OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
And be sure to make a vid and post it GMB!
Crazy things you do with excess power
- Thread starter DougfromdaUP
- Start date
BigDoug
New Member
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2022
- Messages
- 29
None of this is crazy, but these are things I do:
It takes planning and things to go right, but I will bake bread in my toaster oven.
Like others, heating the house is a go to as long as it's needed.
If neither of the above is needed, I'll try to find food to cook that is good for heating up over the next few days.
It takes planning and things to go right, but I will bake bread in my toaster oven.
Like others, heating the house is a go to as long as it's needed.
If neither of the above is needed, I'll try to find food to cook that is good for heating up over the next few days.
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
ok I am boring - I put any excess in the EV.
timselectric
If I can do it, you can do it.
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2022
- Messages
- 20,087
That's crazy. lol
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
Hey in my neck of the woods each of those kWh = 71cents of "not-gas" miles!!
rin67630
Solar Enthusiast
Usually electricity is metered separately, exported energy is credited nothing or peanuts.
So you cannot make simple arithmetic with KWh unless you really have an old Ferraris meter. (You are producing MWh?).
wattmatters
Solar Wizard
Given energy tariffs vary widely all around the world I wouldn't make assumptions about such things. Some people (the number is dwindling) still receive more per kWh for their PV exports than their import tariffs.
For us it costs between 20c/kWh to 61c/kWh to purchase from the grid while our exports are credited at 12c/kWh.
But if we can't reasonably consume our PV output, then at least I still get some credit for the excess. It helps to cover the daily service charge.
I see little point in consumption for consumption's sake.
Who said I was?
I know precisely what the impact on our billing is.
Summer here has been very hot and humid and our energy consumption for air conditioning has been higher than normal. We also added an EV at the end of September so that has seen our consumption and self-consumption rate increase.
In April 2022 I moved our water heater over to use a smart PV diverter such that it is all but 100% powered by solar PV, and added the off-grid battery system as well so that much of our evening / overnight consumption is also covered by solar PV generation.
Not everything though, in particular our ducted aircon system which still requires some grid energy, especially at night.
Over enough time, yes.
As I said, that was our PV generation since 1 December 2023 through to yesterday.
In 2023 we generated a total of 17.3 MWh.
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rin67630
Solar Enthusiast
I fully agree with you. You seem to use the metered value from your provider. I just pointed out that some solar vendors considers that the balance import/export per day, best per hour
Most providers split by the second and by phase.
Let's use a simplified example: you have a fridge rated 20Wh and a solar installation rated 1KWh.
Many vendors will consider in their balance that you will always consume your own power.
The fridge does not have a steady consumption. It runs at 200w for a few minutes, then consume nothing
The solar cells will produce very irregularly on casted days, and you will be on import much more than advertised, even if your day's production largely exceeds 2 KWh.
I just wanted to mention that.
That is especially valid for those wanting to jeopardize their excess production with thermostat-controlled appliances: be careful not to end-up with an energy bill for doing that !
wattmatters
Solar Wizard
My billing meter is (asymmetrically) net metered at every single moment of the day across all phases.
It's why I have several automatically controllable variable power loads to avoid importing energy where possible while maximising self consumption of PV since that is the most valuable use of the resource.
Water heater, home battery, EV charge station can all vary their power consumption up and down quite quickly to suit the available excess PV output, e.g. like on this day:
Pool pump also automatically operates based on various input factors.
The load(s) I don't have as much control over (other than on/off) is aircon, and when it operates during the evening/night it requires power from the grid. I have considered adding a DRED controller to it, which has the ability to adjust its power demand as well (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) as a means to ride through evening peak tariff periods while using less energy but still at least provide some cooling comfort.
Load control does a reasonable job of staying under the solar PV curve even on days where generation is not so good:
rin67630
Solar Enthusiast
OK you have the ultimate home automation. My remark was not intended to you.
wattmatters
Solar Wizard
I wish it were. It's just a mash of things cobbled together but it does OK.
But it is nice to have load automations to use excess energy wisely. That said, in Summer I could use a lot more PV output than I currently have.
rin67630
Solar Enthusiast
Air conditioners are also unsteady loads, hard to control optimally for own consumption.
Sometimes I think, the best would be to remove the temp control and uses them just as the sun shines.
Getting the optimum is not that easy and adds cost...
That is what most solar vendors don't tell you when they sell their stuff.
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green mountain boys
Solar Enthusiast
I just talked with a friend who is a sugar maker. (Makes maple syrup)
He was up all night last night collecting sap and transferring it to storage tanks so the collection tanks would not overflow. He has over 9,000 gallons of sap. Next he will concentrate the sap by running it through a reverse osmosis machine. Next, the concentrated sap will go into a pan and be boiled down to syrup. Then it will be canned. The RO machine and the boiling process require a huge amount of energy. Solar is probably not a practical option but if you have the excess power? Putting ice in the microwave is not very practical either
This is bat**** crazy- I sell extra power to my power company. This month they are paying me .079 to sell, .137 to buy.
Saving to battery saves me .109 but overnight I'm only using about 25% of my battery and its full before noon most days.
This month so far I've produced 374kwh and 180kwh has been sold to the poco, which is helping offset the 127kwh I've bought from them.
Saving to battery saves me .109 but overnight I'm only using about 25% of my battery and its full before noon most days.
This month so far I've produced 374kwh and 180kwh has been sold to the poco, which is helping offset the 127kwh I've bought from them.
ScrotpusGobbleBottom
Corn Pop was a bad dude.
I usually fire up 3 space heaters outside in the winter. Just trying to make it less wintery.
DougfromdaUP
Solar Enthusiast
I have lots of maples, and have made syrup in the past. I'd love to concentrate it with RO and cook it down. It's just getting it out of the trees is a pain.I just talked with a friend who is a sugar maker. (Makes maple syrup)
He was up all night last night collecting sap and transferring it to storage tanks so the collection tanks would not overflow. He has over 9,000 gallons of sap. Next he will concentrate the sap by running it through a reverse osmosis machine. Next, the concentrated sap will go into a pan and be boiled down to syrup. Then it will be canned. The RO machine and the boiling process require a huge amount of energy. Solar is probably not a practical option but if you have the excess power? Putting ice in the microwave is not very practical either
Living within your means can be odd when the weather changes your means. One of the hard things to do if you are a creature of habit is to be careful with usage one day and than run out and splurge the next. Bipolar solar user. I wonder if there is counseling available?
rin67630
Solar Enthusiast
Be happy: here in Germany they sell the KWh for 47cents and buy your solar KWh for 7 cents, end even that is not sure, most will just get nothing for their export, unless you go through a painful beaurocratic maze.
P.S. and on the top of it, you must pay
-a fixed Subscription Fee,
-a Network Fee,
-a Metering Fee,
-a Renewable Energy Levy
-a Network stabilization Levy
-an Electric Power Tax
-and -obviously- on everything + 19% VAT.
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B-Mod
Solar Addict
Two words...... OFF GRID.
rin67630
Solar Enthusiast
That is -under our latitudes and maritime climate- an utopy.
I frequently have two-three weeks in sequence without any relevant solar contribution: The inverter won't even start.
JBertok
Network Engineer
Natural gas prices are rising parabolically here.
I have a late 90's set of Maytag Dependable Care washer and natural gas dryer. A few months back on a whim I looked at FB Marketplace to see if I could find a matching vintage electric version of the dryer and found the exact model 10 minutes away in immaculate condition for $200. Added another vent stack and ran a 30A circuit from the loads panel. I've got both the gas and electric dryers hooked up, can use both or either depending on time of day and weather.
Next project is to remove the 40 gallon gas water heater and replace it with a gas tankless pre-fed by a new 50-gallon electric that will be a pre-heater. I'll use Insteon and some logic, in conjunction with an output relay from either a MPPT or an XW to divert some excess power to the "pre" heater. If no diversion is available I've still got the gas as backup. In researching this I've discovered that not all gas tankless units can work with a hot input; it has to be compatible with a circulation pump to support that. I've also considered doing two electric tanks, a small one full time powered and a larger one for abundance opportunities. Pretty much anything to reduce the consumption of gas is worth it at this point.
I have a late 90's set of Maytag Dependable Care washer and natural gas dryer. A few months back on a whim I looked at FB Marketplace to see if I could find a matching vintage electric version of the dryer and found the exact model 10 minutes away in immaculate condition for $200. Added another vent stack and ran a 30A circuit from the loads panel. I've got both the gas and electric dryers hooked up, can use both or either depending on time of day and weather.
Next project is to remove the 40 gallon gas water heater and replace it with a gas tankless pre-fed by a new 50-gallon electric that will be a pre-heater. I'll use Insteon and some logic, in conjunction with an output relay from either a MPPT or an XW to divert some excess power to the "pre" heater. If no diversion is available I've still got the gas as backup. In researching this I've discovered that not all gas tankless units can work with a hot input; it has to be compatible with a circulation pump to support that. I've also considered doing two electric tanks, a small one full time powered and a larger one for abundance opportunities. Pretty much anything to reduce the consumption of gas is worth it at this point.
Hadmut
New Member
I have a "no paper no permit" 3kwp thing. Legal but allowed to feed only 600W to the net.
Before having a battery i dumped the excess into the warm water boiler. I did automate that, has been running for 2 years now.
Before having a battery i dumped the excess into the warm water boiler. I did automate that, has been running for 2 years now.
I'm very happy about it- they didn't make me jump through hoops to get interconnected.
There terrible about the roadblocks. Never been to Germany but I always pictured it as a forward thinking country - maybe not
rin67630
Solar Enthusiast
They always have a few taxes and levies advance over other countries...
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