The more off-grid systems I compare, the less interested I am in which one has the most impressive spec sheet. I’m more concerned about what happens when something stops working and grid power isn’t there as a fallback.

Traditional setups built around Victron, Schneider, or similar components seem easier to understand and repair. Systems like Tesla Powerwall, FranklinWH, and EcoFlow’s new whole-home battery look cleaner, but they also appear more dependent on software and the manufacturer’s support.

I’ve owned another EcoFlow product and had no major issues with it. Still, portable equipment is much easier to replace than the equipment running a property.

How much weight would you give to remote diagnostics and manufacturer support versus being able to troubleshoot everything locally?

Optional OP comment:

A polished app is nice, but I’d be uncomfortable if basic operation depended too heavily on an internet connection or a company server.

I recently bought a Marstek Venus-A and noticed that the lowest I can set the discharge limit is 12%. Once it reaches that level, it stops supplying power.
From what I’ve read, this is supposed to protect the battery. Fair enough, but I’ve seen EcoFlow and Bluetti stations discharge all the way to 0%.
As far as I know, many of these stations use the same type of battery (LiFePO4), so I’m wondering what the actual difference is.

Does 0% on EcoFlow and Bluetti mean the battery is actually discharged further, or do they also keep some reserve that just isn’t shown in the app?
And if they do have a reserve, why does Marstek make it so obvious and limit discharge to 12%?

I’m genuinely curious about how this works. If anyone knows how these systems handle the battery reserve, I’d appreciate a proper technical explanation. Not looking for guesses - I can come up with those myself.

Hi all, we have a roughly 20x25 off-grid cabin that has gone out of level in the corners (the prior owners said they haven't bothered to level it in "a few years" but they were in their 70's and I wonder how long it has really been given the amount of labor involved...) Anyways, there was ~7 inches between the lowest and highest corner (this is in central Maine), so we spent this past weekend with several bottle jacks raising the two lowest corners (the 'Y's below) up a couple inches and to the same height as each other (and then we had to raise 'Z' a bit as well to fix the front door sticking...) 'V' is the highest corner (which appear to have actually heaved UPWARDS).

There are 4 footings across the sides and three across the front and back (edge, center beam, other edge) and we don't really know how many underneath, but suspect just the center beam (again, see below). Anyways, there is no way we were crawling under the cabin to jack anything up, and it is likely too low anyways, so we were intending to assemble three 20' beams from PT 2x10 and place them across the dashed areas to add rigidity to the base structure and make it easier to level evenly in the future (which will be important because ultimately we really need to raise this whole thing several inches over the next couple years anyways, at which point we will probably just handle the middle by cutting access in through the floor).

X-----X-----X-----V

X-----?-----?----- Z

Y-----Y-----Y-----Y

This will also give us the opportunity to put in better footings (maybe pyramid ones with a proper foam and gravel/stone layers underneath to reduce water infiltration and heaving). Does anyone see any issues with this whole plan?

• Is there a danger that the 2x10 beam would be too tall and could "tip" if a footing shifts to much? Or can this be handled by hurricane clipping to the house structure or something? (Regardless it still seems like it would be more stable than our current block-on-top-of-block footings)
• Is there a better approach than building the glue-and-screw sandwich beam? We looked into steel I-beams but read that they require regular repainting to prevent rust and it may be a bit of a challenge to get 20 footers into the site anyways
• Is it reasonable to assume we can eventually get this whole thing raised up over the couple years with a plan like this? I am sure we could also pay a company to do it for us but I have no idea what that would cost (I suspect probably in the neighborhood of $10k based on the size of the cabin and location but that is pure speculation -- anyone who actually has experience hiring someone in Maine? I have to imagine this is a popular service in this area of the country given frost challenges...)

Thanks!