diy solar

diy solar

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

Wow.. you're doing great, that's massive KW for one day... this summer will be a test, once you fire up those AC's.... how do you like the Jack in the Box so far? Mine's still in the box.. lol
thanks. I did produce 45 kwh on 4/28 when the battery was depleted and had a full sun day, that was a massive charging day

all cooling units are running today FREE of $$ cost,

Salt Lake City is at 4500 ft, and 89F
Here we are at 5500 ft and its 86F

Salt Lake is predicted to be 95 and 97 over the next 2 days

I have:
  • a 20" fan (low) in the attic access door blowing up
  • 2 20" fans (middle speed) in the basement drawing air in from the window well then pushing air through the basement, cooling the air and then upstairs, pushing air to the attic
  • 1 dual 10 fan set (high) exhausting from my living room which vents air hot out of living room draw air from basement flow
  • 1 6,000 btu window AC unit just off the kitchen adding some cool air to that area
that is my cooling system. Being used mostly when the sun is high and I have no place to put the power
86F outside, last year I saw 99F outside
71F inside

One additional feature I have, are those water mist'ers I put over the window well to cool incoming air (swamp cooler effect) - that is for the 100 degree days here, which are rare but show up. Not like Kingman though

Love the Jack-n-the-box greatly - really adds a sense of protection against battery thermal events

Working with a friend who has property at 7200ft on 40 acres and will be building a house up there someday
He is in a 5th wheel (lived there this past winter)l and we just discussed how he can put a similar system to mine in his trailer until he can build the garage/power house building

How or where are you putting your system in that RV of yours, could you take some pictures of it or start your own SHOW and TELL build thread?
Yeah, you need to do that and document your work

dougbert
 
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How or where are you putting your system in that RV of yours, could you take some pictures of it or start your own SHOW and TELL build thread?
Yeah, you need to do that and document your work

dougbert

Haven't decided if I'm going to put all my Tesla's in an outside small building and setup a power pedestal like at the rv parks or put the entire system inside one of the bays... I bought the BMS but I would still feel better knowing that if something happened at 3am, all I'd lose is a little shack full of equipment, not my life. I don't move the 5th wheel so that would be easier, that would mean putting my bifacial panels on a ground mount near that shack, which I should do anyways as they need to be 1 meter off the ground for best performance.


I'll probably put in a normal system in the 5th wheel using Battleborn 100amp lithiums and normal mono panels, not bifacials, I already have 8 of them (the Battleborns) and make it stand alone then I can slowly build out the big tesla system, for sure will take pictures.

I actually thought about building a little concrete pumphouse type building just for the batteries then run a couple copper bus bars into a building next to it with all the equip.
 
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Yea the outside building would be a good idea. You can add a cooler and heater just sized for that box
a split system is also good for redundancy

start a new thread and start your design session in that. these show and tell articles are great. wonderful to have this website available to store them here

you go girl
 
No grid connect events (due to low battery) since April 28th

generating 25 to 44 kwh per day under full sun
only 240v electric range is connected to grid and consumes some 11 kwh per month - looking forward to when I can connect it to the solar generator too

Cooling systems working for 72F inside while 95F outside, all on sun photons.

I actually have more power than I can use so I came up with a neighborly idea:

Am adding an outside 20amp outlet, that will allow me to run a 20amp extension cord to a good friend next door who is a retired widow. Will allow her to have 4 outlets that she can plug freezer, frig and maybe furnace into thus giving her some safety as well. will help lower her bill and maybe keep her warm in the winter when grid goes down and NatGas still works for the furnace.

Will install the following in her house wall into which I can plug the extension cord


and will wire a 4 gang set of outlets, 20a, on the inside
 
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Am adding an outside 20amp outlet, that will allow me to run a 20amp extension cord to a good friend next door who is a retired widow. Will allow her to have 4 outlets that she can plug freezer, frig and maybe furnace into thus giving her some safety as well. will help lower her bill and maybe keep her warm in the winter when grid goes down and NatGas still works for the furnace.
Very honorable idea but think long and hard about it.... heaven forbid anything happen to her place fire wise even totally unrelated to you and if the insurance saw some back ally extension cord assist line you'll be hurting, they'll probably deny any coverage for both of you, I'd think long and hard about doing that, you're opening yourself up to HUGE liability..... plus you'll attract attention to what you're doing in your place, not sure if you're pulling permits and getting inspections on all this electrical etc, I'm guessing no, but a cord running from one yard to another screams marijuana grow op and people's noses start poking around...

Jen
 
how would they know which one is mine

electricity.jpg
 
ah, I didn't get a shirt........................love it. lol

someone is staying up late tonite.............


system had to connect to the grid late on the sat and through sun, until the sun charged the battery to 46v
24 days and only that one connect, as clouds, rain and snow occurred the end of last week.

So I NEED more modules. 30 kwh is great, but I need to get to 50kwh

so congratulations
What size T-Shirt do you wear Doug?
 
lol, well green, then blue, white
ok, sounds good.... they don't have 3XL or 4XL in that style but we know how petite Jack was so I found an alternative they DO have, I actually spoke to both Richard and the young chap who does the BMS training video on the phone today, great guys... ordering Tuesday, they were closing for the long weekend, watch your mail box and thanks for the continued posting and encouragement in your build, it keeps me motivated to get mine done.

Jen
 
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Our heat wave continues here (like the rest of the west), 100F here at 5500ft, 104F in Salt Lake City at 4400F

Getting clouds yet my battery is filling up every day and getting hot water "full" almost every day

My consumption of Natural gas was cut in half for June over last year and the year before, which I attribute to my heating hot water and not using as much Nat Gas as those 2 years.

Daily generation is in the upper 30s and lower 40s of kwh

Today is the last day of my grid billing cycle. Generated and consumed 1066 kwh for the month, while buying just 14 kwh (for the 240v elec range)
Bill will be $17.43 for the month, and avoided $92 of paying the grid for my generated power and $10 in taxes on that

super amp'd on this - yes pun intended - reaching a very good point of operation. Still off grid (save for the range) since April 29th
 
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Been thinking about the size and density of my Tesla battery pack again. I am amazed at how small amount of space it takes up for what it is doing

(Always pondering WHAT IFs)

Here is the current picture

2021-05-12 Modules 7&8.jpg

2 modules in series, left to right, is 22 inches wide, sitting on a 32 inch shelf
2 modules stacked in parallel, is 6.5 inches tall, with a 12.5" shelf spacing

I have 6 shelves now, which allows for 1 shelf for the Jack-in-the-Box Controller and 5 shelves for modules, 4 modules per shelf.
Total of 20 modules

So I am planning to reduce the 3 upper shelves distance between shelves to 9 inches. Doing just those shelves without batteries on them will provide space for 7 shelves. 6 for batteries and one for the Jack-in-the-Box.

6 shelves @ 4 per shelve becomes 24 modules total, totaling 120 kwh of battery storage
(Might just stop at 110 kwh, as that is all the cabling I have - unless I buy another 4 port extension cable)

There are 8 modules in the above picture, wired in 48 volt configuration, composing slightly over 40 kwh of energy
or 1/3 of total space.

My total system cost at this moment, is around $24,000
For the battery system I have:

With each module at around $1200 each, 8 modules here cost $9600 dollars. Which is $240 per kwh.
Adding in the Jack-in-the-Box of $3600 for a battery subsystem cost of $13,200.

Becoming $330 per kwh as is right now.

Moving up to 20 modules, with a cost of $1200 * 20 = $24,000 just for the batteries
$24,000 + $3600 of the controller = $27,600 for 100 kwh or $276 per kwh

For the same 100 kwh of commerical batteries, would require 27 Simpliphi (3.8kwh) batteries (or similar)
Cost of $2,690 each
totals $72,630 for $726 per kwh of storage

That is a big difference in price per kwh
 
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