EcoRenovator  

Go Back   EcoRenovator > Improvements > Conservation
Advanced Search
 


Blog 60+ Home Energy Saving Tips Recent Posts


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 10-21-17, 12:36 PM   #81
randen
Uber EcoRenovator
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Strathroy Ontario Canada
Posts: 657
Thanks: 9
Thanked 191 Times in 129 Posts
Default Working toward off grid

Creeky

That's nice, neat work and interesting that your friend is meeting his energy requirements.

I have managed a few photos of the assembly of the Dynoraxx racking, very nice system.

My boy is having his hand into the assembly as he is putting the rails on and pinning them.

The view over-head of the solar pergola (4 kw)

As for the 2 phase inverter the micro processing board is assembled and some testing is complete. hopefully I will have a battery pack within the next week.

Randen

Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	IMG_0242.JPG
Views:	665
Size:	37.6 KB
ID:	7937   Click image for larger version

Name:	IMG_0243.JPG
Views:	647
Size:	39.3 KB
ID:	7938   Click image for larger version

Name:	IMG_0246.JPG
Views:	638
Size:	58.8 KB
ID:	7940  
randen is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-21-17, 01:10 PM   #82
creeky
Journeyman EcoRenovator
 
creeky's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: a field somewhere
Posts: 304
Thanks: 64
Thanked 44 Times in 31 Posts
Default

A young lad not afraid of work. Can I borrow him. Smile.

Look forward to your inverter build.
__________________
Current projects
Chevy Volt battery pack conversion

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Blog that is down right now but will return
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Business where I sell solar stuff
[url]https://www.bobolinksolar.com
creeky is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-05-17, 08:57 PM   #83
randen
Uber EcoRenovator
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Strathroy Ontario Canada
Posts: 657
Thanks: 9
Thanked 191 Times in 129 Posts
Default working toward off grid

The big push is on. Winter weather is on its way and yours truly doesn't like working in the cold. The panels are locked in and the ballast was placed into the mounts.

A battery pack from a Chevy volt became available and is now in the shop ready to be reassigned to providing power to the house. We may include another after we prove out the inverter as this would provide a buffer for 2 -3 days of electrical supply to the house. The ultimate is a Tesla pack but that's a few more bucks then can be liberated at this time. However after the Model 3 has been out for a while I'm sure the price for a used pack will come down. The battery enclosure we have in the garage will actually hold 2 tesla packs, that's about 180 kws or more than 2 weeks of reserve power

Randen
Attached Thumbnails
Click image for larger version

Name:	IMG_0267.JPG
Views:	644
Size:	129.7 KB
ID:	7953   Click image for larger version

Name:	IMG_0250.JPG
Views:	639
Size:	156.5 KB
ID:	7954   Click image for larger version

Name:	IMG_0251.JPG
Views:	620
Size:	132.9 KB
ID:	7955   Click image for larger version

Name:	IMG_0258.JPG
Views:	677
Size:	132.1 KB
ID:	7956   Click image for larger version

Name:	IMG_0266.JPG
Views:	618
Size:	131.1 KB
ID:	7957  

randen is offline   Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to randen For This Useful Post:
gasstingy (11-06-17)
Old 11-06-17, 11:51 AM   #84
gasstingy
Journeyman EcoRenovator
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Arab, AL
Posts: 491
Thanks: 109
Thanked 49 Times in 43 Posts
Default

That's a lot of planned (180kWh) battery storage. I LIKE IT!

That would be okay for more than a week for me in the summer, because my usage is low and easier tamed during the summer. In the winter, not so much since I converted to an electric heat pump. Our house is efficient, but 360 kWh to cover 4 weeks in February (or other cold weather months) just ain't happening at my house. We use nearly 1400 kWh's in the depth of winter on a 31 day month.
gasstingy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-06-17, 07:23 PM   #85
randen
Uber EcoRenovator
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Strathroy Ontario Canada
Posts: 657
Thanks: 9
Thanked 191 Times in 129 Posts
Default

Gasstingy
Like you our winter power usages balloon. In the depth off winter with wind and cold our heat pump operates almost non stop. That in itself would account for 35kw alone. If we received a full sunny day the placarded production of PV would be about 60 kw. So that would provide a net gain so some portion of charge would be gained to use the next day. As you maybe aware we have solar hot water heating that is quite effective so we may have one days heat plus a full battery for the following day. It’s going to really depend on conditions

Just like my electric truck project it’s all an educated guess as to how far you can go. Add more batteries or in the home situation more solar or maybe for my local, wind

My first brush with the calculations the system will make a huge reduction in the cost of electrical energy. So far my journey to reduce my energy costs have proved very effective. The heat pumps have reduced costs by almost half and now driving electric vehicles another sizable reduction in energy expenditures

Let’s wait and see what the next few months will teach me

Randen
randen is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-07-17, 03:19 PM   #86
oil pan 4
Land owner
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: NM
Posts: 1,026
Thanks: 12
Thanked 127 Times in 107 Posts
Default

I'm having my well serviced.
The local well service remove the vertical shaft irrigation pump on there now then bale brush the well, flush, acid clean, flow test this week.
Not having to rely on the man for water, definitely off grid.
oil pan 4 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-09-17, 05:28 PM   #87
randen
Uber EcoRenovator
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Strathroy Ontario Canada
Posts: 657
Thanks: 9
Thanked 191 Times in 129 Posts
Default

Today some progress was made, well for the future. There happens to be some area available for extra 3.5 kw of solar panel. The conduit was still open from pulling in 3 pairs for the three strings. What's one to do, Yes. pulled in another pair for the future 4th string of panels, so we would be sporting a total of 14.5 kws of solar. Maybe in the spring.??

The forecast for tonight is 15 cm of the white stuff. Just finished tightening the terminals for all the solar panel strings and the wind had intensified and sleet had begun.

Yesterday two ground rods had been driven in because that stainless pergola would be a fabulous lightning rod as well as all the panels on the roof LETS get those grounded as well.

Some progress has also been made on the 20 kw inverter but I will leave that for another post with some photos.

Randen
randen is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-09-17, 06:26 PM   #88
Robaroni
Journeyman EcoRenovator
 
Robaroni's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Delhi, NY
Posts: 332
Thanks: 20
Thanked 53 Times in 40 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4 View Post
I'm having my well serviced.
The local well service remove the vertical shaft irrigation pump on there now then bale brush the well, flush, acid clean, flow test this week.
Not having to rely on the man for water, definitely off grid.
I've been living with wells for quite some time but I don't understand all the extras you got.

Around here the well driller comes in, drills until he has water, then puts in 6" well pipe. 20 years ago I might have 'shocked' the well with bleach but only if there seemed to be an e-coli or other bacteria problem.

Personally I don't trust the water anymore. Some people have springs but a dead animal 20 feet upstream pretty much cancels water testing the day before the animal died. Farmers pouring glyphosate on fields that migrate into streams also jeopardize water.

I filter my water down to 1 micron, then run it through osmosis to take out arsenic, etc. so basically whatever happens to the water before purification never gets to my faucet.
Robaroni is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-09-17, 08:12 PM   #89
oil pan 4
Land owner
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: NM
Posts: 1,026
Thanks: 12
Thanked 127 Times in 107 Posts
Default

This isn't easy east coast water.
My well is a 40 to 50 year old 16 inch bore diameter irrigation well that used to easily feed a 400 to 500gpm 20hp 10 turbine 6 inch pump.
That well had 40' of water in it at one time, now it's got 12.
oil pan 4 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-10-17, 06:42 AM   #90
Robaroni
Journeyman EcoRenovator
 
Robaroni's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Delhi, NY
Posts: 332
Thanks: 20
Thanked 53 Times in 40 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4 View Post
This isn't easy east coast water.
My well is a 40 to 50 year old 16 inch bore diameter irrigation well that used to easily feed a 400 to 500gpm 20hp 10 turbine 6 inch pump.
That well had 40' of water in it at one time, now it's got 12.
NM isn't a great place for water but any location can be tough. My neighbor had to go down 1,200 feet to get 2.5 gpm. I went down 175, wells are crap shoots.

The irrigation well you're using isn't supplying anyone else, is it? Because there is no need for that kind of power in a shallow well supplying one or two houses.

Cisterns and shallow wells are easy to tap.

Robaroni is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply



Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:01 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Ad Management by RedTyger
Inactive Reminders By Icora Web Design