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Lights shouldnt be used at that point. No noise either. We have power outages so often we are used to getting around in the dark or with flashlghts.

I opted for an 80 gallon tank, timer comes on from 4am to 7am, and from 4pm to 8pm. Plenty of hot water, if we need more I just throw the timer switch override. I will be adding a 50 gallon preheater tank in the future to further reduce the power used, probably heat that with the woodstove...

I started with 12v, and upgraded to 24v since al I needed to do was add two more AGM batteries. Easier on the wallet than going 48v with a single battery, as I have read 12v in series is not a great idea for 48v use. Small 2k system though, if I expand then I will consider selling everything and...

I did try this with two batteries, plus a Trojan 150ah one. No success with any. One of the batteries , a DEka I think, would finally take a charge, but on any load it would drop right off a cliff. On the plus side, I have a years supply of Epsom Salts now.

Be advised, in NY, there already is a mandatory "meter charge" whether you use any electricity at all, your electric usage just gets tacked onto that "basic service charge", along with numerous other miscellaneous fees. Here its just shy of $70 / month per meter, plus usage and fees. No net...

That seems pretty close to me, for lead acid, I wouldnt be concerned with that difference, I sometimes see 14.8 on one and 14.4 on the other during charging, although in float they both settle out to 13.6 after the balancer has done its thing. A few tenths difference is not something terrible...

Gov's have already done that to the atmosphere using the HAARP facilities, pumping megawatts into the air.

I would suspect all claims of output unless you can see others getting the same. There are some proven installations that publish data, see www.fieldlines.com and publications by scorag. Many , many variables in wind power, you might have a great spot, you might not, maybe try a cheap "toy"...

Just prior to superstorm Sandy, we had a derecho blow through which actually took down my utility pole with the meters on it. Since it was a "private pole", it was my responsibility to repair it. This was in July sometime, if I remember right, We were without electricity for 3 weeks. I did have...

I am running a very similar setup, 2 chest freezers and one chest freezer converted to a refrigerator. Average running watts is about 110 watts, but on one of the freezers I have seen 830w on a start up surge. Assuming all are similar, thats a 2490w load for startup. Some argue thats unlikely to...

My chickens dont bother with flies or moskitos, or anything flying other than a butterfly sometimes. They are true decimators of dirt though. Having access to fresh ground they will start digging, and in a day can produce a chicken sized hole (with an accompanying dirt pile) , so your rotating...

I would never even consider exporting to the grid. I am already "on grid", the next buyer can do the same. Just like I would never consider extending my wifi to cover the neighborhood.

As nobodysbusiness points out , while its possible to shield your power producing items (spares), (SCC, panels, inverters etc) its really not possible to shield all your appliances you intend to run. Maybe you could put backup furnaces, fridges, freezers, etc all in a storage container, but...

Three wires coming from the turbine is AC feed, must go to a rectifier somewhere to convert to DC, unless it does that in the controller. I have a rectifier attached under my turbine alternator so my feed lines are DC and only two (pos and neg). So no amps in any of the feed wires? It would...

I just put bird spikes along the top row of panels, no problems at all.

I would never "order" panels until I had a good idea of the shipping costs. SanTan blasted me with 750$ shipping on 275$ of used panels. Not going to happen. An estimate up front before ordering is the only way I would order panels.

the proximity of the roof is causing turbulence. I have the same issues, and a taller mast is in its future. Placement should not be near any buildings, Mine is between two barns, so I use the funnel effect of the wind between the buildings to spin it, but that only works for winds coming from...

What begins as an incentive usually morphs into a requirement over time. Solar was launched with pretty good incentives for buyback, but it is currently being reduced, and will eventually (maybe quite soon) become required to build into all housing with no incentives at all, but the amount...

Yes, 3 phase through a rectifier, thx.

All screw terminals like that should be retightened periodically, I recheck mine 2-3 times a year, always find a few loosening up. Fine strand wire is particularly prone to loosening. I pick a dark night and go out and tighten the combiner box screws, and inside I shut down the system and...

All connections are made, but there are disconnects on both sides of the battery (exporting) side. Beyond those are the shunt and inverter. I am only running the SCC and the remote control meter and have PV in and charging the batteries. I think I have inadvertently solved this though, I just...

Be aware those plastic combiner boxes can leak as the plastic warps slightly in the heat. I had to put a small roof over mine. I know they are supposed to be "waterproof", but mine wasn't.

At least it is shutting down, not sending smoke signals...

This post is probably better suited for Fieldlines which is much more in depth than this mostly solar oriented site. Most of my formulas for this came from there , along with Hughs' blogs on the subjects.

Watch a few of Wills videos, under "DIY Solar Videos" tab at the top.

I ran 1.4kw through my Renogy Rover 40amp controller for most of last year, no issues at all.

You want the opposite ends of the spectrum for your shop project, on one hand, lights and small power tools, (which is one type of system), on the other hand, compressors and motors, which is really another type of system, been there. The first small system is easy to set up using 12v, a small...

Brought to mind an article I wrote for a website many years ago - NatGeo - Doomsday Preppers Series Episode Air Date: 4/03/12 Topic(s): Concerns were as follows: Dirty Bomb fallout, Conventional nuclear attack, CME and EMP Prepper #3 This last person in this episode is Jack from...

I had similar concerns, so I adapted a 36" chest freezer to utilize as a refrigerator. It draws 75w every 40 minutes and cycles between 35 and 41 degrees. Works perfectly and in the event of an outage we will move the contents of the fridge to that special freezer. Right now it just holds the beer.

Back to the op point - the reason 24v is mentioned is that the amp requirement will be reduced. A 600w inverter will be supplying a huge amp draw at 12v, thats the reasoning behind the limitations. Wire gauge size to the inverter will be 4/0 at 12v, but only 2/0 needed for 24v as the amperage...