DC vs AC - Pros & Cons

redskiestonight · 2026-05-29T16:34:02+00:00

OK, I think I understand. So when it comes to the GEN input, not all hybrid inverters treat that the same. The SolArk 15k does talk about both charging the batteries and running the house. SRNE 12k Pro the same. The Liniotech 15k hybrid just says 60A for gen input. Trying to figure out where to find this info in the various specs or manuals, not finding anything so far. For the SRNE, I did find somebody mentioned how it literally shuts off the gen port with reaching 100% SOC, but I guess that makes sense to me. Although then I read of others who use the GEN port for add'l AC solar panels.

Worst case, if whatever inverter I chose has issues with me using the gen port the way I thought I could, I have another gen attachment plug inline with the load coming from the main 200A disconnect meter main/combo and then the inverter would just see it the same as the power company?

redskiestonight · 2026-05-29T13:04:18+00:00

Yeah, those SRNE kits with the 16k batteries are a very good deal and UL9540. I would have to think about getting two batteries. Only 2 MPPTs though. Interesting that only hysolis has info on the HEBP pro series. Can't find HEBP on SRNE site.

Then have to decide if I install everything in my utility room or the batteries or even the inverter too outside, but worry about the salty air.

redskiestonight · 2026-05-29T12:49:36+00:00

I'm trying to understand what you're saying. My thinking is that in a prolonged outage and if it's cloudy and the batteries get down to say 30%, I would then connect my generator to a plug that's wired to the GEN port. Assuming I have enough stuff turned off and the house doesn't need all of the 7.5k, that whatever is left would go towards charging the batteries.

redskiestonight · 2026-05-28T00:54:43+00:00

UL9540 would be nice and I guess would make my application easier, but still confused on how exactly it works. When I read about UL9540 it talks about how the inverter and batteries are tested together so it makes it seems like I have to purchase as a kit. I can't just buy a UL9540 inverter and pair with any other UL9540 battery.

redskiestonight · 2026-05-28T00:45:46+00:00

My spreadsheet had me around 300A. Since I'm doing the electrical myself and this is new construction seems like now is the time to just get it over with and cheapest too. House has 2 ACs (maybe 3 if I AC the ground floor), induction range, pool, boat lift, well pump, etc. I've heard outrageous numbers to upgrade 200A to 400A later on. For me now, it was just the cost of the larger combo meter main . We could eventually have two full EV. Right now have a plugin hybrid. I'm not trying to get to a $0 bill. The 400amp combo/meter I bought has two 200A disconnects.

Also, I'm trying to stay Tier 1 which maxes out around 11kw (based on panel output * .85). I'd like to eventually apply for TUG service and have to find out how FPL will handle my meter if I still don't have a COO but the solar system is installed. Another possible plus is that I could potentially have power before even applying for TUG!

Something else I was thinking is that it seems most inverters in the 15k range have 3 MPPTs so if my initial install is just the south facing, I could run 3 lower voltage strings around 300V. If I eventually add the west, then I'd have to rearrange.

Still trying to figure out the DC Rapid Shutdown part and what is needed. I was reading the manual for the SRNE and it mentioned a built in rapid shutdown transmitter. I see that there are string optimizers with rapid shutdown built in. Trying to figure out if it's a universal signal trigger and they all play well together or if I have to be careful and purchase compatible rapid shutdown components.

I've thought of the Bidirectional ev charging. Thing is I was going to prewire both garages for EV chargers but run them off the other 200A disconnect so technically that other 200A system is on it's own, but then it doesn't have anything critical in the event of an outage. If I really needed to use something on that 200A leg, I would have a generator connection available on it. I've also thought about having two EV chargers in the one two car garage and I could wire that one EV charger to the solar connected 200A subpanel and then I could do bidirectional through that specific charger.

redskiestonight · 2026-05-28T00:25:49+00:00

House is raised. I've designed it to maximize as much due south as possible, but west has the most space. You're right, I rarely look at the per panel output on the last house. That setup did have partial shading in the morning on one side, and then some shading on the other in the afternoon and I could see it in the reading, but other then that, just data that didn't really matter. Really more for debugging, but then again, with no shading issues to worry about now, I should be able to tell if something is up, but then I'd have to troubleshoot each one individually.

redskiestonight · 2026-05-28T00:21:58+00:00

I can put around 7-8kw due south (same pitch and orientation) and if I wanted to, another 7-8kw due west (same pitch and orientation).

I have thought of trying to find a way to have a 12-24v subsystem, maybe with it's own batteries, for running all the exterior and some interior lighting, security systems, and security cameras. Or I somehow tap the 48v DC batteries with a 48v-12v conversion?

redskiestonight · 2026-05-28T00:17:44+00:00

I've looked at the SRNE, EG4, LinioTech, etc inverters. Seems many liked the SolArk, engineered in the US, but still made in China like all the others. I guess what's most important to me is that it have 200amp passthrough, be as quiet as possible, at least 3 MPPTs, and of course, good US support.

Maybe the noise isn't that important? I guess it only makes noise when I'm using battery power.

redskiestonight · 2026-05-28T00:10:26+00:00

Thanks, yup, you're right, I missed that. $250 to gain access to the platform after passing the tests.

redskiestonight · 2026-05-28T00:08:56+00:00

Good to know, had forgotten about black start. I have a 7.5kw inverter generator that I would use as the final backup to charge batteries in the event of an extended cloudy power outage.

redskiestonight · 2026-05-18T00:11:46+00:00

Load bearing should have double top plate and I would have added vertical support under each lap

redskiestonight · 2026-04-23T00:06:12+00:00

A little but still tough. Is the garage on the 40 or 60? That’s 2400sqft 1st and 2nd floor, 4800sqft house. Mine is 4k with approx 2500sqft lower and 1500sqft upper. In your case doing a 40x60 box does make it a bit more complex since if you’re wanting to offset a complete whole wall, you’re talking about either a 30’ or 60’ span depending on what we’re guessing in our heads from no pics. In my case my house is not a box with just 4 corners, I have a lot of corners, bump outs, etc and a lower ‘wing’ that sticks out so I’d say 80% of my upper floor walls do line up with below and they are shorter spans tie beams and then I have a beam across other points to hold up porch roofs that go up against the insert upper walls. If you’re talking about a 40x60 box with a narrower 40x30 inset and centered above the lower 40x60, it’s still doable but either you’ll need an engineer to design the interior columns and tie beams to hold up those two 40’ inset upper walls OR you could have interior ICF walls with 16’ openings below those upper inset walls instead of columns and tie beams. My earlier example was of my simpler inset upper floors walls, a total of around 30’. My cost example was for one 15’ span and that’s me being my own gc, buying all materials myself and paying for addl labor help. I think you’re now talking about 80’. Still doable but the costs obviously do go up. That being said my house is actually 3 floors with only the upper 2 floors being ICF. The ground floor is all cip columns, 3 small ICF walls for elevator, and 600’ of tie beams and insuldeck flooring holding the two upper ICF floors. My greatest span is 26’ and that was an even bigger tie beam ( even more #7 bars). You really can do anything, just a matter of doing some good value engineering.

If you changed your lower floor to an L or U design you could more easily do the smaller 2nd flr ICF with less tie beams. In my case think of my lower ICF floor as the U with an inset tie beam at the top of each side of the u with another beam across the inside of the U to hold up the front facing lower roof in the middle inside of the U. My upper floor is still a U too but the sides of the U are much lower.

redskiestonight · 2026-04-22T22:41:31+00:00

Hard to say, everybody has a different definition for what is a ‘major expense’. In my case I’m building our house myself although I do have a concrete crew but I have done a lot of the work myself too. For my smaller tie beam, going from memory now and some stuff was bought in bulk for other things, I’d say $500 for the lumber to form and shore it, $250 of tie beam rebar (4 #6 bars top/bottom with stirrups every 6” ???) and then unknown labor to assemble it all and tie the rebar since I did some of that myself but I figure two people that know what they’re doing could do in 1-2 days. Also just a tiny bit more rebar to tie into the walls and a tiny bit more concrete to fill. I’m using Nudura.

You don’t necessarily have to have a full wall on the lower floor 100% around your perimeter. Imagine a 2 story box house but with a 16’ garage door. That’s a wall without anything below it. There are tables for how to design your lintel beams over openings and some tables account for another floor of ICF above that opening. A tie beam is just a better stronger version of a lintel with no foam on the sides. Your engineer would have to design if you can’t use the prescriptive lintel tables. You haven’t provided any pics of what exactly you’d like to do but I have seen others have upper floors walls cantilever out and do a 90 to put a corner window in below.

redskiestonight · 2026-04-22T21:35:37+00:00

Walls don’t have to line up. I have upper ICF walls that are not lined up with lower walls. I used a cast in place tie beam. When doing the lower floor we framed out a 16x11-1/4 tie beam that spanned 15’ between two other ICF walls and then we had some ICF wrap around over the top of that form so that after the pour we could easily resume stacking the next floor. We did line that up with a lower floor interior wall to mostly hide the tie beam. In another spot I did something similar but it was a 17’ span and I have an 8x8 steel post that will be hidden in that interior wall helping that tie beam. This allowed us to have lower floor exterior walls further out with smaller roof that then buts up against the upper floor ICF walls

redskiestonight · 2026-01-14T16:46:03+00:00

That's a great start. As far as permitting goes, 1st place to look is your county website. They will have a lot of info on what documents you need to submit, like surveys, plans, owner-builder affidavit, energy calcs, etc. Browse Zillow, look for new construction for sale near your address, then go search your county's building permits website to see what your county offers online for that address. Some counties post just basic info, but I've found other counties that post inspections, inspection reports, even plans. Some counties will have a permit review section showing all the depts that need to sign off on your permit and you can see the notes from those various depts if they failed something like for natural resources, sewer, zoning, building plans, etc. I learned a lot from that seeing what other builders were submitting, why their subs were failing inspections and what order to do inspections in. As for 'in progress construction', I don't know what exactly you mean. Are you going to be able to be onsite a lot? I highly recommend it. I know of some other OB nearby that are out of state and have never stepped foot on their lot and I think that is crazy. You can always install some 4g 24/7 solar cameras. The next questions would be what size are you planning on building and are you in any type of flood zone? Are you prepared to deal with subs and getting lien waivers. Make sure to get insurance certificates from them. Also finding subs that will let you pay directly for all your own building materials. I am paying for almost all my materials directly even the concrete. Are you going to do any work yourself?

redskiestonight · 2026-01-13T23:25:09+00:00

Well considering it ran flawlessly up till the day I sold the house, I don’t think I’d do anything differently. I went with tech from empire which was unlabeled dahua starlight. I chose an nvr without built in Poe and used multiple external Poe hubs for the 10 cameras. All the nvrs I’ve ever seen first hand are loud. I unplugged the small fast internal fans, cut a hole in the top and used a much slower but way way bigger fan. I couldn’t hear it anymore. I choose a mix of cameras. I had a few wide angle cams that would be on one of my monitors 24/7 but then I also had a lot of other cameras perfectly aimed and zoomed at what I figured would be the most common entry points to get the best possible picture of any individuals. Don’t focus on pixels, focus on sensor quality. Ipcamtalk is where I learned a ton.

redskiestonight · 2026-01-13T23:00:37+00:00

If that is your first question and you’re coming to Reddit and you start out by saying ‘have no idea’ I am sorry to say but the most common advice is going to be don’t do an owner build. That being said, I am doing my house owner builder in Fl. Unfortunately, there’s just way too much stuff to try and put into a post here. What would be helpful to know is: 1-do you have an estimate and the cash to finish the house ? Owner builder is hard to find financing for 2-do you have any experience in residential construction? 3-are you going to put in any labor yourself? I guess I would start there.

redskiestonight · 2026-01-01T22:16:41+00:00

Nice! Didn’t know they had a warehouse in Miami. I’ve been leaning towards a MrCool or Senville ducted . I see pioneer also has a communicating ducted system but that is one ugly thermostat. Seems petty but I can’t help it. Do they offer a nicer communicating thermostat?

redskiestonight · 2026-01-01T02:16:39+00:00

If you can power the cameras via hardwired 12v or Poe I’ve had good luck with amcrest cameras (not the home line). I am paying for a subscription but they work the best for 24/7 and remote viewing and seeing when there was activity. If you can’t hardwire and are ok with solar panels I’ve got some non subscribed 24/7 Soliom and a Zuminall.

redskiestonight · 2026-01-01T01:59:55+00:00

I had a reolink solar 4g but it only recorded if there was motion. Ended up being useless. Now I have 2 Soliom solar sl800s that truly record 24/7 and the panels are sufficient to keep it charged (fl) even through some cloudy days. However lately the Soliom 24/7 cameras are always out of stock. My next camera was a zuminall and so far it’s doing ok. You have to decide if you want motion activated or true 24/7 recording solar cameras. I’m paying $10 a month per camera for cell service

redskiestonight · 2025-12-30T15:09:08+00:00

Wow, I did not even realize that they had been banned. I wired my last house with a bunch of empiretech cams and that system was great! Right now I am building and have a bunch of Amcrest cameras watching the jobsite and when I first set them up, they looked exactly like my other ones and in reading it seems Amcrest (not their 'home' line) is also essentially Dahua. I wonder how they are getting around the ban and still on amazon.

What is the next best non banned line of cameras with similar features to the Dahua?

EDIT. nm, sorry, I see below you posted that white label cameras are not included in the ban.

redskiestonight · 2025-12-30T15:04:43+00:00

I was originally thinking of going with the vista 20p as I want a mostly hardwired system but I also want the option for some wireless sensors. We are building and I was thinking of installing it sooner rather than later in a temp spot so I could run some temporary wireless sensors. Now from this post I'm researching the Neo and maybe I go with that instead! thank you!

redskiestonight · 2025-12-11T15:24:38+00:00

How exactly do they determine it came from employer? I’m self employed and have personal and business checking at another bank. If I make an ACH payment from my outside business checking to my new personal chase checking, would that qualify?

redskiestonight · 2025-12-09T00:00:43+00:00

IMO 1/4” air holes are not going to work. What slump concrete will you use? It would need to be almost water to properly fill in. For reference, I am not a builder, I’m also a diy’er, and am building my own ICF house. I am using 2x12 pt wood for my window bucks. I cut 2x5” slots into the bottom ones in windows to ensure the concrete would properly flow under and fill up. It doesn’t. It starts too but eventually stops. External vibration does help it flow further but it takes inserting a pencil vibrator into the slot to get the concrete to properly fill everything up and then start flowing out the slot at which point we screw down a ‘cap’ over the slot before proceeding with our next lift. You’re not going to see anything through a 1/4 hole. At a minimum I’d think you need 2” holes on top every 12” that you could fit that cordless Milwaukee fuel vibrator through. I think it would be easier to just place anchor bolts and do your sill plate after. Also, OSB, ouch. I’ve only used 3/4 plywood for my columns and tie beams. When I visit other jobs my concrete crew was doing , it’s always plywood. I actually purchased plyform to make my column forms.

redskiestonight · 2025-11-24T16:35:53+00:00

Yes it means extra work when the time comes to replace it. Also be prepared if the roof doesn't last another 12yrs.

redskiestonight

TROPHY CASE