diy solar

diy solar

My build thread

dougbert said:
it is a great feeling. I even have the range on solar. So far this year, the grid's breaker has been off 98% or so since April 1st. 97kwh grid total, with 56 kwh due to charging the batteries a couple of time this month and in Oct via the Chargeverter from the grid, due to more rain and clouds

Since retiring last year, I have been watching and looking for loads in the house to reduce and replace. One is load is my main software development "big" box computer. I have managed to have it turned off most of the time now. Also I have a mini-pc in hand to replace my wife's computer (an older box I used to develop software on) which is an energy hog (4 kwh per day).

seek and destroy energy loads is my game plan now
Click to expand...
I'm past geek on the computer front. I pay for rackspace at a DC for the bulk of it. At home I only have two(2) Synology units and two home-brew VSAN units running VM's on an IKEA shelf behind me (with an orange pi 5 as the 3rd leg of the gluster VSAN). There are two other PC's and I've got two 27" 4K's, one at each desk, There is a 48port Juniper EX switch with 350W of POE, I have 2 or 4 port lags to all the NAS/VSAN units. I put a 20A / 240v twist-loc on the wall it's feeding a 240v tripplite ups (I ran #10 so I can bump it later if desired). In a closet in the middle bedroom I have a 19" wall rack with another 350W 48 port Juniper POE, a Firewall another UPS and some patch panels, along with a DSL and cable modem, plus an LTE backup device. There are two big screen TV's, the LR has an HTPC with an HDHomerun Extend, on 24x7 servicing Emby,Plex, and Jellyfin with various VM's and machines. None of this crap uses enough power for me to hardly notice. I also have TWO refrigerators...

1699752840878.png

Panel Load is from the sensors, Energy Demand is from the inverters, they are in lock step unless I'm on grid.
I'm dumping power to the EV's (RED) from the batteries now at night / in the am based on enough SOC to last until production ramps. The static load between 2300 and 0400 is under 1200 watts. The real loads outside the EV's come from the electric HWH, Dryer, and the HVAC. It's been in the mid-50's at night, in the summer that yellow line is pretty much solid until around 2300 then drops for 15 minute intervals every hour from then until morning.

Might be because I generate and use so bloody much power it seems insignificant, but I've had overnight load dip down well below 1KW. I went ahead and turned off my chargeverter since I got the extra batteries. I'd get a handle on your quiet/static load amount, but you'll pry my compute out of my cold dead hands ;), and it's probably a lot less than you think. I think Tim is right at that threshold as well with batteries, but I'm guessing he's going to want to hit between 100-120KWH. I started bleeding mine for the EV because I was clipping at 1300 when they got full, but with occasional 0 days for weather I'd invest in another bank or two if you can fill them. The lowest production I've ever had was around 40KWH, but for you'se guys' it will take at least a single day buffer, more likely 2 to get closer to 100%. Do you actually get 0 or is it like 3KWH or .... ? ie will more panels help at all when the weather sucks?

If your somewhat geekish, and OrangePi 5b with 16GB/256GB can be had for under $200, and will drive two 4K monitors, extremely snappy, I'm running Plasma on Debian. The newer Ryzen APU's are also extremely performant for normal workloads, When I swapped out two of my older dual opteron 6-core servers for Ryzen 6/12 HE's at the DC I did see the load drop about 200W. I don't really need the PCI lane IO.
 
Sometimes I get an idea for a project. And I just have to build it emidiatly. lol

Back story.
I have a commercial ice maker. And it drains to the outdoors. Last year I had to shut it down for winter. Because the drain froze up, and it backed up in the house. So this year I decided to add a condensation pump for it. So it could be pumped to an inside drain. This way, it could run through the winter.
But every time I heard that pump run. All that I could think was, 16 ounces of clean water down the drain. (yes, I measured it)
Then I started to think about other things that dumped water down the drain. Like the condensation from A/C. (I plan on having several mini splits)

The project.
Collect all of that clean water and put it to good use.
It all goes to a 20 gallon tank that feeds the toilet on the first floor. City water keeps the tank between 5 and 10 gallons, if needed. But all of the Collected water is put in the tank, now.20231115_195005.jpg
I've been tweaking the setup for two weeks. And it's working perfectly, now.
I'll move it into the closet. Once I know that it doesn't need babysitting.
Everything is 12v , from my DC system.
 
dougbert said:
good thinking outside the box - great idea

diagrams please and parts list
Click to expand...
Very simple.
All "free water" is pumped to the tank from various locations.
12v on demand pump feeds the toilet from the storage tank.
Float switch in tank controls solenoid valve. Which let's city water make sure that I always have at least 5 gallons in the tank.
 
timselectric said:
Very simple.
All "free water" is pumped to the tank from various locations.
12v on demand pump feeds the toilet from the storage tank.
Float switch in tank controls solenoid valve. Which let's city water make sure that I always have at least 5 gallons in the tank.
Click to expand...
neat!

condensation water seems to collect other materials too from air, which can accumulate

mixing it with city water should dilute the issue.

nice hack!
 
timselectric said:
Very simple.
All "free water" is pumped to the tank from various locations.
12v on demand pump feeds the toilet from the storage tank.
Float switch in tank controls solenoid valve. Which let's city water make sure that I always have at least 5 gallons in the tank.
Click to expand...
Do you have an air gap or double check valve to prevent cross contamination between condensate and your domestic water?
 
Shimmy said:
Do you have an air gap or double check valve to prevent cross contamination between condensate and your domestic water?
Click to expand...
A check valve.

Actually, I don't have it in current setup. But it will be when it's relocated. Right now the city water pressure and solenoid valve are my only back flow prevention.
 
Last edited:
Oh_Snyt said:
I've been considering dual SPF 5000ES inverters with an autotransformer to provide split phase 120/240. However, I've been concerned with contradictory statements. For example, SignatureSolar posted a video passionately talking about how they worked with the factory to get US version (with no ground-neutral bond), but then later stated that some of the units they subsequently sold were not actually factory configured as per that video. (They had the European ground-neutral bond installed.) (I'm also a bit concerned with the somewhat high idle consumption. It seem better than the 6500 units, but not by much.)

I guess I should ask first if your system charges from the grid at all - or if you are totally off-grid?

How have you dealt with the ground-neutral bond issue?
Click to expand...
I ended up purchasing a Sol-Ark 12k from ShopSolar. Couldn't be happier. It runs my entire (smaller) home.

ShopSolar has at least one more on sale ("open box") for $3999 (50% off!)
 
timselectric said:
A check valve.

Actually, I don't have it in current setup. But it will be when it's relocated. Right now the city water pressure and solenoid valve are my only back flow prevention.
Click to expand...
Y'know I mean it pretty neat, but here at the most expensive time of year I pay less than $5 per unit of water. A Unit is 748 gallons. 4.85 / 748 = .0064/gal. Assuming you manage to recoup a gallon of condensate/day you will be saving $2.33/year, which is less than the cost of 1 of the fittings used in the project. I'm thinking the ROI on this is purely to prove you can do it. Now if we are on a space station, ...
 
ksmithaz1 said:
Y'know I mean it pretty neat, but here at the most expensive time of year I pay less than $5 per unit of water. A Unit is 748 gallons. 4.85 / 748 = .0064/gal. Assuming you manage to recoup a gallon of condensate/day you will be saving $2.33/year, which is less than the cost of 1 of the fittings used in the project. I'm thinking the ROI on this is purely to prove you can do it. Now if we are on a space station, ...
Click to expand...
It wasn't about saving money. It was just an idea I had. And once it was in my head, I had to see if I could build it. The ice maker drain water is easily good for a free flush or two a day. And the location of the tank simplifies the condensate drains of the future mini splits.
I may also add rain water catchment to the system, later.
Mostly just a fun project.
 
timselectric said:
It wasn't about saving money. It was just an idea I had. And once it was in my head, I had to see if I could build it. The ice maker drain water is easily good for a free flush or two a day. And the location of the tank simplifies the condensate drains of the future mini splits.
I may also add rain water catchment to the system, later.
Mostly just a fun project.
Click to expand...
Challenge accepted......plan executed.....feet propped up on stool, laying back in the "good" chair......don't get no better than this.
 
timselectric said:
It wasn't about saving money. It was just an idea I had. And once it was in my head, I had to see if I could build it. The ice maker drain water is easily good for a free flush or two a day. And the location of the tank simplifies the condensate drains of the future mini splits.
I may also add rain water catchment to the system, later.
Mostly just a fun project.
Click to expand...
I think about doing the same thing; rainwater collection is easier to pull off for me though than condensate drains; with one first-flush diverter I could get about 20,000 gallons per year spread out fairly evenly by month. It might make financial sense since our water bills are tiered by use, so 6k gallons is $25/month but 9k is over $50.
 
OffGridForGood said:
Many places the 'rain' water is not as clean and free of debris as people expect...got trees?
Click to expand...
I sure as heck wouldn't want to drink it, but between first-flush diverter, a sand filter, and a little UV sterilization I'm fine flushing it down the toilet. Add in a carbon filter and it opens up a few more human-contact options.
 
Lots of trees, here.
I'm only flushing the toilet with it. So it doesn't need to qualify for potable. But I don't want a ring in the tank or bowl. And it needs to play nicely with the bacteria in the septic system.
 
timselectric said:
Lots of trees, here.
I'm only flushing the toilet with it. So it doesn't need to qualify for potable. But I don't want a ring in the tank or bowl. And it needs to play nicely with the bacteria in the septic system.
Click to expand...
Labors of love! Around here the water is so hard and it's so dry you get a ring no matter what. Artesian wells have been around for millenia, not that tough to do a modicum of treatment to trapped water. I got into a discussion somewhere else about trapping condensate to use as drinking water, someone was thinking to save the third world water supply by trapping condensate. I'm like, don't be ignorant by a ROWPU, but it is fun to bend something to your will with relatively simple engineering. The act of building it often breeds other ideas that are drastically more useful. That's what R&D is all about!:)

I've always said, if you can get city water, get it. Fresh water is one of those things we take for granted here in the states, but having a monitored supply of clean fresh water piped into your home is really a huge win for sanitation, and health.
 
OffGridForGood said:
LOL
Click to expand...
"buy" a ROWPU (Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit for those unfamiliar with the term). Laptop keyboard likes to drop keystrokes. Yea, we are all doing it ourselves because it's fun and interesting, and we want to maybe learn something or figure it out. Just don't spend too much time rolling down an expensive path that won't accomplish your goal. Keep the "stupid tax" to a minimum and its more fun. Getting an actual ROI, even if its the satisfaction of making it work with stuff you had laying around, is the reward that keeps you motivated to try other things.
 
ksmithaz1 said:
"buy" a ROWPU (Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Unit for those unfamiliar with the term). Laptop keyboard likes to drop keystrokes. Yea, we are all doing it ourselves because it's fun and interesting, and we want to maybe learn something or figure it out. Just don't spend too much time rolling down an expensive path that won't accomplish your goal. Keep the "stupid tax" to a minimum and its more fun. Getting an actual ROI, even if its the satisfaction of making it work with stuff you had laying around, is the reward that keeps you motivated to try other things.
Click to expand...
Yeah we all do it, RO is (by far) the highest energy cost per unit of produced water available, however sometimes there are few options.
There would be no ROI for RO even if the power was free.
Had to laugh, the two comments were just too close together to let it go! ;)
 
OffGridForGood said:
RO is (by far) the highest energy cost per unit of produced water available, however sometimes there are few options.
There would be no ROI for RO even if the power was free.
Click to expand...

Ocracoke Island has had nothing but desalinized water since before I can remember, basically a city wide RO system. It's very expensive compared to pump and filter, but not so outrageous, as to be non-viable, since even water produced via RO is not that costly compared to an overall household budget. It's just when you are used to paying $5 for 750 gallons of city water and now it's $40 for that same amount you kind of go huh? Your overall water charge on your bill shoots from $20 to $150 you start paying more attention to water use, but as you said, sometimes there are no other options. Many of the houses here in Phoenix have "Whole House RO" systems, albeit being fed with fresh city water to reduce the hardness and improve the taste, rather than being fed pond sludge to make it drinkable. I wrote a couple of research papers for school on water when I lived in Virginia Beach moons ago, I think they ended up with a pipeline to pull it from Lake Gaston in Carolina, but the wells were proving inadequate to meet the city demands, they were actually picking up saline in some of the wells at one point from over-pumping. Lots of iron in the groundwater. Potable water sourcing can be interesting.
 
If you look at companies that support rainwater harvesting they offer multilevel filtration systems.

Having filtered water on camping trips there are specific filters available. Because certain bacteria are persistent treatments are often added.

Sometimes UV light can be used.

Squirrels can often be seen on rooftops. Their byproducts can sometimes wreak havoc on the digestive system.

While not as common there are also viruses that can evade larger filters.

There are companies that provide water testing for those that are interested. Even a common well has the potential to include chemical run off from surrounding areas within the aquifer.
 
Sorry, I haven't read this whole thread, but was wondering did you add onto your battery bank with those new cells yet? What is your capacity now in KWh?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

R
My Off grid Growatt 6000 ES Plus build.
Replies
10
Views
664
rd400f
R
M
Off grid solar invertor won't turn on when sun is up
Replies
4
Views
329
MarkPluto
M
A
Charging battery full priority
Replies
1
Views
148
sunshine_eggo
sunshine_eggo
B
SPF 6000 ES plus. 120 vac Neutral to ground voltage on output load panel fed from solar edge auto transformer
Replies
20
Views
1K
Bigbadben
B
B
Is there a 4000W propane inverter with 2-wire start?
Replies
4
Views
327
Supervstech
Supervstech

diy solar

diy solar
Back
Top