diy solar

diy solar

What are you doing to save energy?

timselectric said:
I run the dryer sometimes, when it's empty.
Just to watch the solar production go up. lol
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ME TOO!! Except its my hot water tank on the smart load lol!!

I wish the inverters would say how much portential solar there is, and how much is not being used, there must be a way to do this?? It can be full sunny, but i'll only be using 1000 watts of my 10.7kw, I want to see how much solar potential is being wasted.

maybe someone has answers to this!
 
I periodically look at my consumption and see what I could go after easily.

I just finished (well, almost finished...) the ducting for a heat recovery ventilator, which included exhausting from a basement area that previous used a small fan to keep humidity and radon lower. That small fan was plugged into 'BsmtLts', and was on all the time. Now that the ducting is done, and the HRV is sucking a little from that space, I removed the other fan.

I knew it was there, and about 20 watts, but had not dawned on me where that falls in the ranking of loads over a long time. That continuous 20 watts is more that the Clothes Dryer !! (minimal use, and wired as 120v heating instead of 240v), more than the main HVAC air handler blower and continuous 24vAC control transformer, master bedroom & bath, more then the Microwave or well pump. Third highest load here is me sitting at my desk with the computer on. So I should also turn off the computer!

1698354411041.png
 
myles said:
wish the inverters would say how much portential solar there is, and how much is not being used, there must be a way to do this?? It can be full sunny, but i'll only be using 1000 watts of my 10.7kw, I want to see how much solar potential is being wasted.

maybe someone has answers to this!
Click to expand...
My TriStar mppt shows both what I am using loads/batteries and what the arrays are getting/potential watts
 
crossy said:
Do you have a link to that unit?
A number of friends have asked similar questions.

Can it link to Home Assistant or the like to control a dump load??
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www.solarpanelstore.com

Morningstar Tristar Charge Controller MPPT 60 Amp - TS-MPPT-60

This TS-MPPT-60 controller is rated for 60A at 12, 24, or 48V. Morningstar’s TriStar MPPT solar controller with TrakStar Technology is an advanced maximum power point tracking (MPPT) battery charger for off-grid photovoltaic (PV) systems. The controller provides the industry’s highest peak...
www.solarpanelstore.com www.solarpanelstore.com

I've not made it to any advanced uses. I do like that it's silent, no fans.
 
HalfBaked said:
My TriStar mppt shows both what I am using loads/batteries and what the arrays are getting/potential watts
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How does it do such a thing? Historical data? Surely it's not somehow pulling a high load and dissipating it somehow.
 
HalfBaked said:
Maybe magic?
This is what I see:
The "output power" is what is being used.
The "sweep pmax" is the potential
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I'm guessing it's historical.. whenever it ran it's last sweep? How often does the sweep number change and how quickly? If you put your hand on a panel, how long til the sweep pmax number updates?
 
cs1234 said:
I'm guessing it's historical.. whenever it ran it's last sweep? How often does the sweep number change and how quickly? If you put your hand on a panel, how long til the sweep pmax number updates?
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Correct, that value is per sweep, the "output power" is live. I don't know how long between sweeps, never timed it or looked to see if it can be changed, my guess is about every 3-5 minutes. It's close enough for me. Occasionally when the batteries are nearly full and the array is hitting it's peak, there is about a 2kw difference in those values.
 
y0bailey said:
We built our house new in 2016. North Carolina so more heat problems than cold problems. Energy star rated, spray foam, all electric so we went with a heat-pump water heater...and it's "the tightest house I've ever built" according to the builder. We got a great rating on the Energy Star rating.

It's tight, but the half-buried/half walk-out basement was unfinished and only the ceiling was insulated (spray foam). Throwing insulation in down there cut demand in the basement (less need for a space heater in the winter, or a portable AC unit in the summer). I also have to run dehumidification down there...and I replaced the traditional dehumidifier that blows out hot air with a Midea "u-shaped" window unit that dehumidifies and dumps COLD air into the basement. I can run it 3 hours a day using 300watts/hr to handle all of the cooling/dehumidification over the summer. Huge benefits. Before I was pissing into the wind with a dehumidifier that was heating...then running a crappy portable AC unit that was struggling (and sucking in more humidity to make the dehumidifier work harder).

This winters project is building a few "beer can solar heaters" to throw in the south facing windows and see if I can bump the temp up a few degrees and run my space heater less.

Other than that, I can't bring myself to close down the hot-tub. It uses 7-10kwh a day...but after a day trenching the freaking yard there is nothing better than a hot massage.
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The beer can heaters in the windows will net you zero gain. Better to just let all the sunlight come in through the windows directly.

Now, beer can heater outside not blocking a window, that could work
 
SparkyGage said:
In the summer the MASS of the house gets heated by the sun. In the winter, there is not enough sunshine most days to heat that mass to any useful extent. It is also heating the attic space that I am trying to isolate the living space from. If I could absorb the heat from the roof and transfer it to the floor in the winter, I would do black or a darker color, but I can't, so I won't. Same reason you don't want a dark colored ice chest and the lids are almost always white. What I really need for the winter is a thermal floor! For now, I'm just glad I'm on a slab foundation.

What part of Texas are you from? Our ambient humidity is high year round as the typical weather pattern is air from the gulf blows into southeast Texas then up into Arkansas. In my shop, if I can keep the humidity below 45%, I can tolerate temps in the 80's (85 feels pretty good when It's 105 outside.) So if the spit can keep it below 50% at 78F, I'm "golden". (I'm getting old and liking the warmer temps I hated when I was a fat kid.)
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Im in DFW and in the summer i kept my house at 79 cos the mini split kept it so darn dry that any cooler was to cold for me.
I think you'll like the mini splits
 
1201 said:
The beer can heaters in the windows will net you zero gain. Better to just let all the sunlight come in through the windows directly.

Now, beer can heater outside not blocking a window, that could
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I wanted to argue with you on this... But the more I thought about it the more I think you are right.

Well I can stop hoarding beer cans now. Kinda sad as my alcoholism can't be useful anymore
 
Just looked up the numbers on my nothing special bottom freezer refrigerator that I bought used for $250

Costs about $5 a month to run. I'm not going to worry about getting more efficient than that

Screenshot_20231026-174923.png
 
myles said:
I wish the inverters would say how much portential solar there is, and how much is not being used, there must be a way to do this?? It can be full sunny, but i'll only be using 1000 watts of my 10.7kw, I want to see how much solar potential is being wasted.

maybe someone has answers to this!
Click to expand...
I have a Midnight Classic 250 CC, with 1800w solar, charging a lithium 48v bank. The battery bank is discharged by microinverters, AC coupled back to the main battery inverter system and house loads. The charge controller communicates with battery voltage and pv voltage, read by a raspberry pi. When the battery is nearly full, the charge controller would stop charging the battery, wasting solar, Oooohh Nooooo!!!!

To avoid that travesty, if the battery voltage is near full, and if the PV voltage is still high enough, I turn on microinverters which take energy off the battery and charge controller. That energy goes into the house and main battery inverters, and allows other AC dump loads to run more. If the PV voltage has dropped, it means that the charge controller is now pulling some from the solar and able to charge the battery again, or the sun is not out as much.

This is a section from the nodered function block. MinDCL is minimum discharge level, how many microinverters are turned on. Other code turns the microinverters on generally overnight, so that the main lead acid battery inverters are idle except for any surges, and the microinverters are running the loads on average. This section sets a floor to that control. Effectively, once the battery is full, the solar becomes AC coupled, instead of DC coupled.
Code: 
else if (msg.topic==="MN_PV_V_sm"){
    mnpvv=msg.payload;
    context.set("MVPVV",msg.payload);
    if (dcvpc>4.02){
        mindcl = global.get("MinDCL")||0;
        if (mnpvv>100&&mupcnt<1){
            mindcl += 1;
            mupcnt = muprate;
            context.set("mupcntr",mupcnt);
        }
        else if (mnpvv<92&&mupcnt<1){
            mindcl -= 1;
            mupcnt = muprate;
            context.set("mupcntr",mupcnt);
        }
        mindcl = Math.max(0,mindcl);   //  limit to available range
        mindcl = Math.min(12,mindcl);  //  mindcl max of #micros in DC cabinet   
        dclr = mindcl+0.5;
        global.set("MinDCL",mindcl); 
    }   
    else {
        mindcl -= 1;
        mupcnt = muprate;
        context.set("mupcntr", mupcnt);
        mindcl = Math.max(0, mindcl);   //  limit to available range
        mindcl = Math.min(12, mindcl);  //  mindcl max of #micros in DC cabinet   
        dclr = mindcl + 0.5;
        global.set("MinDCL", mindcl); 
    }

For AIO inverters, maybe the same sort of control could look at battery voltage, PV voltage. If there seems to be extra solar, turn on more dump loads on the AC side, or DC loads from the battery. Either way, the MPPT input to the AIO inverter should then be able to collect more power from the solar.
 
Last edited:
1201 said:
Just looked up the numbers on my nothing special bottom freezer refrigerator that I bought used for $250

Costs about $5 a month to run. I'm not going to worry about getting more efficient than that
Click to expand...
This is a consumer based economy. You need to do your part and consume. It might not make financial sense for you, but have you considered the quarterly profits?
 
A few thoughts.

When I decided to install a solar system for my house, it was designed and built so we could live our lives the same or better than before the installation. This means not living like a hermit in a cave or being single and not having a partner.

We have actually increased our electrical usage. Part of the reason is shifting energy sources to electric instead of propane. Even though we increased the Kwh used per day, each shift to changing energy sources was done with efficiency in mind.

I prefer living my life to the same or better standard of living I've always enjoyed.
 
Im looking at ditching my washer and dryer for a fancy new all in one heat pump based washer/dryer (115v) and a heat pump hot water heater to go next to it. (also 115 volt). Those two are my top 3 largest consumers along with my electric stovetop/oven.
 
Zwy said:
A few thoughts.

When I decided to install a solar system for my house, it was designed and built so we could live our lives the same or better than before the installation. This means not living like a hermit in a cave or being single and not having a partner.

We have actually increased our electrical usage. Part of the reason is shifting energy sources to electric instead of propane. Even though we increased the Kwh used per day, each shift to changing energy sources was done with efficiency in mind.

I prefer living my life to the same or better standard of living I've always enjoyed.
Click to expand...
So true. I would run my air conditioning and electric heat more if it were "free".
 
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