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

[Bleedingblue]

In the future I'm sure the government is going to ban anything that is not electric. And I'm sure electric grids will be unstable and collapse during peak hours like they do in 3rd world countries

 

[Markus_EG4]

I don't think I've seen any feedback on this thread on systems installed outdoors, but I could have missed it. I'd like to hear how those are faring in low temps. Maybe @Markus_EG4 could give us a report on the EG4s with the Power Pros he installed a few months back?

My batteries help up. I havent added the firmware to keep the heaters on if 32f or lower and My batteries were still working fine.

 

[Bleedingblue]

My batteries help up. I havent added the firmware to keep the heaters on if 32f or lower and My batteries were still working fine.

I'm not sure what he means by outdoors or held up???

Is outdoors like in a shed with no heat? Or outside is having all your equipment batteries and all just sitting in the yard chilling??

My setup is not in my house but in a shop that's not heated or cooled. I built a room for them that is insulated and the inverters running keeps it around 50 degrees in there when it's -20 windchill

 

[Markus_EG4]

I'm not sure what he means by outdoors or held up???

Is outdoors like in a shed with no heat? Or outside is having all your equipment batteries and all just sitting in the yard chilling??

My setup is not in my house but in a shop that's not heated or cooled. I built a room for them that is insulated and the inverters running keeps it around 50 degrees in there when it's -20 windchill

Mine are outside exposed to the weather. 100%

 

[G00SE]

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.

Could one have the gen auto start at a higher SOC so that one can size the gen even smaller? Or run thru a chargeverter directly to the bank
Thinking, if weather is coming in and you plan ahead you can top off the bank before it hits.
Ride out what you can and then kick then gen on at say 30% SOC.
If one was running say 50a/12kw gen to charge the banks, surely the home isn’t going to be pulling 12kw continuously and the bank charging faster than energy depletion?

 

[OffGridForGood]

Could one have the gen auto start at a higher SOC so that one can size the gen even smaller? Or run thru a chargeverter directly to the bank
Thinking, if weather is coming in and you plan ahead you can top off the bank before it hits.
Ride out what you can and then kick then gen on at say 30% SOC.
If one was running say 50a/12kw gen to charge the banks, surely the home isn’t going to be pulling 12kw continuously and the bank charging faster than energy depletion?

I thought about this too, if I had access to Nat Gas this would be a great solution, since the gas is pretty stable even during storms.
Use a generator a bit larger than the average loads, so it can just run steady and efficiently and maintain battery SOC while loads ramp up and down during the day. Get away with far smaller generator, set to run at ideal load through chargeverter...but I don't have Nat Gas...darn it, the lines end about 10 miles south of me and gas co have no plans to expand into lightly populated rural areas.

 

[G00SE]

@OffGridForGood 500gal propane tank outside ain’t a bad backup for many situations including direct plumbed genset. Top off once a year when the prices are low

 

[OffGridForGood]

LOL
I sent the 500Gal tank packing about 20 years ago!
In my area, propane costs more than electric utility, not joking either.
But I have a couple 100lb bottles (back up for my dual fuel genset) and I own these bottles so they can't charge me rental. (yeah there were some bad experiences with the sole propane provider a couple decades ago).
The nice part about propane is long storage stability.
With 100 pounders, I can load them in the pick-up and get them filled by a guy I know for fair price.

 

[Bleedingblue]

LOL
I sent the 500Gal tank packing about 20 years ago!
In my area, propane costs more than electric utility, not joking either.
But I have a couple 100lb bottles (back up for my dual fuel genset) and I own these bottles so they can't charge me rental. (yeah there were some bad experiences with the sole propane provider a couple decades ago).
The nice part about propane is long storage stability.
With 100 pounders, I can load them in the pick-up and get them filled by a guy I know for fair price.

Buddy of mine told me he was renting a place that had tanks but the guy he was renting from didn't own them. Had to buy propane from the company that owned the tanks. Said it cost close to $4 a gal!! I have never paid above 1.70 before. This year I could of paid 1.20 but I was already pretty full. I got a 1000 gal tank.
I bought my tank for $2200 and the new place that bought them out instantly doubled the price of all tanks. I was going to get another one. That's how I found that out.
But for years a 500 gal tank was $1800 and a 1000gal $2200. You know which I'm going to get lol.

 

[EastTexCowboy]

LOL
I sent the 500Gal tank packing about 20 years ago!
In my area, propane costs more than electric utility, not joking either.
But I have a couple 100lb bottles (back up for my dual fuel genset) and I own these bottles so they can't charge me rental. (yeah there were some bad experiences with the sole propane provider a couple decades ago).
The nice part about propane is long storage stability.
With 100 pounders, I can load them in the pick-up and get them filled by a guy I know for fair price.

I've got a couple of the 100 lb tanks from years ago. I still use them occasionally to run a torpedo heater in the shop. What I should do is put an NG heater in the shop but I don't know that it's worth the cost. A project for sometime down the road. And three or four of the 20 lb tanks for various purposes. I have a couple of the Buddy heaters but frankly I haven't been impressed. Tractor Supply here will fill the propane tanks for $3 a gallon. I haven't checked around because I just don't use them much. We are fortunate to have NG so that's how the gen is hooked up. The only other thing on NG is the cooktop. NG is relatively stable here but some folks had problems during the Texas Freeze a couple years ago.

I don't see why the smaller gen theory wouldn't work for most situations. When the temps get in the teens here one chargeverter wouldn't keep up but I could add another one. But practically speaking, the 27kw gen was here when we bought the place and it works great for running the whole house and will run the chargeverter to recharge the batteries at the same time. If it ain't real broke maybe don't fix it? At least for me, it's good enough for now.

 

[Mattb4]

After considerable research and experimentation I can conclusively state the Solar production is near nothing when all it does it rain outside. Colored graphs, charts and complicated math will all be included in my published research paper.

 

[AntronX]

Solar production is near nothing when all it does it rain outside

Gotta have at least 5 watts from piezoelectric effect of raindrops hitting the panels.

 

[Mr onetwo]

I have to agree,
I have thought about the small Pellet stoves built for RV's though,
Looked at the one made by United States Stove Company that has combustion air and direct venting directly throught the wall - was designed for RV installation, I can't recall if 120vAC or 12vDC. Safe to use in the RV I feel.

I went to the US Stove site and look what I found....UL listed and uses NO electricity! https://www.usstove.com/stove/pellet-stove/wise-way-2000-sq-ft-non-electric-pellet-stove/
https://www.amazon.com/US-Stove-GW1949-Wiseway-Non-Electric/dp/B01CT69R5Q

 

[Mr onetwo]

I commented on that video - those heatpumps are still using R410A Refrigerant. Good for cooling, not so much for heating in cold climates. It's being phased out completely here in Europe for a while now, all replaced with R32, which in turn is now being replaced with R290 - much better performance in cold weather compared to R32 - and R32 is already much more efficient than R410A for heating.

R290 (Propane) is refrigerant grade propane, used as an alternative to R22 and R502 in low, medium and high-temperature refrigeration and air-conditioning applications.

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

R290 (Propane) is refrigerant grade propane, used as an alternative to R22 and R502 in low, medium and high-temperature refrigeration and air-conditioning applications.

Yes, but also in heat-pumps for heating purposes in cold climates since R290 heat pumps have a higher COP than e.g. R32 heat-pumps at lower outdoor temperatures due to a higher heat transfer performance.

 

[Mr onetwo]

You are correct....I was just pointing out that it is propane.It has been used in certain applications for many years...nothing new.

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

Oh, sure - but residential use of propane as a refrigerant compared to R410A and R32 is pretty recent.

 

[Mr onetwo]

another non electric option...I am very intrigued https://flameinnovation.com/product/mini-me-pellet-stove/

 

[Mattb4]

Just got done looking at the grid meter for the month Yikes! I used 461kWh. Worse month in a long time.

 

[jsmithtx]

Buddy of mine told me he was renting a place that had tanks but the guy he was renting from didn't own them. Had to buy propane from the company that owned the tanks. Said it cost close to $4 a gal!! I have never paid above 1.70 before. This year I could of paid 1.20 but I was already pretty full. I got a 1000 gal tank.
I bought my tank for $2200 and the new place that bought them out instantly doubled the price of all tanks. I was going to get another one. That's how I found that out.
But for years a 500 gal tank was $1800 and a 1000gal $2200. You know which I'm going to get lol.

Tank prices have more than doubled here in TX too. I was going to put a 1k gal tank in, but ended up with a 500 because just the 500 gal was $3400. Two years ago the 1k gal was under $2k.