Sizing Off-Grid Systems And Using Gen Support

[Sunking]

ChrisOlson, you mentioned that you use a very small air cooled Diesel Gen for you small prime gen, can you give us some detail on your generator and possibly some of the selection criteria you used?

You are talking to ghost. Chris has not been here for 2 years. So do not hold your breath. Well you can hold your breath. If you die, then you can talk to Chris.

[morgandc]

ChrisOlson, you mentioned that you use a very small air cooled Diesel Gen for you small prime gen, can you give us some detail on your generator and possibly some of the selection criteria you used?

[derekshores]

Ok this is all so new to me it is making my head spin, I am trying to run my TV, internet modem and cable box. I have one 100 watt renogy panel and a 175 ah 12v battery with a 1500 watt inverter, I live in the san luis valley of Colorado and get some of the best solar sun in the US at 7800 ft. I have 3 more batteries and 2 more panels. I am trying to use the other two panels and the other two batteries for some greenhouse applications. Is my setup for my TV and internet adequate? I really only need to use the internet and tv at night for about 4 hours max. Sorry for the newbie question but this is sooooooooo far above my level of knowledge it is scary

[Mike90250]

Long, thorough discussion about generators and loads. Even a section on LED light quality (color & intensity) Done by a movie company rental site.
in the old days, generators ran lighting which was all resistive loads. Now CFL and LED's use weird ballasts that muck up the power factor and that messes up the generators
http://www.screenlightandgrip.com/ht...enerators.html

some great charts and links to videos in there.

[zed]

Thanks for a very interesting thread....it was enough to get me to register.

I live on an island off southern Tasmania with a system that I would recommend to anybody.

I run a system by a company called SMA.

The main product in the room is called a Sunny Island inverter/charge controller.

Some of it's features are full generator control, user programmable to load share and charge as per the original thread topic.

It does this absolutely comprehensively.

But...the best feature is that it can interact with standard grid tie inverters fooling them into thinking they are connected to a utility grid.

This makes it scaleable to almost any depth, utilising cheap grid tie MPPT inverters which the Sunny Island then uses to keep the batteries maintained.

Battery charge controllers and the array connectivity here is 15kw to 48 volts...done cheaply...

It does this by phase shifting (or mis-matching) to keep the input load under control.

Absolutely bullet proof and state of the art.....worth a look for anyone contemplating a new setup.


My setup:-

Sunny Island 8.0H controller
Sunny Island SB5000TL 5kw grid tie inverters in off grid mode X3
BP monocrystalline 190W panels x 72
200AH 12v AGM lead acid batteries organized as 8 banks of 4 in series/parallel 48V strings...1600AH in total @ 48v
Auto start 5kw diesel generator.

I run a seawater desalination unit and stock standard resistive element hot water system, clothes dryer, microwave ovens etc.

Desal uses 3kw and produces 300L an hour....or 10w/Litre to make drinking water from seawater with reverse osmosis.

The Sunny island can be user programmed to charge batteries, when batteries full hea tthe hot water, when water hot desalinate seawater....etc etc

Our aim was to make living as close to being on grid as possible.

We consume around 25kw a day, with washing etc done when the sun is shining to keep battery DOD to around 10-20% maximum.

I cannot remember the last time the generator kicked in.

Panels are so cheap now we sized our arrays for worst case conditions...winter/overcast....so most days by 10am batteries are charged to 100%.


.

[solar pete]

This is an interesting first thread for me.
We are building a cabin on a lake that's off grid. I wish I had power but it's not in the plans for at least 5 years.
Chris - I like your thoughts on sizing and using the Gen Set for peaks. I hate buying batteries (consumables).

I skimmed the other pages but I now wonder about type of Gen set. Everybody where I am uses gas or propane and I was thinking propane but maybe not.

Thanks again and I hope to learn more at this site over the coming months.

Riley

Hello Riley, welcome to the neighborhood.

[Riley5781]

This is an interesting first thread for me.
We are building a cabin on a lake that's off grid. I wish I had power but it's not in the plans for at least 5 years.
Chris - I like your thoughts on sizing and using the Gen Set for peaks. I hate buying batteries (consumables).

I skimmed the other pages but I now wonder about type of Gen set. Everybody where I am uses gas or propane and I was thinking propane but maybe not.

Thanks again and I hope to learn more at this site over the coming months.

Riley

[Sunking]

I have been reading this thread over several times and am fascinated with the results. Would it be possible to get a "shopping list" of the specific components used? That way I can price out this system with real time cost.

Sure I will do it for a fee. No one here is a Professional Engineer eexcept me who can legally help you. But I do not work for FREE.

[armourereric]

I have been reading this thread over several times and am fascinated with the results. Would it be possible to get a "shopping list" of the specific components used? That way I can price out this system with real time cost.

[Sundetective]

I figured he move his yacht out before the winter freeze. He certainly has built an impressive off grid system and has the fortitude to keep upgrading it.

Maybe he will drill for oil to run that Cummins.

On top of all that in his most recent YouTube video Chris talks about
how much time he is spending on his radio station to boot-ie
dis winter. AC9KH radio. (See YouTube.)

One of the fanboy's liable to be flying him back and forth from PR.
Will a jet helicopter make it dat far.

Sunking, (his Junior Engineer) may know.

It may go forever if old Bill kept reading and cross checking -
But he won't.
Give me a dollar.

It was fun looking at the story just a tad.

Equipment is one thing.
The story is another.

Bill Blake

[SunEagle]

Actually the Yacht is Located in Puerto Rico now.

Remember there was 6 feet of snow on the solar panels
and the Wind Turbine was froze solid when he got back from
2 months of sailing dis winter.

Going to be hell on wheels mountain climbing 500 gallons
of fuel oil at a clip into dat place once Chris has that Cummins
Power Plant running 24 / 7 and throws the Rolls 5000 batteries out.
No more batteries at all. 25,000 Watt generator.
Thousands of gallons.
Give me a dollar
The man is the LeRoy of the whole bunch of you.

I figured he move his yacht out before the winter freeze. He certainly has built an impressive off grid system and has the fortitude to keep upgrading it.

Maybe he will drill for oil to run that Cummins.

[Sundetective]

Sounds like you have done so searching for his location. The only other data I can add is concerning his yacht which he stated he kept at a marina in Bayfield and that being on the lake has help increase the output of his wind turbine. He also mentioned about his "scooter" day trip to Duluth so I figured he was in upper WI near the lake.

Of course he could have any number of places he calls home.

Actually the Yacht is Located in Puerto Rico now.

Remember there was 6 feet of snow on the solar panels
and the Wind Turbine was froze solid when he got back from
2 months of sailing dis winter.

Going to be hell on wheels mountain climbing 500 gallons
of fuel oil at a clip into dat place once Chris has that Cummins
Power Plant running 24 / 7 and throws the Rolls 5000 batteries out.
No more batteries at all. 25,000 Watt generator.
Thousands of gallons.
Give me a dollar
The man is the LeRoy of the whole bunch of you.

[Sundetective]

Sounds like you have done so searching for his location. The only other data I can add is concerning his yacht which he stated he kept at a marina in Bayfield and that being on the lake has help increase the output of his wind turbine. He also mentioned about his "scooter" day trip to Duluth so I figured he was in upper WI near the lake.

Of course he could have any number of places he calls home.

To be honest with you all I did was check how much wind was up there
for the fun of it after the Midnite Solar story about the Bergy Windmill
popped up in Barron.

Chris has his GPS Coordinates and the elevation on at the top of his
Weather Underground KWIBARRO3 page so its kind of hard to miss.

His whole story sounds facinating.
It a goodie.

Bill Blake

[SunEagle]

I can believe Chris is very busy - indeedie.
Over at the Fieldlines Forum some of his
3400 posts are in his thread called Ethanol Plant.
He grows so much corn that he shows pictures of his and hers matching
full blown tractor trailers (one for his wife) delivering 28 tons of corn each - at a clip.
Now THAT is growing some serious corn.
Old Bill ain't lyin.

Just assumed he was with the Chris and Kristin Olson Weather Station
KWIBARRO3 near downtown Barron, WI.

The GPS numbers match up with what is shown in the YouTube videos.
Perhaps they go north in the winter to do battle with the winter.

That may be where the 24 Rolls 4000 Series T12 250 batteries are located
in the 12 Long String that we discussed in one of my threads at Fieldlines.

Here he has Rolls 5000 but wants to dump them so there must be a second
Location.
Up North is where he is probably the Engineer like Sunking is as he writes
about here at SPT.
Unless he squeezes it in with the farming and the trucking
at Barron.

At YouTube (Chris Olson Olson Farms) and Fieldlines he is definitely a
Bigtime farmer.

Midnite Solar (Chris Olson Midnite Solar at Google) has Wind Turbine
Installation pictures at Barron, WI.

Chris must have moved the Turbine up North as well.
You can't blame an old detective for getting it all messed up.
There were other things as well.

Bill Blake

Sounds like you have done so searching for his location. The only other data I can add is concerning his yacht which he stated he kept at a marina in Bayfield and that being on the lake has help increase the output of his wind turbine. He also mentioned about his "scooter" day trip to Duluth so I figured he was in upper WI near the lake.

Of course he could have any number of places he calls home.

[Sundetective]

Bill

I believe Chris lives much farther North in Bayfield County close to the Lake.

He has not posted on this forum for a while so is probably very busy with other projects.

I can believe Chris is very busy - indeedie.
Over at the Fieldlines Forum some of his
3400 posts are in his thread called Ethanol Plant.
He grows so much corn that he shows pictures of his and hers matching
full blown tractor trailers (one for his wife) delivering 28 tons of corn each - at a clip.
Now THAT is growing some serious corn.
Old Bill ain't lyin.

Just assumed he was with the Chris and Kristin Olson Weather Station
KWIBARRO3 near downtown Barron, WI.

The GPS numbers match up with what is shown in the YouTube videos.
Perhaps they go north in the winter to do battle with the winter.

That may be where the 24 Rolls 4000 Series T12 250 batteries are located
in the 12 Long String that we discussed in one of my threads at Fieldlines.

Here he has Rolls 5000 but wants to dump them so there must be a second
Location.
Up North is where he is probably the Engineer like Sunking is as he writes
about here at SPT.
Unless he squeezes it in with the farming and the trucking
at Barron.

At YouTube (Chris Olson Olson Farms) and Fieldlines he is definitely a
Bigtime farmer.

Midnite Solar (Chris Olson Midnite Solar at Google) has Wind Turbine
Installation pictures at Barron, WI.

Chris must have moved the Turbine up North as well.
You can't blame an old detective for getting it all messed up.
There were other things as well.

Bill Blake