hr batteries with 100 watt bms wired in parallel is the draw on them still limited to 100 amps ? Also when you charge them lets say with a 50 amp charger is that going through all the batteries even though they are each only recharging at about 12.5 amps each ?😊. I really don’t know.

Most inverters come with CCA wire copper clad aluminum ,what u need is ofc wire oxygen free copper