What Should I Do With Excess Power Off-Grid?

AgroVenturesPeru said:

Most days I top out my 14kwh battery bank before 11am. I thought about doing crypto mining, but my internet is abysmal. Any other ideas?

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timselectric said:

Sit a window air conditioner in front of a space heater and see who wins.

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NnIe of the day award

OffGridInTheCity said:

It crossed my mind but there's liability/trust issues and if someone got wind of a 'power cable' running from my house to the neighbors.... or a neighbor's house caught fire or xxx. Yikes.

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AgroVenturesPeru said:

Since we're growing a lot of fruit trees, we're probably going to be running food dehydrators with the excess in the future.

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HighCountry2020 said:

I currently use 2-50gal water heaters in series. The first water heater I put on a smart load circuit with my sol-ark12k. That energizes based on parameters you set for SOC% like 95% or 100% and also what minimum PV power this can be applied. This reduces the need for the 2nd water heater or last water heater to turn on after dark when people are taking showers. If the day is cloudy than the 2nd water heater will have to run at night. In that case I made that a heat pump water heater so at least it doesn't need 4500w running at night.
Typically my smart load turns on around 11am as well. I'm considering adding a 3rd water heater just to give more storage and maybe go 2 cloudy days but reduce the elements to 2kw in the 2 electric water heaters...The smart load can handle 40amps at 240v max.
I'm considering running hydronic under pex floor heating with these water heaters for supplemental bedroom and bath heat. Also I'm considering dedicated circuits run to each bedroom for an outlet to run a dedicated oil filled heater with thermostat taking maybe 1kw max for each. Lots of options with smart load. In the summer time I'm considering running a pool pump. Much harder to handle excess power in the summer I think unless you can pump water and store it at pressure or pump air and store that at high pressure with a release later to generate power however a lot more complicated. I really don't want to get into chilled water hvac because that is a lot more expensive for commercial off the shelf items than 20 seer heat pump units.
Crypto mining sounds good but am not sure it will be worth it if crypto goes to 0 when the fed coin comes out and or all govs make it illegal.

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AgroVenturesPeru said:

Since we're growing a lot of fruit trees, we're probably going to be running food dehydrators with the excess in the future.

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drspastic said:

mining rigs are giving less return and costing more, also outdated so fast.
but i mine gridcoin so jokes on me!

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WYtreasure said:

How about sharing approximate Latitude & Elevation, so we know if we should seriously suggest heating and/or air conditioning suggestions.
As you can tell, we were having fun while you were away. ?

Geothermal is a great idea.

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AgroVenturesPeru said:

latitude: ~ -6 degrees; elevation: 950m

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WYtreasure said:

Move water uphill.

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AgroVenturesPeru said:

Since we're growing a lot of fruit trees, we're probably going to be running food dehydrators with the excess in the future.

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AgroVenturesPeru said:

I guess that's the real reason why I'm leaning away from the crypto option. Which shitcoin would still even have a chance at being profitable from mining? I don't need excess heat in my house either. Temps are perfect here year round.

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