[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('baha', ':')) Haha, Anyone ever heard of the cloud edge effect?

My 6.7 kW PV system just produced 6.9 kW For a few seconds...Read em' and weep.

[GHung]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('baha', 'I') am right on the hairy edge

The night temps are in the 30s and days in the 50s and 60s. It's not really cold yet. With 25% reserved I am just barely making it thru the night. And if it is a cloudy day I don't get a full charge and don't make it thru the night. Here is three days worth. Including various loads.

Screen Shot 2017-11-17 at 6.29.52 AM.jpg

There are two things going on here. My baseload was 300 watts, it has increased to about 700 watts with the heat pump on. And the hours of sun have gone from 10 to 7. ( I have a tree shading the array until about 9am. He has a death wish)

That means dinner activities are now carried by the battery. I cook with gas but lights and fans are running. 5-8 is typically prime time power usage and the sun is gone by then.

It doesn't get really cold here until January. But that is after the winter solstice. I am thinking I will use 100% of the battery in Dec and Jan. No one else is going to do it...if it will melt, I will make it.

I have been corresponding by email with my Powerwall customers. I give them my data and they give me theirs. I am by far the most efficient person on the planet. No one else can make it thru the night. Although everyone has settled on 50% reserved for backup. And everyone lives in their big climate controlled box and doesn't understand that windows open

The funny thing is, everyone is happy as a pig in Sh*t. They are using 100% of their solar output in their own house. The power they use and the solar production they make is no longer part of the official statistics. There is no way for TPTB to know how much power they make or use. Keep that in mind next time you read statistics about solar production and % carried. TPTB don't have a clue...

[GHung]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('baha', 'H')i Ghung,
I have the grid to make up the difference and lots of power stored there...to get good comparative data I have to start by not changing my habits in any way. I can set the delay on the dishwasher but when the wife says it's time to wash clothes she doesn't care if the sun is shining

I have been turning the heat pump up during the day to store more heat in the mass of the house and the solar air heater runs all day (after the leaves fall). After this winter I will make an assessment and design my thermal heating system.

I definitely wish I had a dump load output available. The grid is my dump...seems fitting.

[GHung]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'G')hung - Does it make you feel naked when your battery is dead? And can you fully charge it in one day? Without a FF generator...Dude

[EdwinSm]

Envy here ...I read but don't have much to post about what I am doing.

We are too far north to be able to depend on solar for the winter (even the companies selling pv systems advertise one month with ZERO output as the expectation). I took the route of ground heat pump to reduce personal energy importation.

To go for a nearly self-sufficent system I would need a combination of:
a) solar (problem in winter when needing most energy)
b) wind (there is a wooded ridge behind our house that would play havoc with air flows, but it does protect us from the cold northerly winds)
c) wood burning stoves (I don't have enough land for tree production)
d) a smaller house to heat.
e) battery storage
f) generator when the above are not enough

I read of an off-grid house here on the island - a totally rebuilt cow barn that was rebuilt with the aim of off-grid independence (solar, windmill and wood heating). They claim to be self-sufficient for 10 months, and are aiming for 11 months with more batteries and raising the height of their windmill, but they are still not at the 100% mark.

I have come to the conclusion that I could (and have) transitioned to a lower level of energy input. But if I was to aim for energy self-sufficiency in the area I am now living in, I would need much more land and would need to design and build a small house rather than adapt an existing one.

[Shaved Monkey]

Nice lights.....


Back to the premise of this thread it makes more sense for communities to pool resources and own energy infrastructure ,whether its a wind turbine everyone has shares in or a solar farm the community owns or renting the power of a shared roof top of either a state or community owned building.
Socialise the costs socialise the benefits

[GHung]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Shaved Monkey', '.')......Back to the premise of this thread it makes more sense for communities to pool resources and own energy infrastructure ,whether its a wind turbine everyone has shares in or a solar farm the community owns or renting the power of a shared roof top of either a state or community owned building.
Socialise the costs socialise the benefits

[KaiserJeep]

Baha, will not deep discharging the battery to 0% repeatedly shorten the (expensive) battery life?

[GHung]

Happy winter solstice, Baha! It's uphill from here. I think you'll find that your panels will set some records in the coming months, even if the days are short. PV loves the cold, clear days of winter and early spring. Mine will still produce well above their rated output at times, even though they have been in service between 7 and 20 years.

BTW: Are you saying the Outback Radian is noisy? Mine (Outback FX series) are fairly quiet unless they are producing near full power, at which point the fans come on. But even then, it isn't very loud. On startup, they make some noise because they run the fan at full speed for a few seconds (testing them I think). After that, they are generally silent for average use. My older Trace inverters tend to hum a bit under load.

[GHung]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('baha', 'A')n off-grid system is different. They have only one inverter working and I asked her to turn on the elec dryer (which is what made the power go off). When she did the GS8084, 8000 watt inverter, buzzed so loud it shook the wall. But carried the load

My grid tied inverter is under constant load feeding the grid. It makes more noise at 2000 watts output than it does at 6000. If you stand ten feet away you can't hear it.

There may be something else wrong at this house...