Best DIY way to supplement my electricity please!

[george57]

Other than your Air Conditioner, which I would guess is a several-ton unit. What other large electrical appliances do you have? I live in Los Angeles so I don't have to use the AC as much as you would, but it is the most energy-devouring appliance I have. I have placed my 23cuf Samsung refrigerator, my 11cuf upright freezer, and my 75" flat screen on solar power. My front load washer and gas dryer also run on solar. I also have a window AC in a back bedroom that can run off of solar to cool down the room for a few hours during the day.

I do laundry once a week. The window ac runs about two-three hours a day if it gets hot in the bedroom. I try to keep the central ac running as little as possible @ 79-80 degrees. A lot of fans. The big TV can be on 5-6 hours a day while the refrigeration is 24/7. That is the biggest source of energy consumption I have, not including the central ac.

Before I had put together my system, I had installed reflective solar window film, every light bulb is LED which made a difference. Since I have installed my solar, I have dropped from over 1300 kWh for two months down to a little over 700kWh. I have my 24v 180Ah battery bank/ inverter charger in the basement. 8-100 watt solar panels on the flat roof on brackets, held down with blocks (ballast) mounting, non-permanent.

To connect the appliances, I ran heavy-duty 12/3 extension cords to my appliances through my crawlspace. You may have to figure out a way to run extensions but this doesn't require electrical wiring or permits. Another way is to place your panels in the backyard on the ground, hook them up to a Bluetti 500 or EcoFlow Pro, or build a hand truck portable power, 500-800 watts of panels and run extensions to your appliances. If you can power your larger appliances with solar during the day that can help cut down on your electric bill.

 

[JLBinTN]

I am a total newbie so please if you reply to me, talk to me like I am a child!

I live in the desert, my electricity bill was $641 this month. I have no interest in leasing a big solar system, or buying a system from the loan sharks!
However, I am interested in taking advantage of the sun and the extra space I have to put some solar panels, if I can get the energy back into my home without having pull permits. Is this possible? Anything is possible, right?

I did a little Googling and You-tubing, but it kind of confused me more! Any ideas for me? Thanks!

The cheapest way to take advantage of solar might be to purchase a small array of used panels for ground mount (4kw for instance), one of the less expensive all-in-one units (Growatt 3000 for instance), a fairly cheap low capacity battery, and use that system to power a mini-split or window unit that isn't connected to your house wiring. You'll get free AC/heat when the sun shines.

 

[LosFelizGirl]

Have you ever looked into these Hotspot Energy HVAC mini-split systems they have that come with some solar panels and a few batteries?

Solar DC Air Conditioning Systems

 

[LosFelizGirl]

I have seen those, it was a few years ago though! I forgot about them and I'm so pissed because We put a split unit in our work studio. SHould have gone w/ something like this.

 

[A.Justice]

I live in the desert, my electricity bill was $641 this month....

For ~2000kwh?! Holy crap. We pay ~11¢ a KWH in TN. Finding another state to live in might be the fastest ROI ?.

 

[LosFelizGirl]

For ~2000kwh?! Holy crap. We pay ~11¢ a KWH in TN. Finding another state to live in might be the fastest ROI ?.

For ~2000kwh?! Holy crap. We pay ~11¢ a KWH in TN. Finding another state to live in might be the fastest ROI ?.

CALIFORNIA, BABY! Yeah...looking to remedy this w/ some solar!

 

[LosFelizGirl]

The cheapest way to take advantage of solar might be to purchase a small array of used panels for ground mount (4kw for instance), one of the less expensive all-in-one units (Growatt 3000 for instance), a fairly cheap low capacity battery, and use that system to power a mini-split or window unit that isn't connected to your house wiring. You'll get free AC/heat when the sun shines.

That sounds like a good idea. I do have a mini split, it's connected to my grid. See my recent post about All-In-Ones. YOu might have an answer for me.

 

[LosFelizGirl]

I haven't tried it, but I saw this video set with good 'ol Engineer775 (Practical Preppers), and he gives a very promising review of this type of system. I guess there is this hybrid setup where it can use grid and solar together to save money, or a bit different setup they sell where you can supplement storage capacity with some batteries in this dedicated HVAC system.

Solar Air Conditioning Part 1:

Solar Air Conditioning Part 2:

And the coolest thing about mini-split heat pumps is they can also do heating for the Winter...

I literally put my split unit in last August so...

 

[Netsua]

OP is in California… As someone that has lived with a somewhat liberal approach to permits and someone that has lived in California (no longer, thank God), this is a terrible combination. You’d be lucky to get away with insulation and other power saving measures without proper permits - I’d certainly focus my efforts there in your shoes.

 

[Samsonite801]

That sounds like a good idea. I do have a mini split, it's connected to my grid. See my recent post about All-In-Ones. YOu might have an answer for me.

Yeah if you have a mini-split already you could go with that idea, to add in a good split-phase inverter setup, some LiFePO4 lithium batteries, some solar panels, going into different (new) household 'critical loads' breaker panel, and move some of the circuits over to it that can handle being on the solar system panel.

If you have one of the central HVAC AC units for the rest of the house, those are big power hogs and I might look into switching more zones of the house over to mini-split as well. My Mother has 4-heads mini-split installed in her house for over 25 years now, and she hasn't used the central HVAC unit ever since she switched and has saved a ton of money (even being on grid the whole time).

And if you can get enough solar and battery to run all of the mini-splits, then your power bill for other stuff would be nothing hardly. Getting AC off the grid takes a decent amount of power to pull off, but the AC is the biggest of the power hogs.

To give you an idea, I have 22 KWh of battery in my off-grid system, and my battery meter always says I have 5-7 days of battery to run most anything (accept for AC)... But when I turn on my powerhog AC, the battery meter drops way down and says it could run for 7-8 hours only. I was thinking of switching it to mini-split, as it would probably double the time I could run on battery.

Mine is in a motorhome and it is a 13,500 BTU roof AC unit. Not sure what your main AC unit BTU rating is. But changing to mini-splits everywhere in the house, and powering them off solar / inverter / battery, could all be done but depends on what your budget is.

You should get familiar with how KWh works, how much all of your power loads consume, how much you want to switch over to solar, in order to figure out how much solar energy you need to collect, how much you can afford to store in batteries (to get through the nights), etc...

You can build a scaleable system that can start smaller, and grow with you as you are able to put more money into it, until someday where you can fully transition into 100% off grid if you want eventually.

That's why I always focus on building with components that allow for scalability, like parallel stackable inverters, and batteries that can easily parallel in more and be compatible, etc... Then you can roll it out in phases.