Solar in Africa

[Amy@altE]

Bala, do you know what brand meter you have?

[Bala]

Bala, do you know what brand meter you have?

I cant find it at the moment but will look for it today, I only bought it to check my motocycle tyre warmers so I could buy a generator for them.

It may be this one, if not is is the same thing.

http://steplight.com.au/products/steplight-plug-in-power-meter

I found it, that is the same, Watts Clever Model EW-AU55001

this is an ebay link should get you an assortment of 240v 50hz meters,http://www.ebay.com.au/bhp/power-meter

[juju]

Juju, can you give an example of how many kWh a "typical" home would use for that list you gave? For example, what is your electric kWh usage a month (or however you get your bill)? I understand your big requirement is not to go off-grid, but to provide electrical stability to deal with the frequent grid outages. As such, I believe a practical solution is to create a critical loads list, and determine what equipment must run when the grid is out, and what can turn off when the critical items are running off the battery. So simply changing the lifestyle to only running the washing machine when the grid is up, and reading a book via LED light instead of watching the big screen TV, or using your laptop instead of PC when the grid is down.

I have several customers in the Caribbean who are running mini split AC units on an off-grid solar system. Thermosyphon solar water heaters are cost effective way to replace your electric water heater in temperate climates such as yours. Replacing a 15 year old inefficient fridge with a new efficient one pays for itself almost immediately when going solar. As you said, a combination of equipment and lifestyle changes can be implemented to accomplish your hybrid solution.

Since your big requirement is battery backup, you are not able to compare your system with most of the USA or European systems, as they usually are simply grid-tied that turns off when the grid goes down, which doesn't help you at all.

I don't have typical usage stats ( but I can reach out to friends and get it). But this will vary based on the type of household. My spec sheet was just an estimate of some of the appliances I know people have at home - especially the use of heavy load items like wall mount a/c and freezers is the norm. Hence, I am interested in the experiences of your clients in the Caribbean. I assume their usage patterns will be the same. Oh, by the way, the a/c unit in my spec sheet is not a whole house hvac - more like what your clients have . ( not sure it will change the usage that much )

So tell me more about the types and sizes of systems your clients in the Caribbean have. Many thanks for chiming in.

[juju]

Yeah, seems like there are three categories:
1. LED lighting and other very efficient and low-power things that have to run at night
2. HVAC and other very energy-heavy things that don't have to run at night
3. Things you eventually want to run at night, but use too much power for your current solar system

Go through all your loads, measure them (perhaps with a kill-a-watt meter)
and assign them to one of those three categories, and price out a solar
system that can power #1 and #2, and a battery backup system to power #1.

If the HVAC draws too much power to run from the sun at all,
consider getting a single 30 SEER minisplit and putting just that
in category 2. Then even if you're out of diesel, you'll at least
have some AC.

Do you have a particular house in mind to try this out on already?

No I don't. I have a architect friend who is contemplating doing solar on a new house so we have an opportunity to spec it out and get it right from the onset - your advice about categorizing usage is especially relevant and timely. thank you.

[DanKegel]

Your friend already knows this, but:
for new construction, you may be able to reduce your cooling load by clever use of shade (e.g. deep eaves), insulation, and natural ventilation.
(Google 'building science' or 'passivhaus', or look at old craftsman houses, for much more on the topic.)

See http://www.bullittcenter.org/
(and writeups, e.g. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/re...ond-green.html )
for an example of taking solar powered buildings to the limit.
(It has deep eaves -- made of solar panels!)

[juju]

Your friend already knows this, but:
for new construction, you may be able to reduce your cooling load by clever use of shade (e.g. deep eaves), insulation, and natural ventilation.
(Google 'building science' or 'passivhaus', or look at old craftsman houses, for much more on the topic.)

See http://www.bullittcenter.org/
(and writeups, e.g. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/re...ond-green.html )
for an example of taking solar powered buildings to the limit.
(It has deep eaves -- made of solar panels!)

Yes - hence my comment about taking a much broader approach to ensuring energy efficiency. Some fault us for not using common sense, however, it is simply a matter of educating users about these techniques. Energy efficient building designs are not very common, for instance. Secondly, almost all equipment being imported and sold are massive energy hogs - from incandescent bulbs ( being phased out here ), to refrigerators, freezers, wall mount a/c's the list goes on. Thx for that link to the nytmes article. Will share with my friend.

[Bucho]

And you are right, you do not have to give up anything, you just need money to do it.

Sure everything costs money and a good chunk of this thread is about how the average American lifestyle is rather untenable for us non diamond mine owners, which I'm not disagreeing with. I'm just saying that if you don't want to break the bank there's an alternative to giving up the wall-ness of ones tv, you can give up watching tv without blackout curtains.