Ben's Garage

[pinballlooking]

As much as I would like to have a bank of Volt batteries for backup power it just does not make since at this point.
We are lucky like you and have pretty dependable power.

I have a good net metering with carry over each month. Once a year zero out. The grid is the cheapest battery I will ever have until they change the net metering program.
Everybody I talk to thinks I still have power when the grid is down. Grid connected solar is a very simple system. HI no longer allows most customers to put power back onto the grid.

This is a bummer for them but should give us some great and cheaper battery back solutions soon in the near future.

[bennelson]

I was hoping to get an aerial shot from a drone.

A friend stopped over today and brought one with. It belonged to the guy's brother, and he hadn't much experience with it yet. I hadn't had any experience with semi-autonomous quadrocopters either.

Combine that with high winds and mostly clouds, and it didn't make for great filming. We only got a couple of half-decent video clips, but at least we didn't crash the drone into anything.

The friend was driving his 2017 Chevy Volt (Gen 2) which we plugged in to the garage. We used his portable (Level 1) EVSE, but plugged it into my NEMA 14-50 (240V) wall connection with a physical adapter. Portable 240V charging!

Electric cars LOVE solar!







I took the Volt for a spin. Nice car! While there, we put about 5 kWh of juice into the volt. The friend made it back home on all electric with a few EV miles to spare.

[pinballlooking]

Drone shots and solar go hand and hand. Your array looks good from the sky.

Nice Volt and it was nice of you to give the Volt a drink of sun while it was there.
We have put 71,539 solar powered EV miles on our volt. It is just amazing to drive that many miles on the sun. We are very thankful….

[bennelson]

Here's the video from the drone.

It's kinda terrible. Never flown one of these before, and it turned overcast and windy. Still fun though!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLEunx9E4EQ

[bennelson]

Still a few more things to do on the garage.

The main ones are:
1. A retaining wall on the west side of the building. I need to bring the ground up by about 2 feet to not only help with the slope, but also to make the height of the building low enough vs the ground. (The County was a REALL pain in the butt about height restrictions!)

2. Gutters. Erosion is already pretty bad where the rain drips right off the roof.

3. Snow holds. I need some of those thing-a-majiggers that keep snow from melting and sliding off the roof all as one sheet. I was originally planning on NOT using any, but I talked to a gutter guy, and he said that sheets of snow car tear gutters right off.

4. Upstairs flooring and hand-rail. The floor upstairs is just OSB sheet wood. I need some sort of flooring up there. Probably going with a cheap cork tile. I also want to build a hand-rail (likely out of steel pipe) to go around the scary staircase hole.

In other news, I finally have a FULL month of data on my solar system. In August 2017, my solar panels produced 835 kWh of energy! That's about 5% higher than my original estimates! That's also more energy than I normally use in a month, so I will definitely get a credit.

I've only gotten one electric bill since commissioning the solar system, and that was only for about HALF a month of solar. That electric bill was reduced by $68 compared to the previous month.

EXACTLY how large the credit is, and how it's applied, I won't know until I get my next bill.

[Daox]

Very cool Ben! 800kwh is great! I usually manage with about 400 and change in summer time (no a/c running though).

[bennelson]

I've now gotten two electric bills since installing the solar. For the first full month of solar, I got a credit of $40. For the second month, a credit of $20.

At this point, I have a $60 credit with the power company. Any excess I make in the summer is expected to be used up through the winter.

Yesterday, I got my utility rebate in the mail. That's the incentive through utilities in my state for renewable energy and energy efficiency programs. It's 12% of the solar installation cost.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGrkw0Dyfko

[bennelson]

The garage is up and running!

I still need shelving and storage organization, but it's a real building!

I did a How-To on my entire process of designing and installing the solar.
Last summer, I did a webinar type video about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvUohDXKjYw

But here's the full written version:
https://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Solar-Garage/

I also ended up building a solar storm door for the one garage door. It's sort of a simple passive solar retrofit. It's loosely based on the doors that Gary Reysa did and wrote up in HOME POWER.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Pas...r-Garage-Door/

I still have to get the garage organized. There's still a few tools where I don't know if they are at my parent's place, in a storage unit, or somewhere else!

[pinballlooking]

I think solar is very sexy! Charging EV’s on solar is even more sexy.
I laughed out loud thinking I am probably one of the few people that thanks that way.

It was fun watching your solar journey.
We used some similar products. My project was 100% DIY but my roof pitch was not as steep as yours.
My system has 54 panels so a few more trips up the roof 😊

My power company will not allow a breaker disconnect switch like yours. They require a blade type switch that has a physical switch movement.

[arnesr]

Wow, nice detailed instructable you have created! That should help a lot of people who what to do DIY solar and have questions.

I'm in Wisconsin and also put in a DIY system last year. I went the SolarEdge route for my system, but I see a lot of similarities on the reporting and monitoring side with your Enphase system.