Crazy things you do with excess power

[timselectric]

I rarely do anything useful with excess production.
I do things like put heating in a war with cooling. Or take ice from the machine and melt it in the microwave.

 

[green mountain boys]

It is coming up on maple syrup season. The sap was running like a fire hose today with the record warmth and sun. It takes a whole lot of energy to make a gallon of maple syrup. I have never seen it done with solar but someone has to be the first.

 

[wattmatters]

Our excess just gets exported for bill credit.

Not that we have a lot of excess. This Summer so far (since 1 Dec 2023) we've generated 3.980 MWh and consumed 3.375 MWh (85%) of it.

 

[Zwy]

Oh man, this sounds miserable.
I live in florida. My father-in-law keeps his air conditioner set at 80F. I dread going over there, because I end up sweating the whole time and need a shower when I get home.

When heating in the colder months, the humidity is much lower. I like high 70's in the house during the day and evening. Sleeping I like under 70°F.

Come summer when humidity is 85% and dewpoint is the same as outside temp, it is 68°F in my house.

 

[Zwy]

I dump any excess I can this time of year into home heating.

Makes it very comfortable in the house so I can sit on the couch in my undies eating Cheerios watching Gunsmoke reruns.

That is a joke, first I don't have enough time to sit around in my undies but you asked for crazy.

The saying comes from an industry forum I belonged to for over 20 years. In the Management forum the joke was if the consumer doesn't want to pay much, one could sit on the couch eating Cheerios watching TV and go broke that way instead of working for nothing.

 

[OffGridForGood]

It is coming up on maple syrup season. The sap was running like a fire hose today with the record warmth and sun. It takes a whole lot of energy to make a gallon of maple syrup. I have never seen it done with solar but someone has to be the first.

And be sure to make a vid and post it GMB!

 

[BigDoug]

None of this is crazy, but these are things I do:

It takes planning and things to go right, but I will bake bread in my toaster oven.
Like others, heating the house is a go to as long as it's needed.
If neither of the above is needed, I'll try to find food to cook that is good for heating up over the next few days.

 

[OffGridForGood]

ok I am boring - I put any excess in the EV.

 

[timselectric]

ok I am boring - I put any excess in the EV.

That's crazy. lol

 

[OffGridForGood]

Hey in my neck of the woods each of those kWh = 71cents of "not-gas" miles!!

 

[rin67630]

This Summer so far (since 1 Dec 2023) we've generated 3.980 MWh and consumed 3.375 MWh (85%) of it.

Usually electricity is metered separately, exported energy is credited nothing or peanuts.
So you cannot make simple arithmetic with KWh unless you really have an old Ferraris meter. (You are producing MWh?).

 

[wattmatters]

Usually electricity is metered separately, exported energy is credited nothing or peanuts.

Given energy tariffs vary widely all around the world I wouldn't make assumptions about such things. Some people (the number is dwindling) still receive more per kWh for their PV exports than their import tariffs.

For us it costs between 20c/kWh to 61c/kWh to purchase from the grid while our exports are credited at 12c/kWh.

But if we can't reasonably consume our PV output, then at least I still get some credit for the excess. It helps to cover the daily service charge.

I see little point in consumption for consumption's sake.

So you cannot make simple arithmetic with KWh unless you really have an old Ferraris meter.

Who said I was?

I know precisely what the impact on our billing is.




Summer here has been very hot and humid and our energy consumption for air conditioning has been higher than normal. We also added an EV at the end of September so that has seen our consumption and self-consumption rate increase.

In April 2022 I moved our water heater over to use a smart PV diverter such that it is all but 100% powered by solar PV, and added the off-grid battery system as well so that much of our evening / overnight consumption is also covered by solar PV generation.

Not everything though, in particular our ducted aircon system which still requires some grid energy, especially at night.

You are producing MWh?

Over enough time, yes.

As I said, that was our PV generation since 1 December 2023 through to yesterday.

In 2023 we generated a total of 17.3 MWh.

 

[rin67630]

Given energy tariffs vary widely all around the world I wouldn't make assumptions about such things. Some people (the number is dwindling) still receive more per kWh for their PV exports than their import tariffs.

For us it costs between 20c/kWh to 61c/kWh to purchase from the grid while our exports are credited at 12c/kWh...

I fully agree with you. You seem to use the metered value from your provider. I just pointed out that some solar vendors considers that the balance import/export per day, best per hour
Most providers split by the second and by phase.
Let's use a simplified example: you have a fridge rated 20Wh and a solar installation rated 1KWh.
Many vendors will consider in their balance that you will always consume your own power.

The fridge does not have a steady consumption. It runs at 200w for a few minutes, then consume nothing
The solar cells will produce very irregularly on casted days, and you will be on import much more than advertised, even if your day's production largely exceeds 2 KWh.

I just wanted to mention that.
That is especially valid for those wanting to jeopardize their excess production with thermostat-controlled appliances: be careful not to end-up with an energy bill for doing that !

 

[wattmatters]

You seem to use the metered value from your provider.

My billing meter is (asymmetrically) net metered at every single moment of the day across all phases.

It's why I have several automatically controllable variable power loads to avoid importing energy where possible while maximising self consumption of PV since that is the most valuable use of the resource.

Water heater, home battery, EV charge station can all vary their power consumption up and down quite quickly to suit the available excess PV output, e.g. like on this day:



Pool pump also automatically operates based on various input factors.

The load(s) I don't have as much control over (other than on/off) is aircon, and when it operates during the evening/night it requires power from the grid. I have considered adding a DRED controller to it, which has the ability to adjust its power demand as well (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) as a means to ride through evening peak tariff periods while using less energy but still at least provide some cooling comfort.

Load control does a reasonable job of staying under the solar PV curve even on days where generation is not so good:

 

[rin67630]

My billing meter is (asymmetrically) net metered at every single moment of the day across all phases.
It's why I have several automatically controllable variable power loads to avoid importing energy where possible while maximising self consumption of PV since that is the most valuable use of the resource...

OK you have the ultimate home automation. My remark was not intended to you.

 

[wattmatters]

OK you have the ultimate home automation.

I wish it were. It's just a mash of things cobbled together but it does OK.

But it is nice to have load automations to use excess energy wisely. That said, in Summer I could use a lot more PV output than I currently have.

 

[rin67630]

I wish it were. It's just a mash of things cobbled together but it does OK.
But it is nice to have load automations to use excess energy wisely. That said, in Summer I could use a lot more PV output than I currently have.

Air conditioners are also unsteady loads, hard to control optimally for own consumption.
Sometimes I think, the best would be to remove the temp control and uses them just as the sun shines.
Getting the optimum is not that easy and adds cost...
That is what most solar vendors don't tell you when they sell their stuff.

 

[green mountain boys]

It is coming up on maple syrup season. The sap was running like a fire hose today with the record warmth and sun. It takes a whole lot of energy to make a gallon of maple syrup. I have never seen it done with solar but someone has to be the first.

I just talked with a friend who is a sugar maker. (Makes maple syrup)
He was up all night last night collecting sap and transferring it to storage tanks so the collection tanks would not overflow. He has over 9,000 gallons of sap. Next he will concentrate the sap by running it through a reverse osmosis machine. Next, the concentrated sap will go into a pan and be boiled down to syrup. Then it will be canned. The RO machine and the boiling process require a huge amount of energy. Solar is probably not a practical option but if you have the excess power? Putting ice in the microwave is not very practical either

 

[1201]

This is bat**** crazy- I sell extra power to my power company. This month they are paying me .079 to sell, .137 to buy.

Saving to battery saves me .109 but overnight I'm only using about 25% of my battery and its full before noon most days.

This month so far I've produced 374kwh and 180kwh has been sold to the poco, which is helping offset the 127kwh I've bought from them.

 

[ScrotusGobbleBottom]

I usually fire up 3 space heaters outside in the winter. Just trying to make it less wintery.