GXMnow
Solar Wizard
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
- Messages
- 2,713
Even if there are very good NET metering rules, there can still be a benefit to using time of use control with storage. Ideally, you want to store all the extra power you make around "Solar Noon" so you can use it all yourself at night. This way you are helping to make the grid more stable. With so much solar going in in many places, there is a huge surplus of power hitting the grid so the utilities have to reduce generation, but then at night they have to crank it back up as the sun goes down. The more I have read about the "Duck Curve" issue, the more I understand why it is such a problem. Large power plant's work best at a steady rate of production. To take it a step further, it would be very cool to figure out the average energy usage for the home, and dial it in to just pull the same current all day long. As you pull more than needed, it goes into the battery. When demand goes up and/or solar production goes down, the battery pushes power back into the house so the draw from the grid remains constant. I plan to work towards that, now that I have a way to control the inverter with a program.
I may try to read the BMS in the future. With my current setup, I have the inverter shutting down if the battery voltage goes too low. And I have that threshold a couple volts higher than the BMS shut off. I don't ever want the BMS to shut down as it is not a graceful way of dealing with it. If something is going wrong though, I want that there to protect the system. As smart as the inverter is, it has no idea of the battery bank is out of balance. I have thought of a few different ideas on how to better handle a single cell error. This is certainly not something I need to work on now as I have been closely monitoring my battery bank, and the cells are much better matched than I expected since one of my modules build date is a full year older than the other two. With my overall settings not going above 90% or below 40% there is little worry of a cell hitting it's limits. I also do have the Schneider's battery temp sensor connected, so it will also shut down if the battery get's too hot or cold. The BMS turning off is a last resort if something is out of whack.
I grew up north of Chicago, IL. There was a lot to like about it, and I was not expecting to move from the area. When I moved out, I bought a house just 10 miles from my childhood home. Winters could be a bit brutal, but in my 20's and into my 30's it was just part of life. It was a major job shake up that made me move. When I got the offer to com out here for work, It took me a while to decide. In early 2003 My wife and I am our 2 year old daughter packed up and headed west. My office is in Burbank, and it was a culture shock for sure. Finding a home was another issue. I could not live in Burbank. Anything I could afford was a dump. Being brand new in the job, I sure didn't want to have a mortgage I couldn't cover. We found Santa Clarita Valley, and it felt like being back in Mount Prospect. It is a 27 mile drive to my office though, but so worth it. When you drive over the Newhall Pass out of LA it is like going into a different world. The crime rate is way better, the cost of living is reasonable, the schools are way better, the people are actually nice, and even the air is so much clearer. I bought this house after being in Cali just 4 months. We had a second kid and my wife well.... she is now my ex, but that is for another story. I kept the house, and she is in Washington state now. My daughter is now 18 living with her mom and my son is 16 living here with me and my wonderful girlfriend. I can never imaging having to shovel snow again. I don't miss it one bit. We have felt a few decent earthquakes, but I still can't imagine what the Northridge quake felt like, but I like knowing this house survived it with no structural issues. The last few years the fires have been way worse, but the chances of one getting close to my home is pretty slim. The smoke and air quality is a concern for sure, and the odds of losing power are getting worse, so that has driven my thoughts on adding the storage a bit. When I went back and visited my sister north of Chicago, my old house has flooded 3 times, the river is 5 feet higher than it was, they actually raised the bridges. They had an ice storm take out a substation, and lost power for over a week. No matter where you live, there is likely to be good and bad. Now in my mid 50's, I'll take the So Cal life over the midwest. When my kids begged for snow, it was a 30 minute drive up to Mt. Frazier. And it is about the same to hit a wonderful ocean beach. I have been here 17 years now, and I don't plan on moving anytime soon.
This whole Covid mess is certainly testing people and my work is sure screwed up. I am hopeful we can recover and I won't be job hunting, but I do certainly have some options if things go bad. One of my thoughts was starting a company for adding storage systems to existing grid tie solar. From my hunt, it is an under served market. My slowdown at work has allowed me the time to put my system in and use it for study. Only the future can tell where this is all going to lead.
