James,
If I may add some more? I started with a 4 decade old all electric home somewhat like
you. Of course do what you can to minimize heat loss. After I moved in, I noticed the
electric meter was just sailing around to the tune of 300W (every hour of the year, annual
2600 KWH) with everything turned off, fridge and furnace not running. Using a Kill-A-Watt
meter over a couple years, the phantom loads (using power when turned off) were tracked
down. It was a hundred small things. Poor efficiency control transformers for the door
bell, garage door openers (3), furnaces (2), printers, older TVs, smoke detectors, CO
detectors, and other electronics, battery maintainers, more. The trans in the microwave
actually used more energy in the off state, than was used for a few minutes cooking each day.
My fridge-freezer was found to be using 2.4 KWH a day. I replaced it with an identical
looking Energy Star unit using 1 KWH a day. By replacements, modifications, and simple
turning off, I was able to pare phantom loads down to about 60w, for things like GFIs and
security devices. Repurposing scrap happens a lot here too.
The main problems here are minimizing energy use, and generating that much with
solar. Small wind can contribute little for most locations. The Mini Split heat pump technology
has dramatically reduced my HVAC energy consumption. Some here can operate down
to -25 deg F with a 25 SEER. Others with a -13F limit are 33 SEER. Some mini splits can
be run directly from solar panels (covers outages) or from the line.
OcHpN.JPG
Solar panels can generate lots of KWH, this one does 28,500 KWH annually even under
ILL clouds. The energy is not of much use unless it is available when needed. You will
discover the amount of energy batteries can store is tiny, for me my net metering storage
is infinite, free, zero maintenance, and 100% efficient.
Ap18PV1.JPG
Trackers are a lot of trouble for a sizable array, esp for extreme weather. My fixed array
was designed around performance under clouds, but I claim it out performs a tracker by
using extra panels.
The only batteries here are hand held or for starting Internal Combustion engines. If
outages are not too extensive, a generator will very simply cover them. It will be needed
anyway for a battery plant.
I would be very cautious of running space heaters on extension cords, even if the ratings
seem OK. Subject to long, heavy use, contacts warm up, oxidize, warm up more and
so on till failure. I once observed an extension send flames a couple feet in the air
(fortunately outdoors) while carrying a big but legal (?) load.
By all means do it your way, but safely. And have fun. Nobody EVER accused me of
being conventional. But do thorough research to benefit from others, and less from
spending your own money.
good luck, Bruce Roe
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See/reread Littleharbor's post several times, especially #1. Avoid sales pitches and pay attention to reality.
Depending on how serious you are, the following order of priorities will produce the most use reduction which is the first step taken before any serious attempt at lower energy bills:
Then, get on a war footing with energy use:
- Turn stuff off.
- Turn stuff on only when needed.
- Try not to need to use stuff. Instead, and before turning something on, use your head and some of what you'll learn from doing # 1 of Littleharbor's post.
- For tasks that can only be done using electricity (food preservation, lighting, communication, etc.) find energy efficient appliance, but be mindful of high(er) initial costs that can make such chaneouts cost ineffective. Then, avoid using those appliances as much as possible.
- Do not use electricity for tasks that can be done by other energy sources. For example, heating water, or most anything with electricity is the thermodynamic and cost effective equivalent of cutting butter with a chain saw.
Before you do anything else, depending on how serious you are about it, learn about PV and residential applications. What you have now looks like and probably is a lot of fun, and while it's hard to impossible to offer serious and helpful particular comment from a few paragraphs and a photo, it sounds (reads) and looks like you need more education in the basics and practical aspects of residential PV applications.
Welcome to the neighborhood and the forum of few(er) illusions. Or, try the brand X forums if you want less candid comment.Leave a comment:
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I live in (cold winter) northern ILL in an all electric home. Without a doubt the best way to
accomplish this is with net metering, no batteries. Burning wood works for some, I do not
care for that labor intensive, constant attention, dangerous method.
There are energy star appliances where they can help, but the key is matching up the
energy generation to use. That means knowing how many KWH are involved for each
item. Today my latest Mii-Split heat pumps with up to 33 SEER are saving huge amounts
of energy. There exist units directly powered by panels, with line backup if you have line
outage issues. It all works, minimum attention, no panel tracking or troublesome batteries.
Read all about it here. Bruce RoeLeave a comment:
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1. You have a lot of reading to do.
2. Time to sell all your electric appliances that could be operated on gas.
3. While the array in the photo looks nice you will get very little power from those large panels with the small ones shading them.
4. There's a lot more about your set up that's wrong that without being corrected will result in premature failure, if not an outright flaming disaster .
5. When in doubt, go back to #1
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Off the grid in SoCal
Hello folks,
After a couple $270 power bills over the winter to keep my ALL electric house warm, I installed a wood burning stove (my second one) and decided to build my own solar system. My only requirements were to not touch the existing on-the-grid house wiring so I can "call" it a back up, emergency system. Especially since my power has went off over a dozen times in the last year (long story). I wanted to be able to plug in a few extension cords and power up my "usual 110V stuff" like the swamp cooler, fridge, space heaters, washer, tv, internet, light, coffee pot, microwave, etc and my 220V stove and dryer when the power shuts off regularly. I also wanted to be able to track the sun east to west and the north to south azimuth somehow to get the maximum out of my panels. The two month build by myself was ever changing as I came across deals on the parts and learning just enough knowledge to be dangerous. After my Frank Sinatra I DID IT MY WAY, I've ended up with two separate, pieced together, off-the-grid systems.
System #1 is finished and online 24/7: 450W from 9 (3 new, 6 used) Grape poly 12V/50W RV panels in parallel, three Grape 10A PWM CCs on battery 1, 4, and 8, eight 29DC 12V batteries in parallel and a 1500/3000W 12V to 110V modified sine wave car type inverter on battery number 4.
System #2 is still a work in progress but I have all the parts now finally: 1860w from 6 used REC 36v/310w poly panels in parallel, one (so far) 36V/60A MPPT CC, 12 29DC 12V batteries in sets of three in series all joining in parallel at the inverter, and a 1500/3000W 36V to 220V pure sine wave Reliable inverter.
I'm still working out the tracking system. The panels frame is mounted on three posts and pivots for east west tracking and the posts can be moved up and down for the north south azimuth. For now, I'm manually tilting and locking down the panels 3 times a day. The goal is to set up a non-electric, ancient gravity/hydraulic tilting system that I can set in motion once every morning in 5 minutes and forget it. Or just leave it locked down flat when I wont be home.
The 110V system powers up most of my "usual 110V stuff" that are within a few feet of each other. The 220V system is going to power up the stove and dryer one at a time hopefully. And, I'm splitting off a 110V from it to run the finicky microwave with pure sine wave and the swamp cooler because of it's remote location. Cant wait to have that system up and running this week with a little luck and good weather.
My TV let's me know, long before the 110V inverter builtin warning does, that my batteries are getting low because the TV shuts off when the fridge kicks on. When that happens, I just swap one 6-way 110V plug and I'm back on the grid.
I stayed within my arbitrary budget of $3000 and ended up with 2.31KW, hoping to say goodbye to the power company 90% of the time. The 20 new batteries alone were 2 grand with tax after giving Walmart and Pep Boys (Price matched Walmart) 20 old battery cores I already had in old cars and trucks out back. I have a lot of junk. I bought good used panels wherever possible. I built the frame out of old scrap I had laying around out back on my two acres, including using two old aluminum sail boat masts for the frame's backbones. I stole car battery cables and made my own battery cables out of several old jumper cable sets double, tripled and quadrupled up and 100A aluminum supply wire that I had left over from when I handbuilt my house over 30 years ago. I'm old.
My only regret is that I didn't do this 30 years ago. Better late than never.
I'm also I may try to build two wind generators out of old ceiling fans I have, since it so damn windy out here.
Now I'm gonna read all your posts over the summer and realize all the things I did wrong. Several of my so-called friends have conned me into building solar systems for them. I guess I better learn how to do it right, for them.
James
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