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Posted: 5/8/2024 9:49:52 PM EDT
[#1]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Canoeguy: Which is a decent sized set up. A lot of folks are talking about battery backups which I think is great. In fact I would say that in most real instances would be more than enough for most folks. But it would not have worked in Panama and it would not help here in serious extended circumstances. But I am not criticizing any suggestions as they are all great and all likely fit into someone’s wants and perceived needs. We all imagine our own SHTF scenarios. A week or two with no power wouldn’t affect me in the least. My scenario is a massive infrastructure attack that genuinely cripples our country. Far fetched? Maybe…but a lot of people seem to be warning us of that very thing. I’m running a cabin on less than 1KW worth of panels and 600AH of battery bank. It seems to be enough, even in the winter months for our 160 foot well, water, charging and microwave needs. It’s enough to run an electric log splitter as fast as you can cycle it and only take the top .2 Volts off of the battery on an overcast day…. You might need to be a little more careful than usual in the dead of winter with so many cloudy days but it has never run out of juice on me. It’s actually a problem that it works as well as it does because I have another 5kw of panels that need to be installed and I haven’t really had a the push of Neccesity to make it happen. Thankfully, I can afford to wait until some things get built and installed on the property first to make room for them. |
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Posted: 5/8/2024 9:51:53 PM EDT
[#2]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Ben: I run my house, which has no grid power, by simply having a 3300W lithium battery with a built in inverter, which I run a 2000w generator for about 2 hours every other day to charge. It literally costs me what comes out to less than 2 dollars a day. Of course, to be fair my fridge, freezer, water heater, and stove are all propane... Are you on a well? For me that’s a 1650 watt load to go 160 feet down and back on a 1/2hp 110VAC pump.. |
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Posted: 5/8/2024 9:58:11 PM EDT
[#3]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By TheOtherDave: Are you on a well? For me that’s a 1650 watt load to go 160 feet down and back on a 1/2hp 110VAC pump.. Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By TheOtherDave: Originally Posted By Ben: I run my house, which has no grid power, by simply having a 3300W lithium battery with a built in inverter, which I run a 2000w generator for about 2 hours every other day to charge. It literally costs me what comes out to less than 2 dollars a day. Of course, to be fair my fridge, freezer, water heater, and stove are all propane... Are you on a well? For me that’s a 1650 watt load to go 160 feet down and back on a 1/2hp 110VAC pump.. Yeah. I can run the well pump off the battery, but typically I'll try to run it (there are holding tanks and pressure tanks in the house) when the generator is running. Only need to fill the house tanks once a week, and it takes about 30 minutes. |
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NC, USA
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Posted: 5/8/2024 10:29:49 PM EDT
[Last Edit: wwglen]
[#4]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By nowgrn4: lol Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By nowgrn4: Originally Posted By wwglen: My setup should allow me to keep one large room with AC (8000 BTU inverter AC), lights, two refrigerators, TV and charge devices for 1.5-2 gallons a day. If I drop off the AC and use fans, I will be using about 1/4 - 1/2 gallon a day. lol lol… Yep. Inverter compressor refrigerator averages about 20 watts (1 hour on / 3 hour off 455 w-hours a day, if I run it constantly for 24 hours it uses 657 w-hours) and I have two of them. 8000 btu inverter air compressor averages 600 watts on high, but you can turn cooling down on inverter AC and drop it to about 450 on medium or 300 on low. I have about 2000 watt-hours of battery capacity and about 500 watts of solar. I also have about 1000 watts of AC charging that I can put into the batteries. Based on this, with the AC on medium can run my generator for about one hour on and four off if the sun is shining and one hour on, two hours off if the sun isn’t shining. This relates to 6-8 hours of generator runtime a day. While my generator claimed to have a 8-10 hour per gallon runtime, that is at 25% load and I would be running it at about 80% load when I run it so I should get about 5 hours runtime per gallon of gas. So yes, I should be able to get by with 1.5 - 2 gallons of gas. Having some battery capacity to buffer the energy produced by the generator can really cut down the gas usage. |
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USA
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Posted: 5/8/2024 10:46:55 PM EDT
[#5]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Canoeguy: Which is a decent sized set up. A lot of folks are talking about battery backups which I think is great. In fact I would say that in most real instances would be more than enough for most folks. But it would not have worked in Panama and it would not help here in serious extended circumstances. But I am not criticizing any suggestions as they are all great and all likely fit into someone’s wants and perceived needs. We all imagine our own SHTF scenarios. A week or two with no power wouldn’t affect me in the least. My scenario is a massive infrastructure attack that genuinely cripples our country. Far fetched? Maybe…but a lot of people seem to be warning us of that very thing. If you set it up right, it will run your house off the grid indefinitely. The panels run the house and charge the batteries. At night the batteries run the house. When the sun comes up, it recharges the batteries. If you live in a sunny place then a 13kWh battery should work fine. In a cloudy or rainy area I think I'd want at least 20kWh of batteries. I can hit the main breaker on our house and stay that way as long as I like. 1 day, 1 week, 1 year Doesn't matter how long. |
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Posted: 5/8/2024 11:33:44 PM EDT
[#6]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By laxman09: If the power is out, it probably means we got a lot of rain and I need to run my sump pump 24/7 unless I want my basement to flood. I just plug it into my outside interlock plug and Im in business. The longest we've been without power is 12 hours in the current house and my 8750 Champion dual fuel worked great, albeit noisy. I keep enough fuel on hand for a few days of running 24/7. With two cars at home I could always siphon more out of the tanks. Im always curious how everyone runs all their extension cords through their house without having their doors or windows open. Or do yall just have to keep one open to feed the cord through? There is a thru wall kit that has a generator plug on the exterior and six normal plugs on the interior. It’s about $100. I eliminates the need for doors to be open. If you have an interlock switch on your breaker box with a generator specific breaker, you don’t need any extension cords. Then generator plugs in and you use your breakers to control the circuits. The interlock is a physical device, pretty simple, that requires the main to be shut off before the generator breaker can be turned on. It prevents back feeding the grid. The circuits are manipulated based on the size of the generator. I know you mentioned an interlock, but I don think that is what you are talking about. |
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Posted: 5/8/2024 11:49:30 PM EDT
[#7]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Lawmonkey: If you set it up right, it will run your house off the grid indefinitely. The panels run the house and charge the batteries. At night the batteries run the house. When the sun comes up, it recharges the batteries. If you live in a sunny place then a 13kWh battery should work fine. In a cloudy or rainy area I think I'd want at least 20kWh of batteries. I can hit the main breaker on our house and stay that way as long as I like. 1 day, 1 week, 1 year Doesn't matter how long. Are you the guy that did the thread on A/C soft starts last year? |
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NC, USA
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Posted: 5/9/2024 12:00:31 AM EDT
[#8]
If you have to run a cord inside the window, you can use a pool noodle as a pass through.
Cut a pool noodle a little longer than the width of the window. Drill a hole (or two) a little smaller than the cord through the pool noodle. Cut a slit through one side of the pool noodle until it meets the hole you drilled. You can then bend the noodle until the cord can slide through the slit into the hole. Then press fit the noodle into the window opening and shut the window. Since the noodle is a little longer than the window, you can either compress the ends as you fit it into the window opening, or you can shape the ends to fit. |
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USA
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Posted: 5/9/2024 5:54:13 AM EDT
[#9]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By RLR350: Are you the guy that did the thread on A/C soft starts last year? No. I'm just a guy who wanted to make sure I could go indefinitely in case of a major infrastructure failure by being as self sufficient as possible. Long term power failure has been on my radar for about 15 years. Technology just happened to catch up with my paranoia. |
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Posted: 5/9/2024 6:21:43 AM EDT
[#10]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By wwglen: lol… Yep. Inverter compressor refrigerator averages about 20 watts (1 hour on / 3 hour off 455 w-hours a day, if I run it constantly for 24 hours it uses 657 w-hours) and I have two of them. 8000 btu inverter air compressor averages 600 watts on high, but you can turn cooling down on inverter AC and drop it to about 450 on medium or 300 on low. I have about 2000 watt-hours of battery capacity and about 500 watts of solar. I also have about 1000 watts of AC charging that I can put into the batteries. Based on this, with the AC on medium can run my generator for about one hour on and four off if the sun is shining and one hour on, two hours off if the sun isn’t shining. This relates to 6-8 hours of generator runtime a day. While my generator claimed to have a 8-10 hour per gallon runtime, that is at 25% load and I would be running it at about 80% load when I run it so I should get about 5 hours runtime per gallon of gas. So yes, I should be able to get by with 1.5 - 2 gallons of gas. Having some battery capacity to buffer the energy produced by the generator can really cut down the gas usage. Pretty slick, you have a hybrid system then. I was trying to figure how you ran all that load with 2 gal. Even the small 1,000Watt gennies that have a .6gal tank only run around 6 hours with minimum load. That's 2.4Gal a day. Do you have ICECO fridges? |
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Posted: 5/9/2024 9:52:33 AM EDT
[#11]
Honestly, the talk of these Hybrid systems is pretty interesting and makes sense to me as a step between full on solar and gas back-up.
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Posted: 5/9/2024 9:58:29 AM EDT
[Last Edit: Kanati]
[#12]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Canoeguy: Honestly, the talk of these Hybrid systems is pretty interesting and makes sense to me as a step between full on solar and gas back-up. One could have enough battery and inverter to support high draw things like well pumps or HVAC, and then combine it with a very small generator and some portable panels to give it legs. I'm honestly a bit surprised we haven't seen hybrid inverter gensets become a thing. You could pair the engine from a small genset to a larger inverter, and then run its DC current through a capacitor or battery bank to support larger, temporary loads. |
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USA
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Posted: 5/9/2024 10:12:18 AM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Canoeguy: Honestly, the talk of these Hybrid systems is pretty interesting and makes sense to me as a step between full on solar and gas back-up. Totally agree. My biggest concern is if the event is long enough then you need enough stored gas to get through when the pumps don't run. I used to rotate a ton of gas. It got very burdensome and I could never store enough for a truly big problem. |
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Posted: 5/9/2024 10:23:25 AM EDT
[#14]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Canoeguy: Honestly, the talk of these Hybrid systems is pretty interesting and makes sense to me as a step between full on solar and gas back-up. The generator is a good backup to have for sure. I keep a 2kw generator as a backup with a car battery charger for my system……. But I have never used it, just didn’t need to. One panel in full sun puts out as much as the car charger. I’m full sun my panels but out 1/4 of their normal output at about 2amps, so 4 of them on a cloudy day still put out as much as the car charger on the generator. A bigger generator with two car chargers would get more done, but it just doesn’t make sense in my particular application. |
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Posted: 5/9/2024 10:36:51 AM EDT
[Last Edit: Canoeguy]
[#15]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Lawmonkey: Totally agree. My biggest concern is if the event is long enough then you need enough stored gas to get through when the pumps don't run. I used to rotate a ton of gas. It got very burdensome and I could never store enough for a truly big problem. In a true survival mode as in the country’s infrastructure is hit hard for whatever reason and power is out indefinitely or is very sporadic I estimate I can pull off the following: I have 60 gallons in Jerry cans and an old Bronco with another 30 gallons, which at 12mpg I would not be driving, so 90 gallons. If I only run about 4 hours a day I would guess somewhere between 1/4 and 1/3 a gallon a day. But lets say 1/3 and divide that into 90 gallons...270 days. But let's be much less optimistic and say only 200 days. That is still over six months with me being generous with usage. That is with discipline and no refuel at all. ETA: Between all my bikes and vehicles I actually have a lot more fuel than that which I would consolidate and only use in my very fuel efficient vehicles. However, I don't count that fuel in my power plans. |
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MI, USA
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Posted: 5/9/2024 12:42:35 PM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By RLR350: Are you the guy that did the thread on A/C soft starts last year? Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By RLR350: Originally Posted By Lawmonkey: If you set it up right, it will run your house off the grid indefinitely. The panels run the house and charge the batteries. At night the batteries run the house. When the sun comes up, it recharges the batteries. If you live in a sunny place then a 13kWh battery should work fine. In a cloudy or rainy area I think I'd want at least 20kWh of batteries. I can hit the main breaker on our house and stay that way as long as I like. 1 day, 1 week, 1 year Doesn't matter how long. Are you the guy that did the thread on A/C soft starts last year? On this particular note; I got an LG Dual Inverter 14,000 BTU window unit last summer (which was one of, if not THE hottest summers here in years). It’s awesome. Cooling ability is great, but what’s fantastic about it, is that the Inverter tech has both soft start, AND is more efficient than the old non-inverter it replaced. It’s been plugged into a Kill-A-Watt type logging power draw device from Day 1, as I wanted to see what kind of power draw it’s showing. The maximum draw on the hottest day, was just 8xx watts.  
The Yamaha EF2000is and Pecron EF2000LFP have no problems with the startup. |
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Posted: 5/9/2024 1:22:39 PM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By bluemax_1: On this particular note; I got an LG Dual Inverter 14,000 BTU window unit last summer (which was one of, if not THE hottest summers here in years). It’s awesome. Cooling ability is great, but what’s fantastic about it, is that the Inverter tech has both soft start, AND is more efficient than the old non-inverter it replaced. It’s been plugged into a Kill-A-Watt type logging power draw device from Day 1, as I wanted to see what kind of power draw it’s showing. The maximum draw on the hottest day, was just 8xx watts. www.amazon.com/dp/B07D81476Q The Yamaha EF2000is and Pecron EF2000LFP have no problems with the startup. Nice A/C. My 3 year old one ton GE A/C I install in a window when needed pulls 790 watts on its coldest setting with the compressor locked. As per the Kill-o-watt. This raises the RPM a small amount above the ECO setting on my 20 year old Honda 2000. We haven't had an extended storm outage since I bought it so I really don't know how many hours run time I'll get off the Honda's 1.1Gal tank. Hoping for around 8. |
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NC, USA
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Posted: 5/10/2024 8:47:00 AM EDT
[Last Edit: wwglen]
[#18]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By nowgrn4: Pretty slick, you have a hybrid system then. I was trying to figure how you ran all that load with 2 gal. Even the small 1,000Watt gennies that have a .6gal tank only run around 6 hours with minimum load. That's 2.4Gal a day. Do you have ICECO fridges? No on the ICECO refrigerator. Just two full size (well one a small full size) refrigerators with inverter compressors that really drop the power requirements. |
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Posted: 5/10/2024 1:56:55 PM EDT
[#19]
My fridge will run off of a 100w panel.
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NC, USA
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Posted: 5/10/2024 2:42:57 PM EDT
[#20]
I had looked at the BougeRV 200 watt bifacial solar panel on eBay for about $100.
I just got an alert for the panels at $59.99 each. There is also a discount if you buy more than one. I got two for about $114 before tax. They only have a few left. BougeRV 200 watt bifacial on eBay |
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Posted: 5/10/2024 5:55:00 PM EDT
[#21]
Anyone have experience with this?
It’s pretty cheap, which makes me wary, but if it’s even half decent…. May grab one.  Attached File |
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NC, USA
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Posted: 5/10/2024 7:28:43 PM EDT
[Last Edit: wwglen]
[#22]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Never_A_Wick: Anyone have experience with this? It’s pretty cheap, which makes me wary, but if it’s even half decent…. May grab one. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/578900/IMG_6230_png-3210661.JPG Firman is a decent brand. This is cheaper than they are selling the refurbished one for on eBay. |
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Posted: 5/10/2024 10:52:29 PM EDT
[#23]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Kanati: Also, we're spoiled and think entire structures need to be cooled. A 5k BTU window unit can keep a bedroom cool enough for everyone to sleep in and still be small enough to run on a 2K inverter. Even if it can't keep it at the 67 degrees you want, just knocking the humidity down combined with a fan is a huge a boon for sleeping. After Hurricane Rita in 2005, this is what we did. 6 of us all piled into my parent's bedroom. We were out of power for 15 days. After Laura in 2020, I think we were out for about 10 days. I don't know that I could've worked 8-10 hours a day stacking cokes, come home and work outside cleaning up trees until sundown, and then sleep comfortably with no a/c. The heat after Laura was brutal. I need to get a small generator. Does anyone have experience with the ECHO inverter generators? Or should I stick with the Honda one? |
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NC, USA
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Posted: 5/12/2024 11:32:25 PM EDT
[#24]
I don’t know about the Echo generators, but from what I’ve read, most of the “generic” Chinese generators are made in the same 2-3 factories and are identical to each other.
The big difference is in customer service. |
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Posted: 5/13/2024 12:08:52 AM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By bluemax_1: On this particular note; I got an LG Dual Inverter 14,000 BTU window unit last summer (which was one of, if not THE hottest summers here in years). It’s awesome. Cooling ability is great, but what’s fantastic about it, is that the Inverter tech has both soft start, AND is more efficient than the old non-inverter it replaced. It’s been plugged into a Kill-A-Watt type logging power draw device from Day 1, as I wanted to see what kind of power draw it’s showing. The maximum draw on the hottest day, was just 8xx watts. www.amazon.com/dp/B07D81476Q The Yamaha EF2000is and Pecron EF2000LFP have no problems with the startup. The window units are a good option for smaller generators that won’t power an A/C. I used one in a house with an interlock switch. I could close off one area of the house and keep it cool. I guess one of these portable units would work well, too. I’d recommend installing the window unit before it’s needed, then remove it, keeping whatever mounting hardware on the window. Nothing is worse than having to figure that crap out when the power is out. With my current set up, I can run both A/C’s (2.5 tons) off my Tesla batteries as long as they don’t start at the same time. I need to put soft starts on them. |
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Posted: 5/13/2024 12:15:05 AM EDT
[Last Edit: RLR350]
[#26]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Logan45: After Hurricane Rita in 2005, this is what we did. 6 of us all piled into my parent's bedroom. We were out of power for 15 days. After Laura in 2020, I think we were out for about 10 days. I don't know that I could've worked 8-10 hours a day stacking cokes, come home and work outside cleaning up trees until sundown, and then sleep comfortably with no a/c. The heat after Laura was brutal. I need to get a small generator. Does anyone have experience with the ECHO inverter generators? Or should I stick with the Honda one? Look at the Ai Power inverter with a Yamaha engine. It is a decent unit and half the price of the Honda. I’m sure the Honda is better, but for the infrequent use I have the Yamaha. It is quiet, sips gas and has the self adjusting power feature where it slows down/speeds up based on the amount of power you’re using. I just added a cheap hour meter I got off Amazon so I know the approximate oil change time.  Attached File |
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Posted: 5/13/2024 9:11:24 AM EDT
[#27]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By RLR350: The window units are a good option for smaller generators that won’t power an A/C. I used one in a house with an interlock switch. I could close off one area of the house and keep it cool. I guess one of these portable units would work well, too. I’d recommend installing the window unit before it’s needed, then remove it, keeping whatever mounting hardware on the window. Nothing is worse than having to figure that crap out when the power is out. With my current set up, I can run both A/C’s (2.5 tons) off my Tesla batteries as long as they don’t start at the same time. I need to put soft starts on them. Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By RLR350: Originally Posted By bluemax_1: On this particular note; I got an LG Dual Inverter 14,000 BTU window unit last summer (which was one of, if not THE hottest summers here in years). It’s awesome. Cooling ability is great, but what’s fantastic about it, is that the Inverter tech has both soft start, AND is more efficient than the old non-inverter it replaced. It’s been plugged into a Kill-A-Watt type logging power draw device from Day 1, as I wanted to see what kind of power draw it’s showing. The maximum draw on the hottest day, was just 8xx watts. www.amazon.com/dp/B07D81476Q The Yamaha EF2000is and Pecron EF2000LFP have no problems with the startup. The window units are a good option for smaller generators that won’t power an A/C. I used one in a house with an interlock switch. I could close off one area of the house and keep it cool. I guess one of these portable units would work well, too. I’d recommend installing the window unit before it’s needed, then remove it, keeping whatever mounting hardware on the window. Nothing is worse than having to figure that crap out when the power is out. With my current set up, I can run both A/C’s (2.5 tons) off my Tesla batteries as long as they don’t start at the same time. I need to put soft starts on them. @RLR350 Care to give a little more info on your "Tesla batteries." Do you have Tesla roof panels and a powerwall? |
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Posted: 5/13/2024 10:05:01 AM EDT
[#28]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By towerofpower94: @RLR350 Care to give a little more info on your "Tesla batteries." Do you have Tesla roof panels and a powerwall? I have 30 roof top panels. I think they are Hyundai brand. They feed two Tesla Power Wall 2’s. The system powers a 4200 sf, two story house. Everything is hooked up to the batteries except my pool and double oven. The house runs off solar during the day. Excess charges the batteries. Once the batteries are at 100%, excess goes to the grid for credit. At night, the batteries take over until the sun comes up again. The system is expensive. I have no idea what the ROI. I accept it’s expensive. I have had the system running about a year now. I have no complaints at all. If I were to do it again I would put the “smart” breaker panel in (I think Span is the name). I have a traditional breaker sub panel only because I didn’t know the smart one existed.  Attached File |
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USA
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Posted: 5/13/2024 10:11:22 AM EDT
[#29]
If i had a big enough battery a 2200 sized generator will output on average what I use on average. I just cant handel peak current with the 2200.
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Posted: 5/13/2024 11:25:10 AM EDT
[#30]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By N1150x: If i had a big enough battery a 2200 sized generator will output on average what I use on average. I just cant handel peak current with the 2200. What are you running in an emergency that 2200 wouldnt run? A well pump? |
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Posted: 5/13/2024 11:31:17 AM EDT
[#31]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By bdover: @Millennial. I haven’t lost power thst long. But Everytime I have it’s a pain. But I’ve got a 50a circuit for a hot tub…. But I don’t have a hot tub so I’d use that. From what I’ve read if you swap stuff around to RV plugs it’s easy to back feed your house. @bdover I had a hot tub and gave it to a buddy. I used the 50a outlet and had it covered to a 50a inlet for a manual interlock on my breaker box. Now I just wheel out the genny, plug it in and pick what I want to run off the main panel. |
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Posted: 5/13/2024 11:33:49 AM EDT
[#32]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By RLR350: There is a thru wall kit that has a generator plug on the exterior and six normal plugs on the interior. It’s about $100. I eliminates the need for doors to be open. If you have an interlock switch on your breaker box with a generator specific breaker, you don’t need any extension cords. Then generator plugs in and you use your breakers to control the circuits. The interlock is a physical device, pretty simple, that requires the main to be shut off before the generator breaker can be turned on. It prevents back feeding the grid. The circuits are manipulated based on the size of the generator. I know you mentioned an interlock, but I don think that is what you are talking about. I actually have a manual interlock kit on my main panel, it was one of the first big upgrades I made to the house when I moved in. I was moreso just curious how others feed power through their house if using cords as it seems many do. |
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Posted: 5/13/2024 11:48:52 AM EDT
[#33]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By RLR350: I have 30 roof top panels. I think they are Hyundai brand. They feed two Tesla Power Wall 2’s. The system powers a 4200 sf, two story house. Everything is hooked up to the batteries except my pool and double oven. The house runs off solar during the day. Excess charges the batteries. Once the batteries are at 100%, excess goes to the grid for credit. At night, the batteries take over until the sun comes up again. The system is expensive. I have no idea what the ROI. I accept it’s expensive. I have had the system running about a year now. I have no complaints at all. If I were to do it again I would put the “smart” breaker panel in (I think Span is the name). I have a traditional breaker sub panel only because I didn’t know the smart one existed. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/188107/IMG_4287_jpeg-3213236.JPG Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By RLR350: Originally Posted By towerofpower94: @RLR350 Care to give a little more info on your "Tesla batteries." Do you have Tesla roof panels and a powerwall? I have 30 roof top panels. I think they are Hyundai brand. They feed two Tesla Power Wall 2’s. The system powers a 4200 sf, two story house. Everything is hooked up to the batteries except my pool and double oven. The house runs off solar during the day. Excess charges the batteries. Once the batteries are at 100%, excess goes to the grid for credit. At night, the batteries take over until the sun comes up again. The system is expensive. I have no idea what the ROI. I accept it’s expensive. I have had the system running about a year now. I have no complaints at all. If I were to do it again I would put the “smart” breaker panel in (I think Span is the name). I have a traditional breaker sub panel only because I didn’t know the smart one existed. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/188107/IMG_4287_jpeg-3213236.JPG Damn. Mind saying what it cost? I presume you paid to have it installed? Go through one dealer/installer, or did you source the panels and other hardware and then find an installer? Thinking about doing a single powerwall cell and roof mounted panels a year or two after we move into the new place. It's going to have a simple roofline with the front facing slightly E/SE. Should get sun on the front basically all day. |
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Posted: 5/13/2024 8:30:06 PM EDT
[#34]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By laxman09: @bdover I had a hot tub and gave it to a buddy. I used the 50a outlet and had it covered to a 50a inlet for a manual interlock on my breaker box. Now I just wheel out the genny, plug it in and pick what I want to run off the main panel. thats essentially my plan. But I still need to order a genny. I might go with the one posted above. But I need to see how much juice my sump pump pulls. |
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Posted: Today 7:08:55 PM EDT
[#35]
Texas taking a hit…
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Posted: Today 7:42:32 PM EDT
[#36]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By Canoeguy: Texas taking a hit |
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Posted: Today 8:31:37 PM EDT
[#37]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By jaqufrost: I haven't used any grid power all day. Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By jaqufrost: Originally Posted By Canoeguy: Texas taking a hit What electrons you been using? |
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Posted: Today 8:35:44 PM EDT
[#38]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By towerofpower94: What electrons you been using? |
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Posted: Today 8:45:19 PM EDT
[#39]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By jaqufrost: My 30kwh of batteries were topped off before 11am. 15kwh of solar panels kept the house cold all day. Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By jaqufrost: Originally Posted By towerofpower94: What electrons you been using? Have you put details of your panels/batts in here already? If not, I would welcome the info. Presume you have the batts tied into your main panel? Do you switch over automatically once the grid drops out? Cost of your panels/batts? Thanks for any info you’re willing to share. |
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Posted: Today 9:50:11 PM EDT
[#40]
Quote HistoryOriginally Posted By towerofpower94: Have you put details of your panels/batts in here already? If not, I would welcome the info. Presume you have the batts tied into your main panel? Do you switch over automatically once the grid drops out? Cost of your panels/batts? Thanks for any info you're willing to share. I rewired the house so it feeds from a new panel. My original panel feeds the two inverters. So most the time I'm just pulling from my off grid power, but if I start consuming more than 100 amps they automatically pull from the grid for a max of 200 amps. The inverters are rated for 50 amps steady apiece, they can peak at 100 amps each for about 30 seconds, after that they will shut down to prevent damage. During normal operation they never go into peaking power as the grid is available. I'll probably add a third inverter so it doesn't automatically roll to grid power at 100 amps, instead it will start pulling grid power at 150 amps. My total cost for equipment was about $22k including inverters, batteries, battery rack, battery cabling, solar panels, solar cabling and all the lumber, concrete and hardware for the racks. 30% of that comes back on taxes. This is more than enough production to cover my normal useage spring, summer and fall, but not quite enough production or batteries to cover full electric heat in the winter. Batteries:  Attached FileInverters:  Attached File |
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