Hi friends,
I'm looking to install an ESS (solar and battery) at my house in San Diego. I have experience with RV/marine installations and have built my own 12v systems and prismatic cell lifepo4 batteries, but my understanding of anything related to the grid is especially weak.
Let me know if I'm missing important things and I'll come back and update the post.
Usage
We currently use between 8-25kwh per day, but 30kwh is possible. I'd guess that the highest usage would come on sunny days. We have a gas water heater and stove and all heating and cooling is via mini split heat pump. In the future, we could switch to a heat pump water heater, which would obviously increase our usage.
We also recently bought an EV (Chevy Bolt), which I currently charge at work but which we'll want to start charging at home in the future. I don't mind paying grid prices as long as we're paying the overnight rate. Charging at home would add approximately 25kwh/week, and could be spread out however.
PV Capacity
I'm honestly not sure yet, because the house has a historic designation and the city is not being very helpful in telling us where we'll be allowed to put panels. It's possible that the system will have to be on the smaller side, perhaps as small as 3kw, but the time of day electricity pricing is so dramatic that a battery-only system would still make sense and we might move forward initially without PV (but planning for it in the future.)
Location and logistics
The main panel on the house is 100a. I think that I'd like to locate the battery in a detached garage that has a 40a sub-panel off the main. I'm leaning this way because we may want to use the house battery to charge the EV, which would be the biggest individual load. It's also more convenient to put there because the house is small. I also may end up putting more PV on the garage than on the house, which might also prescribe putting everything in the garage.
Desired features
- Supplement battery + PV power with grid. I'd prefer to avoid using daytime grid power unless either the battery drops to a predetermined SOC or the AC loads exceed the inverter's capacity.
- The ability to quickly and easily adjust whether or not the house battery charges overnight. I'd want to be able to look at the weather for the next day, think about whether I'll want to EV charge midday, and then make a quick adjustment to tell the charger whether to charge the battery overnight. Ideally, I'd like to be able to do this over the internet.
Let me know what you think; what hardware to consider; what I'm failing to think about, etc.
Thanks in advance!
I'm looking to install an ESS (solar and battery) at my house in San Diego. I have experience with RV/marine installations and have built my own 12v systems and prismatic cell lifepo4 batteries, but my understanding of anything related to the grid is especially weak.
Let me know if I'm missing important things and I'll come back and update the post.
Usage
We currently use between 8-25kwh per day, but 30kwh is possible. I'd guess that the highest usage would come on sunny days. We have a gas water heater and stove and all heating and cooling is via mini split heat pump. In the future, we could switch to a heat pump water heater, which would obviously increase our usage.
We also recently bought an EV (Chevy Bolt), which I currently charge at work but which we'll want to start charging at home in the future. I don't mind paying grid prices as long as we're paying the overnight rate. Charging at home would add approximately 25kwh/week, and could be spread out however.
PV Capacity
I'm honestly not sure yet, because the house has a historic designation and the city is not being very helpful in telling us where we'll be allowed to put panels. It's possible that the system will have to be on the smaller side, perhaps as small as 3kw, but the time of day electricity pricing is so dramatic that a battery-only system would still make sense and we might move forward initially without PV (but planning for it in the future.)
Location and logistics
The main panel on the house is 100a. I think that I'd like to locate the battery in a detached garage that has a 40a sub-panel off the main. I'm leaning this way because we may want to use the house battery to charge the EV, which would be the biggest individual load. It's also more convenient to put there because the house is small. I also may end up putting more PV on the garage than on the house, which might also prescribe putting everything in the garage.
Desired features
- Supplement battery + PV power with grid. I'd prefer to avoid using daytime grid power unless either the battery drops to a predetermined SOC or the AC loads exceed the inverter's capacity.
- The ability to quickly and easily adjust whether or not the house battery charges overnight. I'd want to be able to look at the weather for the next day, think about whether I'll want to EV charge midday, and then make a quick adjustment to tell the charger whether to charge the battery overnight. Ideally, I'd like to be able to do this over the internet.
Let me know what you think; what hardware to consider; what I'm failing to think about, etc.
Thanks in advance!
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