DIY solar array 12.5 kw

[Daox]

Wow, thats awesome, congrats!

Now, I believe you also used some gas right? Does your 1000kWh cover your gas usage?

[pinballlooking]

Originally Posted by Daox

Wow, thats awesome, congrats!

Now, I believe you also used some gas right? Does your 1000kWh cover your gas usage?

Thanks.

We are now only using natural gas for heating water. We use about 9-14 units a month @ 1.26 a unit.
I did not include that because we are covering our car most of our cars gas with solar power.
That far out weights the amount of natural gas we are using.

We made enough power to cover a heat pump hot water. I like having the backup natural heat and we have how water at our barn I don't think a HP tank would keep up with that. We only use hot water at the barn in the winter and not very often.

Chart from the power company 12 months 0 usage.

[MN Renovator]

Congratulations on getting to Net Zero!

I've got 12,000kwh to go myself and with an estimated surplus of about 1,500kwh yearly, I figure I'll be there in half a decade. Unless I add another person to the house, add an electric car, or supplement/replace methane heating with a mini-split heatpump (albeit far less cooling kwh though). Hard decision for me to make because I'd love to bake myself a cool cake like that but an electric car might be my go-to prior to breaking even and a better use of my sky juice versus pumping it back to the grid. I've got 221kwh surplus over the past 30 days so I feel I've got a good start. ..if only I had more space so I could have more from the front half of the garage roof than 220sq ft to go larger than 3.36kw.

[pinballlooking]

We were zeroed out March first. So March has to stand on its own.
We had a cloudy March but we still made 1,438 KWH.

We have an extra person living with us right now so we are using more power than normal.

We ended up using 110 KWH more than we made. Still not bad we pay .10 KWH $11.




How did your solar do this month?

[Robaroni]

Originally Posted by pinballlooking

We were zeroed out March first. So March has to stand on its own.
We had a cloudy March but we still made 1,438 KWH.

We have an extra person living with us right now so we are using more power than normal.

We ended up using 110 KWH more than we made. Still not bad we pay .10 KWH $11.




How did your solar do this month?

Wow! That's fantastic!

We had a horrible winter here for power, seems like every time the sun came out my panels were covered with snow. Even with that we are still ahead several hundred dollars coming into April.

We're going to test drive a Volt and a Leaf tomorrow. We're thinking about leasing as the Leaf is really low now.

Chevy is coming out with a totally new Volt this year (later this summer?) that goes 50 miles before the engine kicks in. They're changing the drive train so the motor can charge the batteries, drive the car or both which ever is more energy efficient. Actually I like the Volt technology more but I'll see which one I like driving more.

Rob

[pinballlooking]

Rob

God luck on the test drives. The one thing I don’t like about the leaf is the air cooled batteries but you are not in a hot climate and leasing really kills that worry.

I would love to hear your reviews after the test drives. We drive to far so we could not even consider the leaf. The Volt can be your only car where the leaf is better as your second car. That attractive lease rate is hard to pass up when leasing.

Exciting times we are living in that you have two good choices. I can’t wait until there is even more good choices out there. Both cars have very high owner satisfaction ratings.

It looks like they did a really good job on the new Volt. they really listen to the current owners and made most changes they asked for.

Yes it saddens me to see my 1099 KWH zeroed out. I still don’t know if they will pay us whole sale for it this year.

I did run my welder a lot last month I am sure that helped in using up some power. I welded up two pounds welding wire.

[pinballlooking]

Originally Posted by Robaroni

We're going to test drive a Volt and a Leaf tomorrow. We're thinking about leasing as the Leaf is really low now.

Chevy is coming out with a totally new Volt this year (later this summer?) that goes 50 miles before the engine kicks in. They're changing the drive train so the motor can charge the batteries, drive the car or both which ever is more energy efficient. Actually I like the Volt technology more but I'll see which one I like driving more.

Rob

@Rob
Did you do your EV test drive?

How was everyone else solar production for March?
Post your numbers.

[Robaroni]

Originally Posted by pinballlooking

@Rob
Did you do your EV test drive?

How was everyone else solar production for March?
Post your numbers.

I test drove the Leaf. I liked the drive train a lot - smooth and responsive. However, the short wheel base bothered us, it made the ride 'choppy' but remember we're coming off a relatively heavy Subaru Outback with a very good ride.
The materials felt cheap to us and something we didn't expect in a $32k car. Also I just don't like the styling of Nissan cars. I was talking to my friend and he said it's most likely because of the French influence - Citroen was never a very attractive car to me.

The car was fully charged when we started out, drove about 5 or 6 miles but the mileage range indicator went from 116 to 99. Nissan advertises the car at 84, if you sit in the car and turn the heater on it drops from 116 to 84 with a fully charged battery. The thing is that the Leaf isn't the only full electric on the block anymore and its range is not the best. With the new Volt coming out having a 50 mile range before the gas kicks in seems to be a much better option to us. I'll drive the 2015 Volt first to get a perspective but the new 2016 Volt is supposed to be vastly improved... we'll see. One of the things I like about the 2015 Volt is that the engine only runs the electric. The new Volt the engine will drive the electric or the the wheels which ever is more economical according to GM. I'm concerned they may be getting too complex and at a gain of 12 miles range it may not be worth it. I looked at the styling and the new Volt looks pretty darn good though!

So we left the Leaf a little disappointed, we wanted to like it but couldn't completely. We'll update you on the Volt if we get a chance to drive it next week or maybe the Prius if we drive it first but at a range of 13 miles before the gas kicks in isn't making us run the dealer for a test drive.

The roof PV was covered in snow most of March and all of February, thank goodness for the pole modules they got us through the winter and still way ahead on the bill.

Next up windmills and water wheels!
Rob

[pinballlooking]

We feel the same way about the leaf looks. It is very lacking in that department.

The new and old volt only uses electric until the battery is depleted. Then both will switch back in forth between gas generator and electric. The new one has the transmission integrated so it can also do a hybrid mode or gas /elect.
Another way they got more EV miles was they let the batteries discharge some more before they switch to gas generator. They found the Volt batteries where holding up really well and they could safely let the batteries discharge more. The new Volt does not require premium gas and it gets better MPG on gas only operation.

The new volt motor can go into an atkinson cycle like the Prius.
The plugin Prius does not qualify for the full $7,500 tax fed tax credit. 13 miles just does not seem worth it.



Even if you lease this will come into play because the leasing CO. gets the rebate and that helps drive down the lease payment.

Our 2013 Volt we are at 35,225 solar powered EV miles with a total miles 43,222.
we have driven 7,997 total gas miles so far with only one oil change.

We still charge 2 or more times day on the weekdays.

[NeilBlanchard]

The Leaf has much more room than the Volt, especially in the backseat. We drive both a Leaf and an e-Golf. Solar panels are yet to come ...