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Old 08-02-13, 09:13 AM   #11
Xringer
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Yeah, prices are getting better all the time. Makes building trackers a waste of time and money.

If my wife wasn't so worried about what the neighbors might think,
I would copy your A-frame design mounts, (maybe add elevation adjusters) and
fill my back-yard with PV..

Which reminds me, it's a new month, and I'll be needing another seasonal tweak on my panels..
Great, it's starting to get sunny here!

Keep up the good posts!

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Old 08-02-13, 09:26 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Xringer View Post
Yeah, prices are getting better all the time. Makes building trackers a waste of time and money.

If my wife wasn't so worried about what the neighbors might think,
I would copy your A-frame design mounts, (maybe add elevation adjusters) and
fill my back-yard with PV..

Which reminds me, it's a new month, and I'll be needing another seasonal tweak on my panels..
Great, it's starting to get sunny here!

Keep up the good posts!
Xringer,
The azimuth is built into the lower part that meets the base pole, right now it's in the most upright position. You can build the mount to a smaller scale in fact I have some older 75 watt modules that I might do this with to pump water. In that case I might add tracking also but only in one direction. I kind of like adjusting the azimuth every month or so!
Rob
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Old 08-02-13, 12:50 PM   #13
Xringer
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I go out once a month and set the elevation of my little tracker, don't even need tools.
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/solar-...r-project.html
movie2.wmv - YouTube

The fixed array takes more time (and tools), but it's pretty easy too..
I use the holes in the support tubes.. Works for me..
http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f1...arrayhoist.jpg
This pic is from day-one when I needed to lift the panels into position, using a block-n-tackle.
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Old 08-03-13, 05:35 AM   #14
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Rob, how many of what type of batteries do you have in this system?

Are you 100% off the grid, and how much do you use on a typical day/month/year?
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Old 08-03-13, 08:20 AM   #15
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Rob, how many of what type of batteries do you have in this system?

Are you 100% off the grid, and how much do you use on a typical day/month/year?
Hi Neil,
I have 8 Rolls 530S batteries in series. 530/2 x 48 = ~ 12.7KWH.
Here's what I'm trying to say about being off the grid. When I originally started designing my system in 2006 this is the direction I was going. Now we have intertie/off grid inverters (My two Outback GVFX3648 inverters). When the grid is up my inverters send power back to it, only after my batteries are fully charged. The second criteria is how much energy my dedicated circuits* are using. If the sun is out then those circuits are running from my modules. Any extra power above what I'm using gets sold to the grid as intertie.
If the grid goes down then I run off grid on my batteries. So technically I'm not off the grid and that's better. I could shut off the intertie and run off grid but my batteries would come into play when the sun went down and their life would be diminished from use. The way it is now my batteries only get used during a power failure which happens here 3 or 4 times a year and the batts will last much longer.

Let's say the grid is up and it's night or overcast and my critical circuits need power. The grid supplies it, not my batteries but the next day when the sun comes up I sell that power back to the grid so I'm not buying power in the long run.
I don't need dump loads, relays to switch off, etc., the grid is my dump load, I guess you could say.

The figures are just starting to come in as my previously off grid system is only working for a couple of months as intertie/off grid (before the inverters were modified it was off grid only). Last month I generated over 1 MegaWH above what I used which all got sold back to the grid.
Since I have two systems, the intertie at 6.4KW and the intertie/off grid at 4.2KW the strictly intertie has no batteries to back it up so I lose that power when the grid goes down. With the 4.2KW system easily running my house I'm not concerned but I'm adding wind to run here also. We get good wind across my 4 acre front field, especially in the winter (I've been monitoring weather for several years) and that will compliment my PV. I also have a small stream that runs well in the spring and fall that I want to make in micro-hydro for.

*About dedicated circuits:
For those of you who don't know how sub panels work, I use a sub panel with all my important breakers on it, freezers, well pump, fridge, critical lighting, etc. This sub panel runs off my intertie/off grid inverters constantly regardless whether the grid is up or down. When the grid is down the batteries feed the inverters and are charged by PV. When the grid is up PV runs the inverters or if the sun is down, the grid runs them.

The only time I would need a dump load is if the grid went down for a very long time and if that happens I'll add one. Right now All my generated power gets utilized and dumps aren't needed.

What you want to do is conserve you system and batteries as much as possible. So use the grid when you need it and you'll have the best of both worlds.

Sorry for the long post,
Rob
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Old 08-21-13, 06:02 PM   #16
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Default The numbers are in.

Today ends the first complete month on both my systems. I produced 1,014 KWH of power, used 218 KWH and sold 796 KWH.

Rob
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Old 08-21-13, 10:46 PM   #17
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How do you only use 218kw in a month?
I used 90kw just today.
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Old 08-22-13, 07:20 AM   #18
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I can't even think of how I could accomplish 90kwh in a day. Running my air conditioner and electric clothes dryer at the same time for every hour that I'm awake is one way I think I could do it but I'd have to try with a strong conscious effort to chew that much power.

For comparison I used 75kwh last November. I tried to use as much electricity as I could in July with leaving lights on and running the air conditioner when I'm not home and cold enough to bother the other person who lives here and I only ended up at 800kwh(just under $100 of electricity at my rate) for a 32 day billing period.
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Old 08-22-13, 08:31 AM   #19
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I have a EV car charge twice a day about 12 kw each charge = 24kw
My dryer uses 6.6kw
AC uses 5.5kw
90kw is not a normal day. We did laundry yesterday cooked dinner elect stove car...
So far this month we have used 1,389kw. We have made 878kw so far this rainy month.
How much power does your AC use?

Last edited by pinballlooking; 10-17-13 at 10:40 PM..
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Old 08-22-13, 09:00 AM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pinballlooking View Post
How do you only use 218kw in a month?
I used 90kw just today.
Hi,
The key to energy is how much you don't use. We have clothes lines for example. I take people to the back of my house and show them my 'Solar Clothes Dryer'! In the winter we use those clothes drying stands. I've used the electric clothes dryer here maybe once in the last year.

The 218KWH is a little misleading though because my off grid/intertie system runs my critical loads and then send excess to the grid.

Unfortunately right now I'm running two freezers to store our organic garden produce for the winter. I'm trying to cut that down but I don't like canning and we're vegetarians so that means we have to freeze the kale, peas, collards, tomatoes and other veggies.
What we get is a good veggies during the winter. We also stock bulk foods, by the way, so we only go to the grocery chain stores every couple of months or so.
I have a root cellar and year round green house on the 'to do' list so we can grow our veggies all winter long but for right now the freezers will have to do.

Before all the PV went in I used about 300 to 400 KWH a month.

Rob

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