Best price ever. - Page 2

jjackstone · 08-21-19, 12:06 PM

It finally happened. The grid went down over about a ten square mile area this morning. However my fridge continued humming away using the battery pack and I could still make a fresh pot of coffee just as though there was no problem at all. The only concession I made was to switch the fish tank over from grid power to solar power so the little fishies could stay swimming. Power was only down a couple hours but it made me chuckle to see all the solar homes in the area that were without power because they are grid tied. Humorously enough(at least to me), one of my neighbors is having additional grid tied solar installed on his house right at this moment.
JJ

jjackstone · 09-30-19, 10:27 PM

Little Update.

Been a couple months now since I brought the system online. Things of note. My 2500 watt system has output in excess of 2600 watts a couple times. While I am not getting maximum use out of the system, it is getting a good workout. As I’ve said before all components are outside of the house. The temperature outside has been as high as 105F and I have had no failures yet.

The Victron controller which has no internal fan says it will output max power at 40C(104F) and below. I think it shuts down around 60C(140F). Early on I tested it with and without an external fan. In general, I have found that having a small external 20 watt fan blowing on the controller drops its temperature around 5C. I have to think keeping the temperature lower on any electronics will help extend its life. So far the controller shows a few hundred kwh output. That includes charging the batteries and powering whatever else happened to be running.

The cheap Reliable inverter has also performed without problems. Even when outputting over 2000 watts in 100F+ temps it did not shut down. Its internal fans were working hard though. This inverter is only supposed to be 85% efficient. The charge controller is supposed to be in excess of 90% efficient. So overall I would guess about a 75% efficient system. Doesn’t really matter right now as I’m producing more juice than I can use and don’t have enough storage for it all.

Just missed out on another Volt battery but they have been popping up more frequently. I’ll get another one or two eventually.

I’m one of those in California that is now subject to PG&E determined blackouts while trying to save themselves from further litigation. I am not in an area that would normally be shut down but if it did happen I have enough juice to run a few days without them even through a rainy period. My normal utility electrical idle usage is about 80W. So theoretically I could use less than 2kwh per day. So far, in reality, my lowest usage is 2.4kwh in one day.

The first photo is utility usage per day for the last couple weeks. You can see that most days were below 5 kwh per day. The higher usage days I was out of town and my room mate goes wild when that happens.

The second photo is of power provided by the solar array for the last thirty days. Today is the most I have used to date as I was testing a small ceramic heater to see if the inverter could handle it. It did. You'll see a couple of really low output days if you look closely. They were under 1 kwh days. For some reason my room mate decided to unplug the solar for extended periods of time(again while I was out of town).

So I'm pretty happy. Averaging around 4 kwh per day so far for this month from the grid and using 4 to 5 kwh per day from the solar setup.

JJ

WoodBurner · 10-09-19, 03:26 PM

Hi JJ, thanks for this link, really spending a few days looking into the thinking of this guy!

==============

The Jack Rickard video link.

/youtu.be/98YDEbgLs2A

__________________
JJ[/QUOTE]

where2 · 10-09-19, 08:44 PM

I'm amazed you managed to get the idle usage down to a mere 80W... If I can get mine under 500W, I feel like I've accomplished a lot!!

jjackstone · 10-10-19, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by where2

I'm amazed you managed to get the idle usage down to a mere 80W... If I can get mine under 500W, I feel like I've accomplished a lot!!

Funny thing is that I don't know where most of it is going. I know my security system uses about ten watts. Probably a couple watts each on computers when they are in sleep mode even though the Kill-A-Watt meter doesn't measure anything. Printers are turned off when not in use. There are three digital clocks that pull a few milliwatts each and the garage door opener circuit is always running but I can't imagine it pulling more than a few watts. I guess the central air/heating circuit probably pulls a little also but still can't be that much. So that leaves me with about 60 watts of usage that I haven't tracked down...yet. I'll figure it out.
JJ

Oops. Forgot about cable modem and router. That's probably ten or fifteen watts 24/7. Have to measure that.

jjackstone · 07-26-20, 12:32 AM

It's been a full year now since this system was put online so I guess it's about time for an update. First off, I've had zero problems with the system since installation. That's a great thing. Never got a BMS for the batteries but I check them every couple weeks and they all are maintaining balance. I have harvested almost 2500 KWh of energy in the first year. Funny, to me anyway, that most of that energy was obtained in the winter and spring as I was powering a small electric space heater for extra heat in the house. My max daily solar output was right at 16 kwh in one day.

For the summer I had planned to buy a small window air conditioning unit but so far it has been a really mild summer for Sacramento. I've used 14 kwh total on the central air and the last time that happened was on June 4th. Our temps have mostly been in the low to upper 90's this summer with a couple short foray's over 100. So why no air conditioning? Well I live in an area that has low humidity most of the time and the area also receives a nice cool 55 to 60 degree breeze on most nights coming in from the Pacific ocean even though we are 80 or 90 miles away from the ocean. Locally that is known as the Delta Breeze. So open all the windows at night, cools the house down to the low to mid 60's, shut it up in the morning before the temps go up. The warmest it has been in the house since June is about 84 degrees and that was on a day when the outside temps reached 104. The last few days it has been no higher than 95 outside and 75 inside.

I have a video security system that I don't monitor that often but I connected a monitor to it the other day and the video on all four cameras was very ugly and unusable. I haven't determined whether the cause is the camera's power supply or if it is the video feed from the recording unit but since it wasn't working I unplugged it. Turns out the system pulls about 20 watts. My cable modem and router are in the same vicinity as the security system so I was thinking about them being powered 24/7. I will sit in front of this silly computer up to 6 hours a day and waste an enormous amount of time but the other say 18 hours those two things just sit there wasting electrons. So I went ahead and shut the router and modem down too. So the end result of this long ramble is that I am now able to get my idle power usage down to 33 watts at least when the roomie is not around. She is gone this weekend so I expect to have my first couple of days in which I use just slightly over/under 1 kwh for an entire 24 hour period. Man that's going to piss off PGE. Yay!
JJ

Barrowman · 10-31-20, 04:48 PM

I don't know what it's like there but in the UK switching a modem/router off each night will result in slowly reduce your internet speeds as the system assumes that the connection is too poor to handle the higher speed. It takes quite a while for the speed to come back up again as well. I am guessing it will be the same for you.

jjackstone · 11-28-23, 11:54 AM

Updating this old thread. It finally happened. After three and a half years the gubberment figured out that I had an "UNPERMITTED" solar installation. Someone(PG&E) had complained that I had an unpermitted solar installation. Well I knew it wouldn't pass code, and it was such a small system so after notification from said gubberment to remove the system by such and such a date, I did remove it. Here's where it gets funny. I contacted the gubberment to let them know that the system had been removed. They replied that I needed a permit to remove the system. I told them that it was already gone. Well sir, you still need a permit and an inspection to verify this. So I got the permit and had an inspector look at where the system was installed and all was well. Only cost $80. Could have been worse I suppose. You know...fines, liens, etc.

So during the time the system was installed I generated 12,000 useable kwh. Never did install a bms but did check the battery packs regularly. They never went more than a few tenths of a volt out of balance. At our $0.33/kwh, the system basically paid for itself over the three and a half year period. I have since sold off a few of the panels for a small profit over what i paid for them. I kept the batteries and the inverter and will make a backup battery for the house just large enough to run a fridge in case of power outages. I will have to charge it from the grid though. Oh well.

jj

08-21-19, 12:06 PM	#11
jjackstone Helper EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Sacramento,Ca Posts: 88 Thanks: 5 Thanked 32 Times in 23 Posts	It finally happened. The grid went down over about a ten square mile area this morning. However my fridge continued humming away using the battery pack and I could still make a fresh pot of coffee just as though there was no problem at all. The only concession I made was to switch the fish tank over from grid power to solar power so the little fishies could stay swimming. Power was only down a couple hours but it made me chuckle to see all the solar homes in the area that were without power because they are grid tied. Humorously enough(at least to me), one of my neighbors is having additional grid tied solar installed on his house right at this moment. JJ

09-30-19, 10:27 PM	#12
jjackstone Helper EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Sacramento,Ca Posts: 88 Thanks: 5 Thanked 32 Times in 23 Posts	Little Update. Been a couple months now since I brought the system online. Things of note. My 2500 watt system has output in excess of 2600 watts a couple times. While I am not getting maximum use out of the system, it is getting a good workout. As I’ve said before all components are outside of the house. The temperature outside has been as high as 105F and I have had no failures yet. The Victron controller which has no internal fan says it will output max power at 40C(104F) and below. I think it shuts down around 60C(140F). Early on I tested it with and without an external fan. In general, I have found that having a small external 20 watt fan blowing on the controller drops its temperature around 5C. I have to think keeping the temperature lower on any electronics will help extend its life. So far the controller shows a few hundred kwh output. That includes charging the batteries and powering whatever else happened to be running. The cheap Reliable inverter has also performed without problems. Even when outputting over 2000 watts in 100F+ temps it did not shut down. Its internal fans were working hard though. This inverter is only supposed to be 85% efficient. The charge controller is supposed to be in excess of 90% efficient. So overall I would guess about a 75% efficient system. Doesn’t really matter right now as I’m producing more juice than I can use and don’t have enough storage for it all. Just missed out on another Volt battery but they have been popping up more frequently. I’ll get another one or two eventually. I’m one of those in California that is now subject to PG&E determined blackouts while trying to save themselves from further litigation. I am not in an area that would normally be shut down but if it did happen I have enough juice to run a few days without them even through a rainy period. My normal utility electrical idle usage is about 80W. So theoretically I could use less than 2kwh per day. So far, in reality, my lowest usage is 2.4kwh in one day. The first photo is utility usage per day for the last couple weeks. You can see that most days were below 5 kwh per day. The higher usage days I was out of town and my room mate goes wild when that happens. The second photo is of power provided by the solar array for the last thirty days. Today is the most I have used to date as I was testing a small ceramic heater to see if the inverter could handle it. It did. You'll see a couple of really low output days if you look closely. They were under 1 kwh days. For some reason my room mate decided to unplug the solar for extended periods of time(again while I was out of town). So I'm pretty happy. Averaging around 4 kwh per day so far for this month from the grid and using 4 to 5 kwh per day from the solar setup. JJ

10-09-19, 03:26 PM	#13
WoodBurner Lurking Renovator Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: MD Posts: 6 Thanks: 19 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts	Hi JJ, thanks for this link, really spending a few days looking into the thinking of this guy! ============== The Jack Rickard video link. /youtu.be/98YDEbgLs2A __________________ JJ[/QUOTE]

10-09-19, 08:44 PM	#14
where2 DIY Geek Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Sunny Florida Posts: 401 Thanks: 74 Thanked 83 Times in 73 Posts	I'm amazed you managed to get the idle usage down to a mere 80W... If I can get mine under 500W, I feel like I've accomplished a lot!!

07-26-20, 12:32 AM	#16
jjackstone Helper EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Sacramento,Ca Posts: 88 Thanks: 5 Thanked 32 Times in 23 Posts	It's been a full year now since this system was put online so I guess it's about time for an update. First off, I've had zero problems with the system since installation. That's a great thing. Never got a BMS for the batteries but I check them every couple weeks and they all are maintaining balance. I have harvested almost 2500 KWh of energy in the first year. Funny, to me anyway, that most of that energy was obtained in the winter and spring as I was powering a small electric space heater for extra heat in the house. My max daily solar output was right at 16 kwh in one day. For the summer I had planned to buy a small window air conditioning unit but so far it has been a really mild summer for Sacramento. I've used 14 kwh total on the central air and the last time that happened was on June 4th. Our temps have mostly been in the low to upper 90's this summer with a couple short foray's over 100. So why no air conditioning? Well I live in an area that has low humidity most of the time and the area also receives a nice cool 55 to 60 degree breeze on most nights coming in from the Pacific ocean even though we are 80 or 90 miles away from the ocean. Locally that is known as the Delta Breeze. So open all the windows at night, cools the house down to the low to mid 60's, shut it up in the morning before the temps go up. The warmest it has been in the house since June is about 84 degrees and that was on a day when the outside temps reached 104. The last few days it has been no higher than 95 outside and 75 inside. I have a video security system that I don't monitor that often but I connected a monitor to it the other day and the video on all four cameras was very ugly and unusable. I haven't determined whether the cause is the camera's power supply or if it is the video feed from the recording unit but since it wasn't working I unplugged it. Turns out the system pulls about 20 watts. My cable modem and router are in the same vicinity as the security system so I was thinking about them being powered 24/7. I will sit in front of this silly computer up to 6 hours a day and waste an enormous amount of time but the other say 18 hours those two things just sit there wasting electrons. So I went ahead and shut the router and modem down too. So the end result of this long ramble is that I am now able to get my idle power usage down to 33 watts at least when the roomie is not around. She is gone this weekend so I expect to have my first couple of days in which I use just slightly over/under 1 kwh for an entire 24 hour period. Man that's going to piss off PGE. Yay! JJ

10-31-20, 04:48 PM	#17
Barrowman Lurking Renovator Join Date: Oct 2020 Location: North Lincolnshire, England Posts: 29 Thanks: 3 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	I don't know what it's like there but in the UK switching a modem/router off each night will result in slowly reduce your internet speeds as the system assumes that the connection is too poor to handle the higher speed. It takes quite a while for the speed to come back up again as well. I am guessing it will be the same for you.

11-28-23, 11:54 AM	#18
jjackstone Helper EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Sacramento,Ca Posts: 88 Thanks: 5 Thanked 32 Times in 23 Posts	Updating this old thread. It finally happened. After three and a half years the gubberment figured out that I had an "UNPERMITTED" solar installation. Someone(PG&E) had complained that I had an unpermitted solar installation. Well I knew it wouldn't pass code, and it was such a small system so after notification from said gubberment to remove the system by such and such a date, I did remove it. Here's where it gets funny. I contacted the gubberment to let them know that the system had been removed. They replied that I needed a permit to remove the system. I told them that it was already gone. Well sir, you still need a permit and an inspection to verify this. So I got the permit and had an inspector look at where the system was installed and all was well. Only cost $80. Could have been worse I suppose. You know...fines, liens, etc. So during the time the system was installed I generated 12,000 useable kwh. Never did install a bms but did check the battery packs regularly. They never went more than a few tenths of a volt out of balance. At our $0.33/kwh, the system basically paid for itself over the three and a half year period. I have since sold off a few of the panels for a small profit over what i paid for them. I kept the batteries and the inverter and will make a backup battery for the house just large enough to run a fridge in case of power outages. I will have to charge it from the grid though. Oh well. jj