oneandahalflegs
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anyone using this?
I don't want to buy a gas generator!
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I have one. I have the solar add on, so it can tell me what I have used today and what I have produced today. It has a real time meter but the summery is only updated once an hour. It tries to figure out what loads are what, but it has trouble with resistive loads that are close to the same. Water heater and clothes dryer are often confused, which makes no sense because it can detect inductive loads. But overall it is pretty good. I can look at my solar production in real time and know how much sun is shining at my house.
I thought you would like that! It seems many people missed 'engineer' in your background....
oneandahalflegs
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Interesting, let's see I only have three resistance devices in the house. washer, dryer, and dishwasher. for my purpose this sounds like it would work well.
The way they work is that they detect patterns and use those patterns to name the devices. For example my freezer comes on with a big current spike. The size and duration of that spike followed by the running load give it away. But in the summer when it is on for days on end, 24/7, it can't tell the freezer is running....edited....it can tell it is running in the total load but it thinks it is part of "always on" and does not record freezer run time.
In a similar manner, I was faced with the idea of people who are not mechanically inclined to re-fill and start a gas generator twice a day. And the overall cost of gas generators seemed to have more tank volume to cost than actual power- which was really odd.
Still, the choice was a DIY solar generator vs. a gas generator for some very specific things.
I was lucky that the time of cloudy weather was a day, so I could make a massive storage compromise on the batteries for cost reasons.
But when you finally figure out how much energy storage you need to survive 4 days without sun, then you need to look at the solar web sites to determine your nominal sun exposure during the day so that you can size your panels.
To me, the easy part is the inverter. The sum of all the loads at the same time < nominal output and the sum of all things turning on at the same time is < peak. As an engineer, you know that the odds of the latter actually happening is pretty remote, but something you can choose to protect for or not.
The last thing to really consider- do you want to use some of that sun power when you don't have emergencies? For the set up I have, I'll probably power something that is used every once in a while, but I'm tempted to add an auto switch so that I can power one of the things that is part of the emergency set.
In the end, it's just a series of information that you need to compromise for. Just like every other engineering choice you have made in your career. I suspect one of the major factors is cost.
Still, the choice was a DIY solar generator vs. a gas generator for some very specific things.
I was lucky that the time of cloudy weather was a day, so I could make a massive storage compromise on the batteries for cost reasons.
But when you finally figure out how much energy storage you need to survive 4 days without sun, then you need to look at the solar web sites to determine your nominal sun exposure during the day so that you can size your panels.
To me, the easy part is the inverter. The sum of all the loads at the same time < nominal output and the sum of all things turning on at the same time is < peak. As an engineer, you know that the odds of the latter actually happening is pretty remote, but something you can choose to protect for or not.
The last thing to really consider- do you want to use some of that sun power when you don't have emergencies? For the set up I have, I'll probably power something that is used every once in a while, but I'm tempted to add an auto switch so that I can power one of the things that is part of the emergency set.
In the end, it's just a series of information that you need to compromise for. Just like every other engineering choice you have made in your career. I suspect one of the major factors is cost.
oneandahalflegs
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It is defined. Measure phase in progress.
oneandahalflegs
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Measuring.....
Last edited:
Pierre
Somewhere down South
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I like the idea of a gas generator as it is the cheapest and quickest way to get lots of power. I have a 7.5kVa gas
generator setup which cost about $5000 to install. To get similar power levels from a solar install will cost 6 - 8 times
that. The problem is that generators are noisy , piss off the neighbors and are not environmentally friendly.
We use ours in real emergency situations only.
generator setup which cost about $5000 to install. To get similar power levels from a solar install will cost 6 - 8 times
that. The problem is that generators are noisy , piss off the neighbors and are not environmentally friendly.
We use ours in real emergency situations only.
oneandahalflegs
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I am geeking out. I use a machine to help me cough. From the power output I can see how many times I coughed.
FilterGuy
Solar Engineering Consultant - EG4 and Consumers
It is actually pretty amazing (Scary) how much info can be gleened from power usage. My sister has two Tesla Power Walls in a rental in St John VI and it is scarry how much I can figure out about guest activity just from the Tesla app. I feel like I am invading privacy every time I look at the App.
oneandahalflegs
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so glad I have real data. more devices to be found.
theoldwizard1
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There is a very good series on YouTube about a family building and living in a very traditional house, "off grid" ID. Red Poppy Ranch Several episodes cover solar power and everything that goes with it.
The primary author of these wanted all members of his family to feel like they were NOT living off grid. All the comforts of any suburban home. He has MASSIVE amounts of solar panels, a large LiFePO4 battery bank, but purchased a LARGE LP generator to insure that his family all had power. Good thing, because there were days in winter that there was so little sun, the battery bank did not get recharged.
Segue - His water is gravity feed from a VERY large tank high on a hill above the house. It is feed from a slow producing spring and pumped up hill via power from separate solar panels. A couple of times last winter, they ran out of water because there was not enough solar (or the panels were covered in snow) to fill the tank.
The primary author of these wanted all members of his family to feel like they were NOT living off grid. All the comforts of any suburban home. He has MASSIVE amounts of solar panels, a large LiFePO4 battery bank, but purchased a LARGE LP generator to insure that his family all had power. Good thing, because there were days in winter that there was so little sun, the battery bank did not get recharged.
Segue - His water is gravity feed from a VERY large tank high on a hill above the house. It is feed from a slow producing spring and pumped up hill via power from separate solar panels. A couple of times last winter, they ran out of water because there was not enough solar (or the panels were covered in snow) to fill the tank.
theoldwizard1
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Agreed The other problems with ram pumps is they are very loud.
FilterGuy
Solar Engineering Consultant - EG4 and Consumers
Yes.... but they are sure fun to watch operate!
Lol I made one in the backyard wife wasn't happy when I put a water tank on roof and ran pipes to my obnoxious noise maker. But it was satisfying to pump water with water
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