Anyone else turn off PV on purpose?

[OM617YOTA]

I have a modest system, and yep, I've turned off my panels, just so the batteries cycle a decent amount, instead of cycling 100%-75-100-75 etc.

One of the weird ways I burned up extra power was running an electric hot plate and boiling water for weed killing. Cooks the weeds, and completely non-toxic. Labor intensive, though.

Thought about an EV or PHEV, but the numbers don't work, and I don't like any of them enough to buy one even though the numbers don't work. If the Edison guys build a pickup truck, I'll buy one.

 

[Solarcabin Channel]

If the Edison guys build a pickup truck, I'll buy one.

I like those Chinese mini truck EVswith the tilt bed. Wish they were sold over here, I could charge that up off my small system and only need it a few times a month for hauling stuff around the homestead.

 

[OffGridForGood]

no, never turned off the PV, with the exception of safety, while upgrading some wiring and fuses.

 

[Crowz]

If you were sitting in one with an ice cold beer right now you wouldn't be saying that!

I actually agree and a traditional hot tub is a huge waste of energy. I made a Japanese soaking tub out of a 75 gallon cattle trough and use passive solar to heat it and it is actually for bathing and is emptied after use.

There is a bunch more energy use than just heating the thing. The jets, heat and circulation pump combined are beyond belief power hungry.

 

[OffGridForGood]

There is a bunch more energy use than just heating the thing. The jets, heat and circulation pump combined are beyond belief power hungry.

when you realize you need a 60A 240 breaker to supply it, time to ask youself "Why"?

 

[Shimmy]

There is a bunch more energy use than just heating the thing. The jets, heat and circulation pump combined are beyond belief power hungry.

How much energy per day do you use in the summer on it? (vs hours of use?) Yard is too small for a pool and I am contemplating a swim spa that would get ~2 hours of use per day swimming in the winter and primarily as a plunge in the summer. Won't need heat.

 

[toms]

Setting a reminder to follow up in 15 years

Mine are coming up to 13 years, I’ll see how they are going in a couple more ?

I have contactors on the PV inputs to my DC coupled chargers, they disconnect in the event of a cell or pack over volt.

 

[Crowz]

How much energy per day do you use in the summer on it? (vs hours of use?) Yard is too small for a pool and I am contemplating a swim spa that would get ~2 hours of use per day swimming in the winter and primarily as a plunge in the summer. Won't need heat.

12 kwh PER DAY when used a good bit. I got it down to 6 kwh when I added a timer to the heater part.

Things are evil.
Fun to have but evil power wise.

 

[Nobodybusiness]

Get an ebike, use more electric cooking appliances, get a hot tub, dump that load in to a water heater, charge up power stations for camping and emergencies.

In summer my batteries are full by 10AM usually so I run my microwave and washer and charge the ebikes and run the evap cooler off the excess.

In winter they charge by noon and I run a dump load to a small IR quartz heater and recharge any low power stations to have for those low sun days and to run my electric snowblower.

Some days if everything is full I just sit and smile at the read outs and be thankful for a system that works.

Yea my batteries in Summer get charged early.
They definitely will now that I expanded panels to cover all winter.

Need to devise a dump load.

I have the ability through the GEN port but no actual load to dump too.
Need to come up with one.

 

[tomy2]

Will says to discharge your lithium batteries to zero , how can you do that? my EG4 batteries BMS won't let me go below 5%. and when they are less than 20%, the warning lights start flashing. which makes me feel uncomfortable

 

[n2aws]

48v electric golf cart. with an anderson powerpole plug. plug it into your existing bank to recharge it. LiFePo has a pretty flat voltage curve, so there is a large "SOC" difference you can have, while voltages are still close enough to connect them. Otherwise, let your solar power the golf cart charger.

Dual purpose. Drive it around your neighborhood, do neighborhood watch, get to know the neighbors, pick up litter, etc.

But also, you now have additional battery capacity by plugging in the anderson powerpole. So, should you be expecting a storm event or in an extended outage.. you can park the cart, plug it into your existing bank, and have additional capacity for the house. (And potentially 30 miles of transportation in the cart if things are really bad)

 

[timselectric]

Will says to discharge your lithium batteries to zero , how can you do that? my EG4 batteries BMS won't let me go below 5%. and when they are less than 20%, the warning lights start flashing. which makes me feel uncomfortable

You're taking it too literally.
You don't have to discharge to zero.
It just doesn't hurt anything, if you do.

 

[teal95]

Our swim spa basically doubled our electric usage.

 

[LydMekk]

Turning off my PV would be heresy!
Why would I ever do that?
Atleast the installation can minimum trickle maintain your batteries.

 

[Donny Hucklebuck]

Off topic just a comment on swimspa I just winterized my hot tub cut my electric by a third
My hot tub is fairly new 2 years, it has a circulating pump and wifi that run 24 7 about 195w. At idle
I haven’t tested while running, and don’t care to

 

[Shimmy]

Our swim spa basically doubled our electric usage.

Thanks! Do you heat it and how many hours a month is it used for swimming?

 

[teal95]

My daughter lives in it in the summer. It's rarely used in the winter. Last year we did drain it and paid to have it winterized. They failed so I had to replace the ozonator and the UV unit. Not sure if we'll drain it this year. I'm fully occupied with getting a mini split installed and finishing my solar build.