timselectric
If I can do it, you can do it.
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Don't get me wrong. Some of them will get located in a place where they can produce, temporarily.
My build thread
- Thread starter timselectric
- Start date
BartHenry
Solar Enthusiast
I actually has someone in my neighborhood say "since you have solar, you but be a Trump supporter"...
WTF
WTF
shadowmaker
Solar Addict
That's double what new panels cost here now. I haven't seen panels this cheap here before though. Maybe because winter is coming and solar business is getting really slow. I'm going to put 26 x 550W tier1 half cell monofacials on my barn roof (perpendicular to my current array). Postage not included, but I can pick those up with my van, so ~80e for diesel.
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
Ah - so envious of you guys with these really large PV arrays up and running, and installing more...Need more panels, need more panels, need more panels...
ksmithaz1
Solar / EV Junkie
I keep my eye out. SanTan has some used 65x40in 290's for USD66, thats 0.23/w . Solar steals had some 77x36, 325's for $100 (0.31/w) . The problem with the smaller wattage panels is you have to clean all the Trump signs off the front yard to make room for the extra mounts to hold all the panels. I have a bunch of older 250's around 65x40. I'm working on the mounts for them now, but at some point I may swap them for something a little more dense roughly the same size. Verticle mounts so I'll be able to go a little longer just not wider than ~40. The problem with the ~500w panels is they are so friggin huge, some are in the 80x45 range with makes them very awkward to work with.
I think something around 72x36 at 400W would be better. I'm holding out at this point for a density improvement, but my current fall production is around 60% of summer. Worst day for solar should be coming up soon mid-December, we'll see how bad it gets. Tim: You need to get some of those panels going before the shortest day of the year! Looks great though, I do envy the space you have, looks like your close a full disconnect from the power company!
I think something around 72x36 at 400W would be better. I'm holding out at this point for a density improvement, but my current fall production is around 60% of summer. Worst day for solar should be coming up soon mid-December, we'll see how bad it gets. Tim: You need to get some of those panels going before the shortest day of the year! Looks great though, I do envy the space you have, looks like your close a full disconnect from the power company!
shadowmaker
Solar Addict
At least in here it doesn't matter how big your array is this time of year - no sun, no fun.
timselectric
If I can do it, you can do it.
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So far I'm still getting to 100%, before noon.
I'm curious to see how it goes this winter, as is.
I will be doing some testing on the ground with these and some micro inverters. Before they go on the garage roof.
Once I get the power room built out, completely.
I will be completely off grid. Just have to find the time to finish it.
The only things still on the grid are the range, two counter top kitchen circuits, and the garage.
I'm getting closer every day.
I’m pulling from the grid again during off peak to supplement. A whole 80 cents a day on average for the last week? I’d love to go big scale like some of you guys but it’s not happening at this location. I’m getting giddy just thinking about moving to a place with land and less people. Learning from you guys what works
dougbert
Solar Addict
it is a great feeling. I even have the range on solar. So far this year, the grid's breaker has been off 98% or so since April 1st. 97kwh grid total, with 56 kwh due to charging the batteries a couple of time this month and in Oct via the Chargeverter from the grid, due to more rain and clouds
Since retiring last year, I have been watching and looking for loads in the house to reduce and replace. One is load is my main software development "big" box computer. I have managed to have it turned off most of the time now. Also I have a mini-pc in hand to replace my wife's computer (an older box I used to develop software on) which is an energy hog (4 kwh per day).
seek and destroy energy loads is my game plan now
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Dave911
Solar Enthusiast
Seek and destroy - I like it!
Just an FYI - The tiny Beelink computers on Amazon are very good. I have two of them and they are holding up well. The Blackview ones are not as good. The 4 core Intel CPUs have enough power to run just about anything. They draw very little power and can mount to the back of a screen. I replaced my big power sucking desktop software dev machine with a refurbed Dell Precision 6 core Intel i-7. Its screaming fast and it goes to sleep quickly and wakes quickly and draws very little power when snoozing. I can run my older software on virtual machines and it is still much faster than running on the old hardware. In fact the VMware convert software will convert an entire old machine to a virtual machine easily.
Dave911
Solar Enthusiast
timselectric
If I can do it, you can do it.
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No
I've purchased all of my panels (160 so far) from them.
Very satisfied. Packaging is great. And if any are damaged. No hassle for the refund. Just send pictures.
42OhmsPA
What's in a title?
Adding this to the list of items to print and laminate on a slow day at work, thanks.
At the rate Tim's going he's gonna need a bigger capacitor and a rail car of flux ?.
ksmithaz1
Solar / EV Junkie
I'm past geek on the computer front. I pay for rackspace at a DC for the bulk of it. At home I only have two(2) Synology units and two home-brew VSAN units running VM's on an IKEA shelf behind me (with an orange pi 5 as the 3rd leg of the gluster VSAN). There are two other PC's and I've got two 27" 4K's, one at each desk, There is a 48port Juniper EX switch with 350W of POE, I have 2 or 4 port lags to all the NAS/VSAN units. I put a 20A / 240v twist-loc on the wall it's feeding a 240v tripplite ups (I ran #10 so I can bump it later if desired). In a closet in the middle bedroom I have a 19" wall rack with another 350W 48 port Juniper POE, a Firewall another UPS and some patch panels, along with a DSL and cable modem, plus an LTE backup device. There are two big screen TV's, the LR has an HTPC with an HDHomerun Extend, on 24x7 servicing Emby,Plex, and Jellyfin with various VM's and machines. None of this crap uses enough power for me to hardly notice. I also have TWO refrigerators...
Panel Load is from the sensors, Energy Demand is from the inverters, they are in lock step unless I'm on grid.
I'm dumping power to the EV's (RED) from the batteries now at night / in the am based on enough SOC to last until production ramps. The static load between 2300 and 0400 is under 1200 watts. The real loads outside the EV's come from the electric HWH, Dryer, and the HVAC. It's been in the mid-50's at night, in the summer that yellow line is pretty much solid until around 2300 then drops for 15 minute intervals every hour from then until morning.
Might be because I generate and use so bloody much power it seems insignificant, but I've had overnight load dip down well below 1KW. I went ahead and turned off my chargeverter since I got the extra batteries. I'd get a handle on your quiet/static load amount, but you'll pry my compute out of my cold dead hands
, and it's probably a lot less than you think. I think Tim is right at that threshold as well with batteries, but I'm guessing he's going to want to hit between 100-120KWH. I started bleeding mine for the EV because I was clipping at 1300 when they got full, but with occasional 0 days for weather I'd invest in another bank or two if you can fill them. The lowest production I've ever had was around 40KWH, but for you'se guys' it will take at least a single day buffer, more likely 2 to get closer to 100%. Do you actually get 0 or is it like 3KWH or .... ? ie will more panels help at all when the weather sucks?If your somewhat geekish, and OrangePi 5b with 16GB/256GB can be had for under $200, and will drive two 4K monitors, extremely snappy, I'm running Plasma on Debian. The newer Ryzen APU's are also extremely performant for normal workloads, When I swapped out two of my older dual opteron 6-core servers for Ryzen 6/12 HE's at the DC I did see the load drop about 200W. I don't really need the PCI lane IO.
timselectric
If I can do it, you can do it.
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Sometimes I get an idea for a project. And I just have to build it emidiatly. lol
Back story.
I have a commercial ice maker. And it drains to the outdoors. Last year I had to shut it down for winter. Because the drain froze up, and it backed up in the house. So this year I decided to add a condensation pump for it. So it could be pumped to an inside drain. This way, it could run through the winter.
But every time I heard that pump run. All that I could think was, 16 ounces of clean water down the drain. (yes, I measured it)
Then I started to think about other things that dumped water down the drain. Like the condensation from A/C. (I plan on having several mini splits)
The project.
Collect all of that clean water and put it to good use.
It all goes to a 20 gallon tank that feeds the toilet on the first floor. City water keeps the tank between 5 and 10 gallons, if needed. But all of the Collected water is put in the tank, now.
I've been tweaking the setup for two weeks. And it's working perfectly, now.
I'll move it into the closet. Once I know that it doesn't need babysitting.
Everything is 12v , from my DC system.
Back story.
I have a commercial ice maker. And it drains to the outdoors. Last year I had to shut it down for winter. Because the drain froze up, and it backed up in the house. So this year I decided to add a condensation pump for it. So it could be pumped to an inside drain. This way, it could run through the winter.
But every time I heard that pump run. All that I could think was, 16 ounces of clean water down the drain. (yes, I measured it)
Then I started to think about other things that dumped water down the drain. Like the condensation from A/C. (I plan on having several mini splits)
The project.
Collect all of that clean water and put it to good use.
It all goes to a 20 gallon tank that feeds the toilet on the first floor. City water keeps the tank between 5 and 10 gallons, if needed. But all of the Collected water is put in the tank, now.
I've been tweaking the setup for two weeks. And it's working perfectly, now.
I'll move it into the closet. Once I know that it doesn't need babysitting.
Everything is 12v , from my DC system.
dougbert
Solar Addict
good thinking outside the box - great idea
diagrams please and parts list
diagrams please and parts list
timselectric
If I can do it, you can do it.
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Very simple.
All "free water" is pumped to the tank from various locations.
12v on demand pump feeds the toilet from the storage tank.
Float switch in tank controls solenoid valve. Which let's city water make sure that I always have at least 5 gallons in the tank.
curiouscarbon
Science Penguin
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2020
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- 3,029
neat!
condensation water seems to collect other materials too from air, which can accumulate
mixing it with city water should dilute the issue.
nice hack!
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