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Old 01-04-17, 08:33 PM   #8
NiHaoMike
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4 View Post
Any idea what the pay back time would be, if ever?
That varies a whole lot depending on a lot of variables. You would have to be on a TOU plan and/or have some form of local generation for it to get any direct savings. (Or go off grid.) It's pretty hard to get enough direct savings to make it worth it, but there are other considerations.

For a start, if the supply of electricity is unreliable in your area, you get a large UPS that lasts a long time even if used a lot. Or if you build it portable/semi portable, you can take it to where there is no connection to the grid, such as when camping. Actually, a popular use case are R/C hobbyists who fly model planes in large fields. To them, Leaf battery modules are just very large Lipos and using a few to charge smaller batteries to actually use in the planes is cheaper and easier to manage than just carrying a lot of the smaller batteries.

Another good use is to reduce the use of energy that is considerably more expensive than the grid, such as onboard a vehicle. Or put it on a cart and use it to power garden tools/other power tools if an extension cord is not a workable solution.

And last but not least, you get yet another toy to play with.
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