The kit includes four 100-watt solar panels (400 watts total), a 2,000-watt pure sine wave inverter, an MPPT charge controller, two 12-volt 100 amp-hour lithium batteries, pre-cut wiring for the inverter and charge controller connections, MC4 panel connectors, splicers, an ANL 150-amp fuse, and an Eco-Worthy monitor to…
At a glance
Length
13 min
Channel
OKLAHOMA OFF-GRID
Video from
Dec 2024
Rating
⭐⭐ Great video · 2/2
Best for
RV owners, off-grid cabin dwellers, and DIY solar beginners
What this video answers
What exactly comes in the Eco-Worthy kit?
Can this system really run power tools?
Why wire the panels in parallel instead of series?
How long do the batteries last?
Is this system portable?
Reads the guide aloud in your browser — free, no account.
What This Budget Solar Installation Tutorial Covers
This step-by-step guide walks you through installing a complete 400-watt solar power system from Eco-Worthy, priced at under $1,200. The video follows the full process from building a mounting rack for the panels to wiring the inverter, charge controller, and lithium battery bank on a single piece of plywood. It's shot in a workshop setting and designed for anyone with basic tools and no prior solar experience.
The system suits RV owners, tiny house dwellers, and anyone running an off-grid cabin or backup power setup. If you're tired of paying for grid electricity but thought solar installation was out of reach or too complicated, this tutorial strips away the mystique and shows the actual wire-by-wire process you'd follow at home.
Key Moments
Key Moments in the Solar Install Process
Building a 2×4 mounting rack and setting the solar panels to a 30-degree angle for optimal output
Laying out all components (inverter, charge controller, batteries, fuse) on plywood for a portable, organized system
Crimping and heat-shrinking wire connections to the 2,000-watt pure sine wave inverter
Wiring two 12-volt lithium batteries in parallel to create a 200 amp-hour battery bank at 12 volts
Connecting all four solar panels in parallel using MC4 connectors and splitter clips
Real-world load testing: running a chop saw, air compressor, and table saw to verify the system's capability
What You Should Know Before Starting Your Installation
Kit Contents: The Eco-Worthy package includes pre-cut wiring, MC4 cables, splicers, an ANL 150-amp fuse, and a system monitor—most of what you need is included.
Tools Needed: Wire cutters, a wire stripping tool, a crimper (the video uses an affordable hammer crimper), and a heat gun (available for around $20) are essential for making clean connections.
Time & Complexity: The video doesn't state total duration, but the installation shown is methodical and assumes no prior solar knowledge—each step is explained as it happens.
Panel Angle: Mount panels at a 30-degree angle to maximize power capture; the video demonstrates checking this angle during installation.
Wiring Configuration: The system wires panels in parallel (positive to positive, negative to negative across all four panels) and batteries in parallel to maintain 12 volts while doubling amp-hour capacity.
Real Performance: At day's end with reduced sunlight, the system pulled in about 98 watts; full testing showed it successfully ran a chop saw, air compressor, and table saw without strain.
Frequently Asked Questions About This Budget Solar Kit
What exactly comes in the Eco-Worthy kit?
The kit includes four 100-watt solar panels (400 watts total), a 2,000-watt pure sine wave inverter, an MPPT charge controller, two 12-volt 100 amp-hour lithium batteries, pre-cut wiring for the inverter and charge controller connections, MC4 panel connectors, splicers, an ANL 150-amp fuse, and an Eco-Worthy monitor to track system performance.
Can this system really run power tools?
Yes—the video demonstrates the system successfully powering a chop saw, air compressor, and table saw. The 2,000-watt inverter handles the startup surge of these tools without issue, though actual runtime depends on battery capacity and whether the sun is charging simultaneously.
Why wire the panels in parallel instead of series?
Parallel wiring keeps voltage constant at the charge controller's input while combining the current from all panels. This configuration works better for 12-volt systems and is simpler for beginners. Series wiring would raise voltage to 48 volts—useful for a 24-volt system but requiring different equipment.
How long do the batteries last?
Each Eco-Worthy lithium battery is rated for more than 4,000 cycles, which translates to approximately a 10-year lifespan under normal use.
Is this system portable?
Yes—mounting everything on a single piece of plywood makes the entire electrical system portable once you disconnect the batteries. The solar panel rack can be moved separately. This design suits RV owners and anyone who needs to relocate their setup.
A device that manages power from solar panels to batteries, optimizing voltage and current to charge efficiently.
Pure Sine Wave Inverter
An inverter that converts DC battery power to AC household current with smooth, undistorted waveforms safe for most electronics.
MC4 Connector
A weatherproof electrical connector commonly used to link solar panels and wiring in off-grid systems.
Amp-Hour
A unit of battery capacity measuring how much current a battery can supply over one hour.
Parallel Wiring
Connecting electrical components so positive terminals link together and negative terminals link together, maintaining the same voltage while combining capacity.
This video fills a real gap: it shows that budget solar doesn't mean cutting corners on safety or quality. The Eco-Worthy kit is genuinely affordable, and the step-by-step approach removes the intimidation factor. Anyone comfortable with basic hand tools can follow along and understand what's happening at each stage, not just copy moves blindly.
What stands out most is the load testing at the end—actually plugging in real workshop tools and proving the system works, rather than leaving you wondering if it's really capable. If you're an RV owner or off-gridder considering solar but hesitant to invest in professional installation, this tutorial makes a solid case for doing it yourself. Highly recommended.
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LINK TO KIT $1,183.99 after 20% discount https://amzn.to/3Pb6CdR Follow along as we install a $1180 budget-friendly 400 watt solar kit from Eco-Worthy step by step. Perfect for off-grid living , Small solar back-up for your house, or even an RV or TINY HOUSE!!
Video transcript for “Step By Step BUDGET SOLAR Install With Eco-Worthy!” Accessibility
A full written transcript of this video, provided for accessibility. Select any timestamp to jump the video to that moment.
I'm going to take you step by step Wire by wire through the installation process we're going to be installing 400 WS of solar panels on this system we're going to be wiring these panels in parallel one of the best ways to reduce your electricity bill is solar but not everybody can afford solar not everybody
has the knowledge to install solar in this video we have a very small solar kit by Eco worthy I'm going to take you step by step Wire by wire through the installation process so you can do it yourself this system is going to be perfect for an RV a small off- grid cabin or even a backup system for your
house we're going to be installing 400 WS of solar panels a 2,000 W pure sinewave inverter this Eco worthy mppt charge controller and two of these 12vt Eco worthy lithium batteries all of this equipment is going to be available to you in a kit the Kit's going to come with pretty much all of the wiring
you're going to need for the installation the Kit's going to come with the two gauge wiring for the inverter the wiring that runs from the charge controller to the solar panels and all of the splicers and mc4 cables to connect the panels it'll also come with a nice ANL 150 amp fuse and this
Eco worthy monitor to make sure that everything is working good after you're all hooked up now the first thing we're going to do is quickly build a rack for these solar panels we'll make sure the panels are angled at the 30° that they ask for this way assuring that we're going to get the most power out of our
solar panels I'll show you exactly how to do that now as far as I can see you can put these brackets on any way you want you can put them on this way or you can put them on the way I had them at first just depends on your situation I'm going to go ahead and use them and put them on
this way [Music] all right now the brackets are mounted on the panels all we have left to do is build a 2x4 framing
[Music] n [Music]
[Applause] [Music]
okay so what we have decided to do is to lay our equipment out on a piece of plywood this is going to be the most simple way to hook this system up and it'll actually be portable by the time I'm finished with it we'll be able to pick up the whole piece of plywood as we disconnect the battery
okay so what we're going to decide is where we're going to put the inverter and the charge controller and where we're going to run the wiring to the fuse here I believe we're going to install our something like this we're going to put the inverter here charge controller here and we'll put our
fusible link here okay so the first thing we're going to do is hook our positive and negative wire to the inverter and run the fuse okay we'll start by screwing the inverter to the board we'll go ahead and hook the positive wire up and now the negative this is our fuse that we're going to
integrate into the positive side of our wiring these wire cutters I have here will cut massive wires like butter this little tool that I'm spinning around here will cut the insulation on The Wire this will make it so you can strip the insulation back with ease this is a hammer crimper tool that works great for
crimping these lugs to the wire and here we put some heat shrink over the wire and we're heating it up with our $20 heat gun that we also got from Harbor Freight I really want to make the wiring on this project really straight really organized and really nice looking okay so what we have here is PV plus PV
negative that's for your solar panels your negative on your solar panel will go here and your red or positive on your solar panel will go here and then next to it says bat which that's battery uh looks like the positive goes right here on the left the negative goes right here on the right and then here's load load
is for when you run the battery Bank straight through the inverter to power up any 12vt equipment that you may have okay right here we going to cut some short wires that are going to go to the solar panels we're going to have connectors on the end of them so all we have to do is connect the
solar panels directly to these connectors the two 10 gauge wires here are going to be the two wires that run from the charge controller to the battery giving the batteries the charge that comes from the solar panels we'll go ahead and screw the charge controller down now we're going to put these little
plastic wire holders here to hold the wires in place I bought these for bucks at Harbor [Music] Freight okay now that we have the main wiring on the inverter and the solar
charge controller let's finish up a couple of lugs on the ends of the charge controller first we'll make sure the battery lug fits through it okay we'll strip this wire back here and then we're going to crimp this on it okay we'll go and put the shrink rack over it just the wire up here put it inside the
lug now we quickly built this little wooden box here for the eal worthy monitor that goes to the inverter so we're going to tidy up the wires on this thing and then Mount this over here by the inverter and it's going to go into the rs485 port okay now we have the Bluetooth module that's going to plug into the
solar charge controller okay now we're going to go ahead and plug it in at the bottom of the charge controller here and then the one last thing we did here is the positive and the negative wires they're coming out of the charge controller and these will plug into the mc4 cables that actually
go to the solar panels okay now we're pretty much ready to wire our board against the wall and hook our two 12vt batteries to it remember this system may work good for you for your camper RV or a small off-grid property [Music] okay we have here the Eco worthy 12vt
100 amp hour this thing's made for more than 4,000 Cycles which gives it around a 10year lifespan we're going to hook these batteries together in parallel and we're going to keep them at 12 volts so we'll have 12 volts at 200 amp hour since each battery is 100 amp hours okay I'm going to quickly show you how to
wire these batteries in parallel and I'm also going to quickly show you how to wire them in series in case you did do a 24v system at some point okay here are our two batteries that are going to make our single battery Bank the way we're going to do that is take the negative and the negative and run the negative
and negative together here we're going to take the positive and positive run the positive and positive together here that will make these two batteries as one Now quickly if we were going to do these in series we're basically going to take the positive to the negative the positive on One battery to the negative
on the other battery so it'll be something like this and then the two remaining terminals here will be your 24 volts okay I think I'm actually going to set the battery Bank up like this so so what we're going to do here is run all three of our negatives here this is actually a good point where we could use
a bus bar to hook all these together under normal circumstances you don't want to Stack more than two on a terminal but we do not have a bus bar right now so we're going to stack three okay now it's time that we go ahead and hook up the positive here could be using a wrench or a socket on this but right now
I'm using a screw driver cuz that's what I have handy okay our system is officially wired in I think in the future I may cut some of these wires a little shorter I'd like to arrange these wires where they just come from here to here or here to here or maybe even run to a bus bar right here but for now we
have all the negatives on the negative and we have all the positives on the positive okay we are also going to put a high amp inline on and off switch on the battery here on this system we're going to be wiring these panels in parallel that means from each panel the positive is going to go to the positive to the
next panel panel and the negative is going to go to the negative to the next panel and so on and so on until we come out at the end with a positive and a negative so we're going to take the positive here off the first panel and we're going to run it into this style clip and we'll take the positive off of
it run it into it and so far we have our two positives hooked together here coming out now as one positive okay so now we have the positive and the positive ran together from those two panels now we're just going to have to do that one more time from these two panels but first let's connect the
negative and the negative from this panel all right so we'll take our little splitter here run these two together all right so to make it a little bit more simple to understand now now both of these two panels are hooked together but yet here's the positive and here's the negative now we need to do the same
thing to these two panels and then hook all four of them together okay we're going to repeat the [Music] process now here we go all four panels hooked together positive and negative that's called parallel all right so the only thing left to do is take the wiring from the solar panels and run it into
the inverter okay now we have both the positive and the negative coming in from the outside let's go ahead and plug it into our charge controller okay everything in here is looking pretty good let's go out here and finish up on the angle of the solar panels once we get the 30° angle we'll screw the legs
to the panel 25 so that's a 25° angle that we have the panels at now we're going to to move this up to 30 that my friends is 30.5 so that's pretty much right on the
money so there it is all finished up looking good got our nice little 30° angle there it is guys everything is working smoothly and the last thing we need to do is check and see how many watts we're going to get tomorrow and then we want to check and see exactly what this system will run okay first
thing we always like to verify and make sure that the polari are right okay yeah 22 volts and this is definitely our positive right now we're sitting at [Music] 13.27% 13.4 Vols says our solar panel
volts is 17.7 we're actually charging the batteries now at this point looks like it's only pulling in about 98 Watts we are right at the end of the day here at about 5:00 all right guys I hooked this system up to run my shop we're going to test the things in this shop that I normally use and make sure that this
system is going to be able to run them we're going to go ahead and put a load on this system and see what kind of power it'll push okay the first thing I want to do is make sure it'll run my chops saw all right obviously no problem there so let's check out our air compressor we'll
go ahead and plug our compressor in here turn this compressor on and make sure it's going to [Music] work all right all that worked Flawless I'm pretty happy with that I'm just curious if it'll run our table saw all right here we go [Applause] how about that all right guys that is
going to be it for this video I hope you like this system I will leave a link in the description where you can buy this kit and do it yourself just like I did
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