How to make a country house energy-independent for UAH 100,000? Experience of the EPAM developer + detailed instructions

A year ago, Aitivets told DOU how he selected equipment and how his home functions when the centralized power supply is turned off. He went to an energy-independent house in several stages. Perhaps his advice and experience will be useful to some of the readers of dev.ua.

«Since we live in a private house outside the city, I bought a generator long before the full-scale invasion. Because sometimes our lights would be turned off for a few hours for scheduled repairs, and sometimes, for example, after a storm, it might be out for a day. We were looking for a solution so that the refrigerators wouldn’t defrost, so that we could pump water, etc.,» Volodymyr said.

However, with the outbreak of war, the generator became insufficient. And the IT guy began looking for a setup that would be enough for him and his wife to work full-time — for two laptops, three monitors, a modem and a router, and also so that he could turn on a cartoon on the TV for his child if necessary.

The developer chose a relatively budget-friendly but quite powerful solution based on AGM batteries and imported it from Poland.

The desired budget included the following:

• inverter VOLT Polska 2500VA (1800Wt);
• 2 x AGM VRLA 12V 125A lead acid batteries.
• extension cords.

However, soon Volodymyr got tired of dragging extension cords, and there wasn’t enough power to use the water, coffee maker, and microwave.

Therefore, Volodymyr became interested in energy systems: both ready-made and «assembled» ones, for basic needs for the entire house. «I watched videos on YouTube about how to properly assemble and configure everything, about the safety of different types of batteries, comparing different BMS (Battery Management Systems). I kept everything in a separate playlist,» the developer shares.

In the end, he decided to buy the inverter and BMS from AliExpress, and the battery banks from a Dutch seller. The inverter cost $550 and the battery banks cost $1,100.

The new setup was as follows:

• hybrid inverter PowMr 5.5 kW;
• BMS JK Smart;
• 16 Lifepo4 CALB 187AH batteries.

The man decided not to install lithium cells in the residential part of the house, so he moved everything to the second floor, which is not yet habitable. And given that there is no heating there, he made a separate box for this assembly, because Lifepo4 batteries do not like the cold very much.

Volodymyr connected the inverter output to the house via an input switch (also known as a 1-0-2 switch) so that it could easily switch to backup if necessary. And he supplied power to the inverter itself directly from the input circuit breaker, so that the batteries start charging automatically as soon as electricity appears in the network (and at the same time the house continues to be powered by electricity from the network via the inverter in bypass mode).

Here is the estimate for such a set.

Later, the man added an Ajax Fire Protect smoke and fire detector to be on the safe side and receive a notification during a power outage.

After six months of using this system, Volodymyr heard a lot of negative feedback about the dubious reliability of PowMr inverters, so he decided to replace this solution with a more reliable and economical one — Deye Sun 6K. Therefore, the final cost increased slightly.

As of fall 2023, the cost of the setup was over UAH 100,000.

This set allows the IT guy’s house to be powered for 20 hours in a row. The system provides over 9 kW of reserve capacity and long-term output of up to 6 kW of power (with peaks of up to 12 kW lasting up to 10 seconds). During outages, the Stadnyk family does not use the electric stove, the washer, and the dishwasher together. However, each of these units of equipment works without problems separately.

Volodymyr notes that solar panels can be added to the system.

Without Bluetti and Ecoflow. The developer shared his own recipe for energy independence for $900. Here is the set of devices he uses

On the topic

Without Bluetti and Ecoflow. The developer shared his own recipe for energy independence for $900. Here is the set of devices he uses

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