Complete soler powered home

[Hhh389587]

Hi Everyone
I recently had a 9.6kw system installed I converted hot water to electric will be converting dryer to electric I currently have water baseboards heated by a oil boiler is it worth converting to a electric boiler just for water baseboards heating will a 9.6kw system be enough I had solar panels installed end of July currently have 500Kwh excess.

[azdave]

Welcome but you need to share way more system and location details to even make a WAG at it.

[Hhh389587]

House is 2000 sq ft upstate NY south facing

[bcroe]

Hi Everyone
I recently had a 9.6kw system installed I converted hot water to electric will be converting dryer to electric I currently have water baseboards heated by a oil boiler is it worth converting to a electric boiler just for water baseboards heating will a 9.6kw system be enough I had solar panels installed end of July currently have 500Kwh excess.

You have 500 kWh excess rollover on a Net Metering plan?
Is that your total, or just for a month?

I believe you are using baseboard electric heating? To get an
idea of what you need, look at your boiler energy use in past
winters. Reduce that by the efficiency of the old boiler (might
be 95%) and convert to the equivalent electrical energy. I use
one gallon of propane can be replaced by 27 kWh, more like
25 kWh since electric is 100% efficient.

For example I have about 2000 sq ft (plus full basement) here
in northern IL, I might build up 13,000 or 14,000 kWh of excess
before starting to consume it faster than generated, about 1 Nov.
My total generation for a year might be 29,000 kWh. Your
numbers do not sound like that. To get a lot more out of my
energy, I am using late model, extreme low temp heat pumps.
Most months these multiply my energy effectiveness several
times, dropping close to your resistance heat efficiency only
briefly at the coldest extremes. These have given enough surplus
to keep another (insulated) building at least above freezing all
winter.
good luck, Bruce Roe

[Mike 134]

How much fuel oil have you used the past 3 heating seasons? How old is the boiler? 60% efficient? 80%?

[Rade]

When our OIL Hot Water tank died in February, we just signed a contract for a Generac 13kW solar rig with an 18kW battery backup. We decided at that time to migrate the hot water tank to an electric heat-pump, then looked at our 19 year old oil burning forced-air furnace and said "Hey! Why not go all in?" and had that converted to an electric heart-pump HVAC unit that bolted into the same duct work as the old. Net: Our home went carbon neutral. Our solar arrays came online in early May and we have not seen an electric bill since.

However, that said, we live in Rhode Island. We hit a stretch from June to early August where our home was able to be fully self powered off the batteries over night. That covered the sundry power requirements of the house, the HVAC keeping the house actually quite comfortable, and a solid-state Midea window AC unit in the bedroom for a little additional cooling. Sunset was in the 8PM hour, dawn was sometime around 5AM. I would catch the batteries nearing the low-power threshold just before the sun would start waking up the arrays post-dawn. In the height of Summer, because of the axis of the planet and the azimuth of the sun over our region, the batteries would recharge from 30% depleted to full in 2-3 hours. Energy production would peak at near the system max of 13kW for several hours mid-day. To date, we banked about $500 in energy credit.

This time of year, dawn is after 7AM, and the sun will set around 4PM. The inverter has been in "Clean Backup" mode, meaning that we are not living off the batteries overnight (since early September). If I let the batteries deplete, because the sun is much lower to the horizon, it will take 4-6 hours for them to fully charge. We're just keeping them charged as our emergency power. In early November, we crossed the threshold where the house was using more energy than the arrays could produce in a day, and we have been gradually starting to pull energy from the grid and tap into our energy credit. From my calculations, we will be pulling about 200kW above what the arrays generated during this billing cycle. I'll know by the end of next week. Right now, November 28, when the weather is cooperating and the sun where it at, we are getting a solid 5 hours of energy production a day peaking at around 8kW midday. When the weather is cooperating...

Our home is a Colonial Cape, approximately 1,100sqft of contained living space over 2.5 stories. Relatively new windows, insulation and siding. All factors.

It was a gut-wrenching process to go through. I keep mumbling "Did I make the right decision to go this route?", and I live to track what the daily weather patterns and energy production to try abate any anxiety. Pulled 3 years of electric bills to get an average power utilization per month, etc. Big Mistake #1: Living on the monitoring app. I find myself going "Holy crap! What's running in the house now!?!". But I digress.

The ONE piece of advice everyone on this forum has given me has been: Patience.

I AM very pleased with the migration to the heat-pump units. Our heat pump HW tank went online one month before the solar, and I saw no increase in energy consumption over the oil-powered HW tank. You may want to consider an electric heat-pump boiler for your baseboard heating system.

[J.P.M.]

House is 2000 sq ft upstate NY south facing

Are you asking questions or looking for information?

As Dave suggested, we - and you for that matter - will need a lot more information before we can have any dialog.
Before that, start by providing your proposed electric loads in kWh/yr. and your zip code.
Then read a free download of "Solar Power Your Home for Dummies".
Then do a PVWatts run on your array.

FWIW, even with PV, heating a dwelling with electricity is usually not a cost-effective way to go unless the building is super insulated by design.
I lived in central (Syracuse area) and western (Buffalo area) NY for most of the first 50 years of my life and I'm a practical and I believe knowledgeable fan of alternate energy. Space heating with PV or any solar energy in such areas is a real challenge requiring a lot of planning, education, thought, and as others state, patience.
Reads to me like you put the cart before the horse with your plans.

Take what you want of the above. scrap the rest.

[GoingElectric]

Hi Everyone
I recently had a 9.6kw system installed I converted hot water to electric will be converting dryer to electric I currently have water baseboards heated by a oil boiler is it worth converting to a electric boiler just for water baseboards heating will a 9.6kw system be enough I had solar panels installed end of July currently have 500Kwh excess.

I am like you, switching to all electric, however I live in Houston where I have more daily sun and less cold weather to contend with.

As others have said, you really need to do the math. The hard part is gathering the data, the math not so hard.

I went with a Hybrid water heater (I assume you did basic electric element type, much cheaper). The heat pump types are super energy efficient, but takes a long time to heat, is a little noisy, and the cold air exhaust has to go somewhere (make a second home made refrigerator? )

[Hhh389587]

Yes I got the basic electric water heater and currently changed to electric dryer also waiting until summer to see how it goes then will change the stove to electric also

[GoingElectric]

Yes I got the basic electric water heater and currently changed to electric dryer also waiting until summer to see how it goes then will change the stove to electric also

With the stove, look for Induction Heating type, more efficient.
With oven, get as small as possible, less mass to heat up. Some counter top models will great for all cooking (except the turkey)

Look at Technology Connections YouTube, Alex made a few great videos on energy efficiency.

[bcroe]

With the stove, look for Induction Heating type, more efficient.
With oven, get as small as possible, less mass to heat up.

I have the original house 70s electric range here. Simple, parts rather
generic and easily available. Yes the peak power is high, but running
time is very small. I put my energy meter on it, and found it used less
than 1/2% of my total energy budget. And that heat does contribute to
heating the house half the year, at a lower efficiency than my heat pumps.
Induction Heating has its issues, I concluded it was much better to keep
my 70s range and spend upgrade money on other things.

A lot of cooking here is with the microwave, just as efficient as the
Induction Heating. Bruce Roe

[Mike 134]

I have the original house 70s electric range here. Simple, parts rather
generic and easily available. Yes the peak power is high, but running
time is very small. I put my energy meter on it, and found it used less
than 1/2% of my total energy budget. And that heat does contribute to
heating the house half the year, at a lower efficiency than my heat pumps.
Induction Heating has its issues, I concluded it was much better to keep
my 70s range and spend upgrade money on other things.

A lot of cooking here is with the microwave, just as efficient as the
Induction Heating. Bruce Roe

wrong post