I Built the BEST DIY Solar System on Amazon [Destroys EcoFlow]

0:00 The easiest, most simple, most powerful DIY solar system you can buy and put together from Amazon. I've gotten insanely powerful kit here. We're going to build step-by-step together in this video, and you can see just how easy you can get up and running with a crazy powerful system. And here's the awesome

0:18 thing. Everything in this small kit can easily be added to a large system down the road. So, start small, budget-oriented, and work your way up to big. First, you need a way to generate power. And crazy but true, you can now get full-size residential glass solar panels shipped to your door from Amazon.

0:39 This is one of two of these panels that I have. These are 450-W panels. So, I've got 900-W of solar that I can connect to the system. These panels are from my favorite solar panel manufacturer, Col Sun. You might be able to see on the backside here that they are bifacial. And these are some of the cheapest,

0:58 highest-performing panels that you can buy in small quantities in this size category that will ship to your door on Amazon. I made a full testing video about these and their performance that you guys should definitely check out. I will leave a link for that down in the description. So, once we generate the

1:16 power, we need a way to store it, and that's where this golf cart battery comes into play. Any of you who've been part of the channel for any period of time know that this is one of my favorite golf cart batteries. I love the price-to-performance ratio. It's a 51.2-V 100-Ah lithium iron phosphate

1:33 battery. It has a 200-A BMS. So, that means that it has over 5 kWh of battery storage capacity. And here's the other awesome thing. Included with the kit on this battery is this fantastic weatherproof 120-V AC wall charger. So, this system that I'm going to build here not only can be charged with solar

1:52 power, but could also be charged with like a gas generator or something like that, which makes the practicality and utility of this system all the more powerful. But, you can't just hook, you know, a solar panel up to a battery and call it done. You do need some kind of charge controller. The thing that I love

2:09 about this particular charge controller is that it has a built-in app control feature. And that makes it super easy to, you know, adjust settings, monitor, you know, what's happening as far as it's solar generation goes. But, there are a bunch of good solar charge controllers on the market. So, maybe

2:25 I'll link, you know, to my favorites down in the description and you can check them out further. Now, for those of you that don't understand, the purpose of a charge controller is simply to protect the battery. We need to not overcharge these lithium batteries. And so, what this charge controller will do

2:41 is it will take the voltage of your solar panels, it will transform it a little bit so that it matches the exact voltage the battery needs to charge successfully. And then, if it reaches 100% full, this will cut the power off to charging that battery and protect it. So, charge controllers are a very

3:01 important piece of equipment. So, with all of our wonderful solar power and all that storage, we need a way to use that. And that is where an inverter comes into play. And this is one of the most cost-effective, well-built 48-V inverters I've tested yet on the channel. It's just over 2,000 W. And you

3:20 can see here on the end, we've just got, you know, some standard outlets. But, this will allow you to, you know, plug your loads in and make use of all your power here. By the way, I have done a full review and in-depth testing on this inverter, so I will leave a link for that down in the description. Let's

3:36 first start with this inverter. It just so happens that it fits perfectly on top of that battery. So, now we do need to protect these wires from an overcurrent event, so we're going to use this 100-A DC-rated circuit breaker. So, I'm going to protect the positive cable, so I'm going to hook this one up to one side of

3:55 the breaker and this one up to the other side, just like that. By the way, when you purchase this breaker, it comes with the tool that you need to be able to attach the wire successfully. So, next we're going to work on the MPPT solar charge controller. We have wires that'll connect to the solar panel here, which

4:12 will connect here at the very end, so set those aside. What we want is the cable that's going to connect to the battery first. So, I just got some eight-gauge silicone wire here, and then I did get another DC-rated circuit breaker. This one is a 40-amp breaker, sized for the eight-gauge wire that I'm

4:31 using. I ran out of my black and red eight-gauge wire, so that's why I have different color wire here on this other side, but when you get yours, you'll have plenty and you'll be able to use the same black and red wiring all the way out. In fact, what I will have linked for you down in the description

4:50 is some eight-gauge silicone wire with the terminals already crimped on for you, and all you'll have to do is cut it, strip it, and make connections on your charge controller, and make the connections on your overcurrent protection device. Because this is stranded wire, I am using ferrules right

5:08 here. Highly recommend those. They're so easy to install, especially with this kit that you can get from Amazon, super inexpensive, comes with the ferrules and the crimper tool all in one kit. Buy that. You need it in your life if you're going to do this DIY stuff. I use mine all the time. And in the kit with the

5:27 golf cart battery and the charger here, it comes with these cables with the terminals pre-crimped and everything. So, now we're going to connect these up to the terminals of the battery. Now, one of the things I love about this Timko battery on its screen, as well as in the app, you can come in here and you

5:43 can disable discharging and charging right here. And so, that turns the power off to these terminals. So it's much easier and safer to work as you make your connections. Pro tip, always put your largest load closest to the power source, which in this case is going to be the battery, and our largest load is

6:05 going to be the inverter most likely. Technically, the charge controller could also get up to around the 2000 watt range, so these two are on par with each other. I'm going to go ahead and do my inverter closest to the battery. And my smallest load is going to be the AC battery charger. I'm going to put it on

6:23 this screw first. Then we're going to do the power from the MPPT solar charge controller. And last but not least, the inverter. So you can see all of our negatives, and over here you can see all of our positives. Let's take a screwdriver and tighten them down. Now let me tell you

6:39 why you need to be careful putting too many things on one terminal of the battery. It's actually related to heat. Stack too many things up and you kind of lose good connection between, you know, all of these things that you have stacked up, and that can generate heat, especially when, you know, heavy loads

6:58 are being pulled. And so this is probably the maximum you want to do on terminals of the battery here. So now you can see we're left with our two over current protection devices over here. And you can see our AC wall charger comes over here. And the cool thing is it comes with this uh quick disconnect

7:17 here. So you can have this off somewhere else and uh just leave this attached. That way it's ready to go in the event that uh you need to do some AC charging from a generator or the grid or whatever. And so simply take your solar panels, connect them into series, which is important cuz we need a higher

7:35 voltage than this battery gets to. And it can get up to about 58 volts at fully charged state. and one of these panels doesn't have enough voltage to do that. So, that's why you need to get two of them, connect them into series, and you will be left with a single negative and a single positive. And so, simply

7:55 connect those to your charge controller, turn your breakers on, and come into your battery control app here, and turn the battery on. And all of a sudden, things start beeping and coming alive. We've got lights on the charge controller here. Nothing's coming in on the PV because we're obviously

8:14 indoors at the moment, not outdoors. We've got the power to the inverter, and let's plug a load in and start using some power. And there we go. Look at that. Almost 1,000 W going in. 986. Crazy but true, that's only half the capacity of what this inverter can do. So, mega modular power, all parts

8:34 sourced from Amazon. You have a piece or part go bad, usually you can get a replacement, you know, overnight. Or worst-case scenario, you know, within a week or something because you're dealing with Amazon. And that is what's awesome about this whole setup here. Let me tell you what's even more awesome. That is

8:52 price. Let me give you a pricing breakdown on this full DIY Amazon system. I'm including two of the 450-W solar panels, the Temgo golf cart battery kit, remembering that is 5 kWh of battery capacity, okay? A MPPT solar charge controller, 60-A 3,000-W charge controller, the 2,000-W Jumper inverter,

9:17 and then, you know, some of the DC-rated circuit breakers and some of the miscellaneous cable. Total for all of that is $2,040.11. Now, at first, that might seem expensive, but let me show you how crazy good that price is. So, I think the most comparable portable power station would

9:33 be the EcoFlow Delta 3 Max, and in particular, the Delta 3 Max plus power station. Let's go ahead down here to the specs. The reason I picked this is because it's a 120 volt only output, which is what our Jun power inverter is. Our Jun power inverter is 2000 watts. This one is 3000 watts. So, EcoFlow wins

9:53 on that. But, that's kind of where everything else poops out. You've got only a 2000 watt hour battery capacity. Remember that we have 5 kilowatts, so more than double, almost three times the battery capacity. And then check this out. Your maximum PV input, and this is the plus model, 1000 watts. If you go

10:13 with one of the charge controllers I've got listed in my description, you're going to get a MPPT solar charge controller that's capable of 3000 watts, so three times the amount of power. And at the time of making this video, you can see just the power station alone, no solar panels or anything, $1099. I'm

10:29 just going to say it's $1100. So, if we get rid of these solar panels from the kit, just so that it's an apples-to-apples comparison here, you pay $1100 for that EcoFlow, or you could pay $1340, so what, $240 more, and you get almost three times the battery capacity, you get three times the solar input

10:49 capability. So, I think one of these DIY kits make a ton of sense for bang for your buck. Now, I can already hear the comments flying feverishly. Are you kidding about that solar panel? I'm not paying that price for those solar panels. I can source panels for pennies on the dollar from Joe down the street.

11:07 And to those of you that are commenting that, I want to say congratulations, and I'm so happy that you have a Joe down the street that will sell you solar panels for pennies on the dollar. That is the ultimate move if you have those kinds of resources and connections. But, a lot of you don't have that. And a lot

11:27 of you want to have the convenience of ordering solar panels online and just having them shipped to your door. The problem with full-size residential panels like this is because shipping and logistics is so challenging for something this large, it's difficult to ship any kind of quantity less than 10

11:46 panels to your door from other places. And a lot of you don't necessarily need 10 solar panels right now. You're just trying to build a system for emergency backup, you know, run your fridge indefinitely off-grid window air conditioner, you know, something like that. And so buying, you know, two solar

12:06 panels to start as opposed to 10 can make a lot more sense. And I also hear some of you commenting saying, "Well, why are you doing a golf cart battery instead like a server rack battery or something like that?" I'll tell you the reason why. It's because for basically the same price or less than a server

12:22 rack battery, you get the included awesome charger that's over $100 on its own if you were to buy it separately. No server rack battery that I'm aware of comes included with a charger like this Tim Go does. And I feel like that is a huge bonus that uh you get as part of this package. But nothing's tying you to

12:43 the golf cart battery. You just need a 51.2 V nominal lithium iron phosphate battery and the same charge controller will work, the same inverter will work, same cables, same overcurrent protection, same solar. So, you do you. I just felt this was the best bang for the buck high function kit that uh you

13:01 could get, you know, to start out. Now, another question some of you may be asking is, "Why are we doing a 51.2 V battery voltage as opposed to, you know, 12 V or 24 V or something like that?" Uh there are two answers to that question. The first one is cost. Uh we can get away with significantly smaller wires

13:21 and as a result lower costs going with a 51.2 V battery. And we can get more energy in a smaller footprint going with a 51.2 V battery as opposed to one of those lower voltage batteries. And then reason number two is down the road, let's say that you want to, you know, build the system out and go to like a

13:42 whole home backup power system like this EG4 12000 XP here. Well, if you take a peek in the shadows back here, you'll see I've got a stack of golf cart batteries right down here. There's a few more down here. And those are all plugging into this system here and contributing to powering my whole home

14:02 power backup solution. And so the cool part is all of these parts and pieces can be reused down the road. Granted, if you're graduating something bigger, you may not use the smaller inverter as much, but the charge controller could still be used. This battery charger could still be used. And like I said,

14:20 this battery could still be used. And your solar panels, you know, obviously 12000 XP or something equivalent to it can accept way more solar. So you'd want to get the pallet of 10 solar panels or more to pair with that, but you'll already have some of these smaller panels that won't match the string that

14:38 you're going there. So that's totally fine. Put these on their own string feeding this charge controller and it will just dump that power straight into the batteries just like all the other solar connected to your inverter will. So this is a really capable and re-purposeable system. You're not going

14:55 to lose money by doing this and then wanting to upgrade to something, you know, larger more capable down the road. And so that's why I recommend most people just immediately start with a 48 V system. So all of you comment and tell me one specific thing. And of course, anything else you want to say and add, I

15:15 would love to hear as well. But I want to know, based on this whole rundown, are you more inclined to to individual components like this and uh put together a very capable, very robust system like this, or would you prefer just the all-in-one solution that you literally pull out of the box and push the button

15:33 and everything turns on, but not be able to replace, you know, individual components and stuff like that and not be able to, you know, add this to a future, you know, full setup like this? I'd love to hear your thoughts and preferences. And speaking of that, I will have links to all of these products

15:53 down in the description, so you can easily source them from Amazon. I have also made, you know, in-depth videos about a lot of these components and uh in-depth testing and stuff. So, if you want to see how the battery performs or how the inverter looks inside, the solar panel, et cetera, those videos are all

16:11 linked down in the description as well. I want to say a huge thank you to all of you that uh watch and support the channel. I always tell people, "You're not my audience. You're my YouTube family." So, on your way out, don't forget to like, comment, share, subscribe, and hype so we can get these

16:25 videos in front of more eyeballs and kind of nudge that algorithm to help us out. I sure appreciate all of you. We've got more epic content in the pipeline, so all of you stay safe, stay tuned, and we'll catch you all next time.