petee_c
New Member
Anyone here do Load Shifting here? Or is there a forum you might recommend to talk / learn about this?
We have a Ultra-Low Overnight (ULO) rate of 2.8¢/kWh in Ontario. It runs from 11pm to 7am. I want to take advantage of it, as we have moved to EV's for our daily cars. We've had 1 EV since March 2023, and just added a 2nd one this week. I figure between the 2 EV's we'll charge about 350-500kWh/ month. This would be super cheap since I usually plug in just before bed. The energy overnight is mostly nuclear and hydroelectric.
To balance the cost out, the utility has created a Peak Usage rate of 28.6¢/kWh from 4pm-9pm M-F. It looks like we use between 8-10kWh/day during this time slot.
I want to transfer that 8-10kWh of energy usage to a battery, and then charge the battery ovenright during the ULO period. Energy use during this time is electric range/oven for dinner prep on most nights, as well as some loads through the dryer. - dryer isn't used every night. Dishwasher can be set on a timer to start after 11pm.
I have reached out to Cdn Victron dealer by email last week, but haven't heard back. I've watched a bunch of videos on the 6000XP inverter thinking I might be able to use that for my needs. So many things to learn.
- DIY battery and 48V BMS. Do they make BMS's that talk to inverters like the Victron or 6000XP?
- Grid power as the generator? Looks like there is a signal from the 6000xp that can turn on a generator? Is their a solenoid like device that I can use to turn on the grid that the inverter can control? - my feeling is that enabling a generator won't help my load shifting goal, as I believe the manual for the 6000XP says that the device will use the gen power and bypass the battery power, and not supplement the battery power.
- Grid Power as Grid Power - see above scenario( which likely doesn't work as I want it to)
- there is also a (MapleLeaf) 6500EX-48V that has passed CSA. I may look at that as well, but I would need 2 of them to get 240v split phase.
- I'm probably going to have to move the majority of these Peak Usage Items to a subpanel and hopefully capture 90%+ of the energy used during this time period. see list below
If successful, and we switch to this ULO rate, we should save about $90-100/month off our electric bill, as well as no more trips to the gas station for the daily drivers.
There is a possiblity of adding a small (5kW) solar array to this setup as well. I would split it between a East and West Arrays, as we have some shading on parts of our southern roof. This may provide us with the needs for most of our house from April - September except for EV charging... This would up our savings to $100-150? maybe during the summer months.
Budget:
$5K Cdn ( $3750 USD) for the DIY 28kWh battery build / BMS / busbars
$5K Cdn ($3750 USD) for electronics (inverter)
If I can keep it under $10K for the home battery setup, Payback should be 8-9 yrs not counting inflation...
Not sure if adding solar will generate enough to make that payback any shorter.
We have a Ultra-Low Overnight (ULO) rate of 2.8¢/kWh in Ontario. It runs from 11pm to 7am. I want to take advantage of it, as we have moved to EV's for our daily cars. We've had 1 EV since March 2023, and just added a 2nd one this week. I figure between the 2 EV's we'll charge about 350-500kWh/ month. This would be super cheap since I usually plug in just before bed. The energy overnight is mostly nuclear and hydroelectric.
To balance the cost out, the utility has created a Peak Usage rate of 28.6¢/kWh from 4pm-9pm M-F. It looks like we use between 8-10kWh/day during this time slot.
I want to transfer that 8-10kWh of energy usage to a battery, and then charge the battery ovenright during the ULO period. Energy use during this time is electric range/oven for dinner prep on most nights, as well as some loads through the dryer. - dryer isn't used every night. Dishwasher can be set on a timer to start after 11pm.
I have reached out to Cdn Victron dealer by email last week, but haven't heard back. I've watched a bunch of videos on the 6000XP inverter thinking I might be able to use that for my needs. So many things to learn.
- DIY battery and 48V BMS. Do they make BMS's that talk to inverters like the Victron or 6000XP?
- Grid power as the generator? Looks like there is a signal from the 6000xp that can turn on a generator? Is their a solenoid like device that I can use to turn on the grid that the inverter can control? - my feeling is that enabling a generator won't help my load shifting goal, as I believe the manual for the 6000XP says that the device will use the gen power and bypass the battery power, and not supplement the battery power.
- Grid Power as Grid Power - see above scenario( which likely doesn't work as I want it to)
- there is also a (MapleLeaf) 6500EX-48V that has passed CSA. I may look at that as well, but I would need 2 of them to get 240v split phase.
- I'm probably going to have to move the majority of these Peak Usage Items to a subpanel and hopefully capture 90%+ of the energy used during this time period. see list below
- electric stove
- kitchen receptacles /lights. Microwave circuit. I believe the Fridge was wired onto it's own circuit. (3-4 breakers)
- dining room lights - there is a small aquarium in there with a 100w heater on a thermostat, 20W of lighting, 20W for filter
- 'family room' lights/receptacles - TV that wife uses, Aquarium with 65Watts of Lighting, 300W heater, 20W filter. home PC is in there too; as well as some Internet stuff
- basement receptacles - extra fridge and upright freezer are there, as well as my gaming PC, and old PC running home network storage - likely 2 separate breakers down there will need to be in the subpanel
- dryer circuit - will train wife to not run dryer while dinner is on. She doesn't want to wait to 11pm though to run the dryer if so needed.
- HVAC? - we have a HE NG furnace with a modulatign DC motor. Not sure if it draws much juice...
- 5 stage modulating AC - House is on AC from late May - early September
There is a possiblity of adding a small (5kW) solar array to this setup as well. I would split it between a East and West Arrays, as we have some shading on parts of our southern roof. This may provide us with the needs for most of our house from April - September except for EV charging... This would up our savings to $100-150? maybe during the summer months.
Budget:
$5K Cdn ( $3750 USD) for the DIY 28kWh battery build / BMS / busbars
$5K Cdn ($3750 USD) for electronics (inverter)
If I can keep it under $10K for the home battery setup, Payback should be 8-9 yrs not counting inflation...
Not sure if adding solar will generate enough to make that payback any shorter.