Need a way to bottle or can excess solar production.

[Mattb4]

Do you have an EV? Take a drive.

Otherwise just need more cans, lots of them.....

I guess a label could be printed up and I could sell those to people at Football and Hockey matches.
"Full batteries, Get your full batteries"

 

[ScrotusGobbleBottom]

More human-sized example: 100kg weight lifted to 2 meter height is 2 kilojoules or 0.55 Wh.
or about same amount of energy as thumnail-sized CR2032 button cell battery.

Sure is entertaining to think of the possibilities! A whole fully charged CR2032!!

 

[upnorthandpersonal]

I just hit 100% battery on a beautiful day. I hate that (the 100%, not the beautiful day).

Why? Because I only drained down to 50% this morning instead of 30%, which would have probably worked for today.
Stupid weather forecasts are never right about cloud cover.
However, it was cloudy when I got up, so I guessed wrong.

Does everyone wake up and do this, or am I just obsessive about it?

It just means you don't have enough battery. Once you have twice what you need, you can go down to 50% and still be assured you have 100% of the old capacity

 

[OM617YOTA]

Sadly you can not fill up a few 5kWh cans of fuel and hawk them to the Tesla tourists as they drive through. Or sell bottles of kool watts on a hot day to dehydrated joggers and the like. No way to make some easy return.

There are companies working on circulating electrolyte batteries. Maybe some day gas pumps will become electrolyte pumps. Drain off your depleted electrolyte and refill with charged electrolyte, and be able to carry electricity in a can.

More humble(and immediately effective), I boil water with a cheap hot plate and use it to kill weeds in my yard. Kills the dandelions just as well as Roundup or whatever, but non toxic.

 

[42OhmsPA]

More humble(and immediately effective), I boil water with a cheap hot plate and use it to kill weeds in my yard. Kills the dandelions just as well as Roundup or whatever, but non toxic.

Great minds...
Been doing the same thing.
Tried to get my brother fired up earlier (he's owns a lawncare / landscaping company)

 

[summit]

what a "good" problem to have. Our EVs never seem to have enough. My back up plan is to heat/cool the house structural mass

 

[OM617YOTA]

Great minds...
Been doing the same thing.
Tried to get my brother fired up earlier (he's owns a lawncare / landscaping company)

For a pro landscaping company with a severe time limit, I can see it being impractical.

I've heard of folks using steam wands and mops the same way, "torch" the weeds with steam.

 

[Mattb4]

what a "good" problem to have. Our EVs never seem to have enough. My back up plan is to heat/cool the house structural mass

It is 85F outdoors so I am running the back office/BR aircon unit this afternoon. Batteries full earlier in the day so it is entirely solar fed. Not really cycling long since the room had only got up to 75F. But it is a handy test of operation for my new aircon unit and AIO setup. If i did not have the excess power available I would likely just wait until evening to open a window for cooling. The main room is only 70F.

I wonder if solar systems will become the new method for attracting a mate? A nest with power. Though I would not want to worry about an inadequate size PV keeping me from getting the women.

 

[OM617YOTA]

It is 85F outdoors so I am running the back office/BR aircon unit this afternoon. Batteries full earlier in the day so it is entirely solar fed. Not really cycling long since the room had only got up to 75F. But it is a handy test of operation for my new aircon unit and AIO setup. If i did not have the excess power available I would likely just wait until evening to open a window for cooling. The main room is only 70F.

I wonder if solar systems will become the new method for attracting a mate? A nest with power. Though I would not want to worry about an inadequate size PV keeping me from getting the women.

Not sure if we're there yet, but my MIL absolutely loves that I built backup power to take care of her baby. She loved me to pieces already, but this definitely helps.

 

[dougbert]

I have 2 50 gallon electric water heaters. I have cascaded them (see videos below for what I found) so after my battery is full I use the PV power, via the AC inverter to heat the water. By 3PM or so I have 100 gallons of hot water 110F that is fed into my Nat Gas tankless water heater, saving nat gas

this is currently using 120v 2000 watt coils (4 of them) in the electric water heaters. this is left over from when I only had 120v inverter

since I have a 240v XW Pro, I have 4 3000 watt 240v coils ready to replace the 2000 watt ones, waiting for me to "get it done"

THEORY

Solar house generator I started DIY back in 2000 - My path from Trace to Xantrex (on FLA battery) to XW Pro inverters on Tesla Model S batteries

Well I have been working on project plans on upgrading my system, as I have referenced in prior posts. This will all be DIY, just getting the parts will be difficult thing I have come up with 5 phases for the project to be implemented over time as funds become available. Later phases can...

diysolarforum.com

IMPLEMENTED

Solar house generator I started DIY back in 2000 - My path from Trace to Xantrex (on FLA battery) to XW Pro inverters on Tesla Model S batteries

Battery SoC went from 70 to 88% today even with some clouds. That is almost as good as yesterday where the SoC went from 80 to 100% just with the solar panels and did it in 4 hours. Current reached a high of 98 amps today Yet, the clouds started to increase by 2PM and really reduced current...

diysolarforum.com

I have more refined my implemention with much BETTER SSRs, an enclosure, etc

these are 9 years old

caution: if you do this do not use cheap $20 amazon SSRs, I did and burnt one up.
I got 2 $75 ones, with a cooling tower for them in the box

 

[Brucey]

It is 85F outdoors so I am running the back office/BR aircon unit this afternoon. Batteries full earlier in the day so it is entirely solar fed. Not really cycling long since the room had only got up to 75F. But it is a handy test of operation for my new aircon unit and AIO setup. If i did not have the excess power available I would likely just wait until evening to open a window for cooling. The main room is only 70F.

I wonder if solar systems will become the new method for attracting a mate? A nest with power. Though I would not want to worry about an inadequate size PV keeping me from getting the women.

It's the size of your battery not the output of your inverter?

 

[ScrotusGobbleBottom]

I have 2 50 gallon electric water heaters. I have cascaded them

Isnt legionnaires disease a concern with this setup? I was always under the impression that you do not want stagnant water in a water heater. I was researching how to save power on my own water heater and came across this information. It seems even 120 degrees F is not quite hot enough to kill it.

 

[dougbert]

Isnt legionnaires disease a concern with this setup? I was always under the impression that you do not want stagnant water in a water heater. I was researching how to save power on my own water heater and came across this information. It seems even 120 degrees F is not quite hot enough to kill it.

I use the hot water every day for showers, clothes and dish washing. It is INLINE with my normal water heater - upstream from it

water won't stay hot in the heaters for long anyway. I have wrapped insulation around them and extra on top,

the diversion is ON as I type this right now heating the water

 

[pollenface]

I don't see excess solar as being a problem.

I really like mppts which have a float relay function so you can automatically trigger opportune loads once batteries are floating.

 

[dougbert]

I have 4 charge controllers, one for each array. I use one of 4 as the controller of the water heater
Each one has an "AUX" port that has table of trigger operations. One of which is FULL BATTERY. I use that to enable a 12v auto relay, which in turns enables the SSRs, one SSR for each leg

just took some pics of it

the box and 10 awg feeding it. the new 3000 watt coils on the right




inside of box. wired for 120v only at the moment




get 2 of this SSR crydom D2425 $50 on ebay to $70 at other stores



I added 3 AC LEDs, RED means ON, first green on left means 1st water heater is hot, 2nd green on right means 2nd water heater is complete

#10 awg wire again. Added screen heat vent on top




2 pole 20 amp breaker, supports the 2000 watt and will support the 3000 watt coils



top of 1st water heater



bottom of 1st water heater with 1 leg cascading out and back to the box. then it and the other leg go back to 2nd water heater. the 2nd is behind the first. both bolted to wall

I need to diagram the wiring and verify I did things correctly



2nd heater is "back in there"

 

[Nobodybusiness]

Too expensive for all the computer equipment. But in the early days of Bitcoin it probably was a decent idea.

Made sense back in 2010 when I did it but now if you don’t sell and upgrade you fall behind on the difficulty.
That was using ASIC miners.
Never tried with GPU miners.

 

[wdwtx2.0]

I would vote for the solar death ray from The Man With the Golden Gun.
It's fun for the whole family.

 

[DIYrich]

Direct air carbon capture.

Figure out a way to sell excess power to your neighbor.

 

[OffGridInTheCity]

I've gone round and round in my thinking on this over the last several years - the answer is 'a battery'. Lately, I've been dreaming of a container with 60 used EV batteries to store up 4000kwh during summer for use during winter - 1 cycle / year so used EV batteries should last a long time

 

[ScrotusGobbleBottom]

I've gone round and round in my thinking on this over the last several years - the answer is 'a battery'. Lately, I've been dreaming of a container with 60 used EV batteries to store up 4000kwh during summer for use during winter - 1 cycle / year so used EV batteries should last a long time

YES! You and me both!