diy solar

diy solar

Why Bother!? $$$OffGrid$$$

JoeHam said:
I agree but my wife doesn’t want a big freezer in the kitchen to replace a normal fridge.

Decision made! ?
Click to expand...

Doesn't need to be big. Phase change provides cold storage. H20 melts at 32F, but salt water has colder melting point (think ice cream maker), so bottles of that tuned to the right temperature would let it coast through the night without warming up.


H2O and NaCl cost less than Pb or Li
They also don't wear out with cycling.
 
most p[eople want to get that govco monkey of off their back, in 2017 they shut us of for not accepting smartmeter and not paying the nonsmartmeter extortion fee, living in a city is the norm, so hearing people "get out of city" makes me shake my head, not like all 330 million people can just pick up and go to some amazing paradise. where the running water is not owned by govco, or the land is "agenda21-2030" do not enter . and being over 50 its not easy to go live somewhere in the booneys. so i too have to look at watt [lol pun] i can do. and yah off grid is 100 times more expensive, not to mention a huge learning curve, and you got to be a handy man/woman. also what happens if this made in China junk burns your place down?, and insurance says to bad after paying them for 50 years?

so this guy is correct in looking at it, its a minimum 10k$, but the worst part is finding out what is junk and what is decent, and its ALL made in China [no wonder amerika is going down the poopshute] as a conclusiion , reason i like wills videos, he shows you the decent stuff, and how to put it all together, BUT as i type this, the new 5k inverters, drained the batteries [8 of 6v golf cart in 12v config] from 13.8 [midnight 150] to 11.3 just to test the oil heater to see if that would work for the old 89 to be warm from october to may... hmm guess next thing is to see how many LiFePo$$ is going to take to power that,a light and a radio just to keep her confortable in her room. but as for my small 3k/day is another story... so yah trying to get of grid is NOT for the peasants living here north of the invisible border.
 
There are products in this marketplace that are still made in the USA.

MidNite Solar's products are designed and produced in Arlington, Washington USA. Soon they'll have a line of inverters, and a larger 600V charge controller too - these are the guys from Heart, and Xantrex - they've been developing this stuff since the 1970's. They are the people to go to for your BOS - all the stuff to hook it all together - their e-panels are state of the industry, as in just about the only game in town unless you want to build your own. No, I don't have stock in the company or any other interest, I'm just really pleased with their products which I've been using for 20+ years in one form or another.

My SMA Solar inverter is made in Germany - it's not the USA, but it's sure not China either.

My big Onan is built in the USA with a made-in-Japan Kubota engine - again not China. And the little one has a German Hatz engine and was built in Italy by Lombardini for Cummins Onan.

My racking is good old USA... and my battery was made in the San Francisco bay area.

My solar panels are made in Indonesia but the company is based in Shanghai, I'm sure there is something Chinese in my system somewhere, though I've tried not to have any when I could reasonably do so.

Not tooting my own horn, I'm just trying to point out it is possible to avoid China and still put together an entire system. Plus, for whatever premium I paid price-wize was more than offset by decent warranties from people I expect to still be around in 10 years to honor them. Now I know nothing about LiFePo2 or other odd (to me) batteries, but there is lots of battery development going on here too - it can't be impossible.
 
Late to this party but hey, I'm new here. I'm going complete solar but will still be connected to the grid to use as an emergency backup. Nicaragua electric supply is horrible with voltage fluctuations, frequent outages though now only for minutes at a time aside from major storms. A bigger issue is the pricing tiers. below 150kwh a month I pay about $12, 152kwh is $30+ and increasing drastically beyond that. I know people paying $1000/mo and a very big possibility for major increases soon.
A $7000 system including 10kw of battery is more for security and also tired of having my bill state 3 hours above the tier for 5 months and then a month with a bill 25kwh less to balance out the readings after stealing $100 or so.
Economically it makes no sense. It doesn't matter. I will be free of their games and always have 116-120v instead of 105-130v and no worries about appliances blowing up.
 
Skid said:
Late to this party but hey, I'm new here. I'm going complete solar but will still be connected to the grid to use as an emergency backup. Nicaragua electric supply is horrible with voltage fluctuations, frequent outages though now only for minutes at a time aside from major storms.
Click to expand...
Ouch! I think most Americans take the grid for granted, I know I do. I have been paying $0.10 a KW for the last 15 years and can't remember the last time the power went out for more than a few seconds (usually a car driving up a utility pole). I use about 450-1500KW depending on the month, but I have been trying to reduce that. AC is the biggest sucker of power for me. That accounts for about 20-30kw a day in the Summer (May-Oct).
 
1500kwh in a year? Bigger wow. And 1/3 of that just for coffee. Life is different here.
 
Looks like I've been making around 20 MWh/year.
What I've bought in the past year will double that (and that's with the original panels taken offline.)

I could get by with much less if I just stuck with gas heat. I'm only playing with this much electricity "just because".
I made it my "COVID project"
 
I was going to ask, "Are you from Texas?"
Sure enough!

Everything's bigger in Texas. Including the power outages.
 
My grid provider did a robocall yesterday saying to expect rolling blackouts, but so far the grid is still up. I built my backup system to keep the fridge and communication stuff going. My batteries are fully charged, but its not like I really need to worry about the refrigerator in this cold. I have electric resistance heat and did not design the backup to keep that going. Long range plan is to add gas and/or wood heat. I have gas cooktop and a gas clothes dryer that could be used to put some heat into the house if things get really bad.

I will put solar panels to keep the battery going, eventually.
 
It all depends.

In some places with high cost of energy you can recover the investment a lot sooner. And if you DIY the battery (The most expensive part), you can get in to the equilibrium point in a few years.

For example, an ongrid solar system, based on our hours of sun and electricity cost, can be recovered in around 5 years (2 - 3 if you are running a commercial rate). Offgrid should be less than 10 years.

In my case, i think i was around 6-7 years with a DIY battery.. if i had bough the bateries with boat shipment that would be around 5- 6y.... decent enough!.

---
But i didnt even worry too much with this calculations, my objective was to be able to run without grid. With climate change, the incoming / current economic crisis and other factors some countries are going to have a lot of failing infraestructure. Case in point my country, they are fu$% things up and we experienced a couple of nationwide blackouts just in the last 6 months... for hours!.

Having the ability to continue working, or save all your freezer / fridge food with the peace of mind that brings.... its worth a lot more than the ROI of the equipment.
 
Q-Dog said:
I have gas cooktop and a gas clothes dryer that could be used to put some heat into the house if things get really bad.
Click to expand...

Have a carbon monoxide alarm?
I only set mine off once. Forgot the oven and left it on all night.
Clothes dryer sounds like a risky idea.
 
Hedges said:
Have a carbon monoxide alarm?
I only set mine off once. Forgot the oven and left it on all night.
Clothes dryer sounds like a risky idea.
Click to expand...
Like I said, only if things get really bad. I grew up in houses that had non-vented natural gas and propane heaters. The gas dryer is really just a heater with a fan. I wouldn't run it without some ventilation.
 
Hedges said:
I was going to ask, "Are you from Texas?"
Sure enough!

Everything's bigger in Texas. Including the power outages.
Click to expand...
Yeah, got caught with my pants down. All my solar stuff is in another city at my 2 acre next adventure. Generator too...

D- for winter storm preparedness....
 
Q-Dog said:
Like I said, only if things get really bad. I grew up in houses that had non-vented natural gas and propane heaters. The gas dryer is really just a heater with a fan. I wouldn't run it without some ventilation.
Click to expand...

Are those truly non-vented, all exhaust gas from the burner went inside the house?
I'm familiar with furnaces in the floor, where you can see the flame and they probably draw room air. But I thought the exhaust went out a vent on the roof.

The non-vented modern gas heaters I'm aware of have an O2 sensor.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Tomcat91709
New Home Construction System Design
Replies
8
Views
286
Quattrohead
Quattrohead
M
Where to Store Solar Components and Batteries in Cold Climates
2
Replies
22
Views
689
740GLE
7
O
Max number of sunny boys
Replies
15
Views
508
Hedges
Hedges
paul65k
New (Old Member) Checking in
2
Replies
26
Views
695
paul65k
paul65k
Turbo_Gunner
Eg4 6000ex single unit enough?
Replies
9
Views
387
Timmaahhh
T
Back
Top