How did your solar fare during the January '24 freeze?

[ksmithaz1]

80….?… hell I start heat stressing at about 75…
.at 80 degrees I go looking for a place with dim lights and beer signs in the window…
can’t take that kinda heat no more…

75? You must mean 75C? Yea 75 is pretty hot, doesn't get much over "45" here sounds like you are in an oven ?. . . Rainy here today, accumulations of < 0.1" for the next few days, just gloomy and damp.. This will be the worst stretch of output since I put in the panels. 24KWH yesterday, will not make it to 15 today. I might have to pay some of those peak 0.11/kwh rates tomorrow.

 

[JRH]

75? You must mean 75C? Yea 75 is pretty hot, doesn't get much over "45" here sounds like you are in an oven ?. . . Rainy here today, accumulations of < 0.1" for the next few days, just gloomy and damp.. This will be the worst stretch of output since I put in the panels. 24KWH yesterday, will not make it to 15 today. I might have to pay some of those peak 0.11/kwh rates tomorrow.

75F …..we Americans still use old fashion temp numbers up here in tha hills…

 

[Crowz]

6F was the lowest it got here. The heatpump in my computer room is the fancy one with built in backup heat and has worked flawless thru it all.

The older ones without the backup heat do nothing at these temps. They sit there is that "warmup" phase and never actually start heating. I guess I need to make sure all future units have backup heat.

Grid never went out so I never ended up running on battery power any.

 

[tomy2]

80….?… hell I start heat stressing at about 75…
.at 80 degrees I go looking for a place with dim lights and beer signs in the window…
can’t take that kinda heat no more…

75-80F is the sweet spot here in CA. But we have low humidity . you guys must be in the South or East.

 

[JRH]

75-80F is the sweet spot here in CA. But we have low humidity . you guys must be in the South or East.

Both…and on a mountain.

 

[OffGridForGood]

75-80F is the sweet spot here in CA. But we have low humidity . you guys must be in the South or East.

North,
NW Ontario, the Relative Humidity runs between 45-100%, but most of the time 65-75% all year round.

 

[EastTexCowboy]

ours is 38 cents now and will go up to 50 cents this summer . I need to get more battery before then. I need one that can go outside, at least 15 kw, if anyone knows of deal on one.

No personal experience with them but Signature Solar and Current Connected sell the EG4 Power Pro, which is rated for outside. I referenced that one earlier hoping Markus with EG4 would give us a report on how his fared during the freeze.

 

[rhino]

No personal experience with them but Signature Solar and Current Connected sell the EG4 Power Pro, which is rated for outside. I referenced that one earlier hoping Markus with EG4 would give us a report on how his fared during the freeze.

I wasn't thinking it would have a problem with the cold since it has a built-in heater, I would have been more concerned with it not having an active cooler for summer

 

[Bleedingblue]

I have 19kw in solar panels, 148.8 KW in lithium for a 2000 sqft house.
Heat with a osburn fireplace insert. Temps got down to 0 with windchill down to -15. Hasn't been above 32 in 10 days now. Never worried about cold temperatures in the house. It was hot! I had to open the door a few times to lower the temperature. I even have old metal windows that has ice on em lol.
I have yet to see my panels above 50% with a full day of sun in the winter in 2 years. Even with back to back days of full sun. Normally in the winter here we might have 4 or 5 days of sun a month.

I'd like to at least double my battery bank to 300,000WH minimum and up my panels to 40kw.
Also get a genny with a 1000 gal propane tank. Genny needs to be able to power everything and charge batteries. So maybe a 20k?

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

I see we have another competitor: who gets to 1MWh first!

 

[tomy2]

I'd like to at least double my battery bank to 300,000WH minimum and up my panels to 40kw.

you must live close to the North Pole! if your not using battery for heat, why so much? I use 80% of my solar power for heating and cooling.

 

[tomy2]

I see we have another competitor: who gets to 1MWh first!

Really! these people must have money to burn....

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

Really! these people must have money to burn....

I was actually semi-serious. A 1MWh container in my case would mean no more generator, and run the entire winter off of energy stored in summer. With the way prices are evolving (see https://diysolarforum.com/threads/l...-kwh-within-6-months.76812/page-9#post-985550) it is becoming quite feasible.

 

[tomy2]

I was actually semi-serious. A 1MWh container in my case would mean no more generator, and run the entire winter off of energy stored in summer. With the way prices are evolving (see https://diysolarforum.com/threads/l...-kwh-within-6-months.76812/page-9#post-985550) it is becoming quite feasible.

Sure, where you live. Down here at 30 degrees, it sounds crazy. Although, our latest 17% jump in electric rates convinced me that I need more battery.

 

[EastTexCowboy]

I have 19kw in solar panels, 148.8 KW in lithium for a 2000 sqft house.
Heat with a osburn fireplace insert. Temps got down to 0 with windchill down to -15. Hasn't been above 32 in 10 days now. Never worried about cold temperatures in the house. It was hot! I had to open the door a few times to lower the temperature. I even have old metal windows that has ice on em lol.
I have yet to see my panels above 50% with a full day of sun in the winter in 2 years. Even with back to back days of full sun. Normally in the winter here we might have 4 or 5 days of sun a month.

I'd like to at least double my battery bank to 300,000WH minimum and up my panels to 40kw.
Also get a genny with a 1000 gal propane tank. Genny needs to be able to power everything and charge batteries. So maybe a 20k?

Depends on your load on the gen size. We have a 27kw Generac that runs on NG. It has no problem running everything but I think a 20kw would probably do so most times. Especially now that we have the heat pumps.

 

[EastTexCowboy]

I wasn't thinking it would have a problem with the cold since it has a built-in heater, I would have been more concerned with it not having an active cooler for summer

Good point. I'm not sure how they handle that but it does have a temp rating for outside, all seasons. I don't recall the high temp rating but it should be in the specs.

 

[mactech]

The cold weather blew-out my 24v solar charger with over-voltage. Even the manufacturer said it should have never reached 150vdc let alone render it useless. Fortunately I had a backup and this was a secondary array.

That was the only day in January we had sun, until yesterday.

 

[kanelr]

So its good to read of these "adventures". OUR Glitch was weird and can someone weigh in on it? As far as I can tell the water in the sump crock got so cold the sump pump had a starting problem and tripped a safety. In the attached monitor screenshot you see the pump kick on about once an hour, then an failure, then the inverter shuts off (safety) and the battery bank reacts accordingly. Thoughts? what else could it have been it was middle of night. No other motors or loads activated. refrig is 6 A sump pump 8A starting surge, runs at 4-6A

 

[Mattb4]

So its good to read of these "adventures". OUR Glitch was weird and can someone weigh in on it? As far as I can tell the water in the sump crock got so cold the sump pump had a starting problem and tripped a safety. In the attached monitor screenshot you see the pump kick on about once an hour, then an failure, then the inverter shuts off (safety) and the battery bank reacts accordingly. Thoughts? what else could it have been it was middle of night. No other motors or loads activated. refrig is 6 A sump pump 8A starting surge, runs at 4-6A

My guess is simply your battery capacity had declined overnight enough the voltage droop during the sump pump start was too much for the inverter. When voltage drops current rises.

 

[Bleedingblue]

you must live close to the North Pole! if your not using battery for heat, why so much? I use 80% of my solar power for heating and cooling.

I have 3 shops I'm also supplying power too. And you also have water to heat, cooking, clothes washing etc etc etc.

When in the winter it's cloudy and produce no more than 10 kw in a day if your lucky your going to run out easily. I had snow and ice on em that would not clean off. Had to wait until it melted. In the summer if it's sunny I have no problem with electric.
You must live in a place that's not cloudy and rainy in the winter