Solar Powered Homes

[Zekeer]

The difference is most grid homes are not designed for off grid systems and use appliances that eat up power.

I designed my cabin from the start to be off grid and it is designed like a self contained RV with appliances that don't use much power or no power at all, The cabin is super insulated and sealed so I can heat with just a small propane furnace or wood stove and cool with an 85 watt swamp cooler.

I also use passive air turbines to remove excess heat and passive solarium porch to warm the cabin for free on sunny winter days.

Heating and cooling are the biggest power consumers in a house and if you can get those off grid you do not need a large solar system for your other needs.

Sounds like you put a lot of thought and good ideas into your project . But you also make great admissions why green and the grid taint never going to work . Especially if someone wants to build a large home or fly to another country . Curious how many square ft is the cabin ??

 

[Zekeer]

Prediction :: Climate lockdown Nonsense on the Horizon :

 

[Roamers]

WARNING: Lithium-ion batteries and products that contain lithium-ion batteries can expose you to chemicals including cobalt lithium nickel oxide, and nickel, which are known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.

Funny. Virtually everything we use on a daily basis has a CA warning about sonething on it.

 

[Solarcabin]

People have asked me about wind turbines a lot and I have a 400 watt wind turbine but we rarely get enough sustained wind here for the turbine to provide reliable energy.

People generally over estimate how much wind they get and you need at least 5mp or more of wind to even get it turning and more for larger turbines.

In winter the turbine produces more and helps keep the batteries topped off but in summer my turbine sits idle most of the time and has become an attraction for the buzzards they transplanted here.

I recommend solar before wind power and there are wind maps online that will tell you your average wind for your area.

 

[Readytoride]

WARNING: Lithium-ion batteries and products that contain lithium-ion batteries can expose you to chemicals including cobalt lithium nickel oxide, and nickel, which are known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.

Uh, you can tone down the screaming. The only thing that doesn't cause cancer for any biological life force on this planet...is death.

I'm happy with my choices, thank you very much, including owning/driving my electric car.

 

[Readytoride]

People have asked me about wind turbines a lot and I have a 400 watt wind turbine but we rarely get enough sustained wind here for the turbine to provide reliable energy.

If I was doing a small amount of power generation (under 1kW), I would love to try a wind turbine. But, you are right that solar is a better option - silent, flat, unobtrusive if placed on a roof.

 

[Solarcabin]

If I was doing a small amount of power generation (under 1kW), I would love to try a wind turbine. But, you are right that solar is a better option - silent, flat, unobtrusive if placed on a roof.

I moved my panels from the porch roof to a ground mount. Heavy snow in winter and hard to do cleaning and maintenance and not so stable on a ladder these days. Just a quick brush off and the snow slides right off and in summer I just spray them off with the hose when I water the garden.

My system is small though so doesn't take much room and not so obvious.

 

[kevinmccune]

Yup...and every winter when U.S. demand is high, Canadian industry switches to Bunker C from NG so enough goes south to meet demand. There's lots available. CN

How do they keep that stuff flowing up there? Are the pipelines continuously heated? Our little resort town had many problems when trying to run the boilers off of No.5, seems the "asphalt tankers" had a little too much bitumen left in them-Now they do not have that problem, why you guessed it propane, they were even able to reduce the exhaust stacks height even furthur, the little town was awful dingy when they used coal, there was an improvement using bunker fuels, now its very clean thanks to Propane( no flow issues either)
I am going to say NG and propane are the needed transition fuels.

 

[kevinmccune]

View attachment 134051
So very proud of our new 14.8kW solar array. We went live on August 12th with the Net Zero program with our utility. I've been having fun watching our energy usage be "fueled" full time from the panels (sunshine permitting) and building our solar credits when we produce more than we can use daily. Still tied to the Grid at the moment, but our 5 year plan is to put in enough power wall batteries (I'll need 3, I'm assuming) to run the house and barn and carriage house, plus the electric car, the electric truck (due the first half of next year), and electric mowers, at 100%.

We also took advantage of our county's new solar exemption for property taxes, which will reduce our taxes further. Plus I understand the 30% tax credit is retroactive to any systems put up in 2022.

Yesterday I biked down the road a few miles to another farm that also has a ground array. Chatted with the owner and she said her plans are also to include power walls to finally go off grid. Her array was the size of mine but for a house half the size. She said they just recently purchased the property from a family with 3 kids, so that family's annual electric bill was far bigger than what she and her husband use. The other family's annual usage was used to determine how big the solar needs would be, which worked out to this lady's advantage because it will cover the power needs of an electric vehicle which they hope to get by next year. They have the same utility company as mine, and are also sending their power to the Grid through the Net Zero program. She said her monthly electric bill is $7 (for the connectivity fee). Cannot wait to see my $7 utility bill for August, rather than the standard $200+ bill.


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View attachment 134053

I have done the math on my household and I believe with a little discipline we could get by on a 7-8 KW array, what I would use for storage would be the "Iron Edison" battery setup,heck you could actually get by with lead acid if the bank was big enough, the real trick on LA is to never discharge to heavily.The Nickle Iron batteries will stand a fair amount of abuse, the electrolyte(KOH) is not hard to replace.

 

[Solarcabin]

I have done the math on my household and I believe with a little discipline we could get by on a 7-8 KW array, what I would use for storage would be the "Iron Edison" battery setup,heck you could actually get by with lead acid if the bank was big enough, the real trick on LA is to never discharge to heavily.The Nickle Iron batteries will stand a fair amount of abuse, the electrolyte(KOH) is not hard to replace.

Off grid 20 years and have used most types of batteries out there. I would not go with flooded cell as they require way more maintenance. Good AGM sealed like the Vmax tanks will last 10 years and were designed for military in the Iraq war. I have 3 still in use at 9 years with very little drop in capacity.

I also like LIfepo4 and have two 200Ah and a 100AH on my recharging systems. You get twice the capacity and lifespan at half the weight and maintenance free.

 

[Comfortably Numb]

How do they keep that stuff flowing up there? Are the pipelines continuously heated? Our little resort town had many problems when trying to run the boilers off of No.5, seems the "asphalt tankers" had a little too much bitumen left in them-Now they do not have that problem, why you guessed it propane, they were even able to reduce the exhaust stacks height even furthur, the little town was awful dingy when they used coal, there was an improvement using bunker fuels, now its very clean thanks to Propane( no flow issues either)
I am going to say NG and propane are the needed transition fuels.

The oil we fired in the winter came in by tank car on the railway. Our oil storage was steam heated once we got it there. I suppose the tank cars were heated too. I don't recall.
I was young at the time. I didn't really give it much thought. CN

 

[kevinmccune]

knowing facts isn't paranoia . It's seeing the handwriting on the wall . There can't be this many leaders that stupid all around the world . So it's pretty obvious all this electric crap is just one more piece to bring down the economies of the world. People laugh and mock . Well they laughed at Noah and were in total denial because they had never experienced rain . Quite frankly I'd be concerned if one or 2 disputed and mocked me and the rest agreed . Were that teh case these Elite's wouldn't be getting away with destroying things . So thanks I guess

If you noticed things were getting pretty good for the common man in the nineties from my pespective, then along came little Bush( time to start knocking the common man down a bit more) things were starting to balance out everyone started getting comfortable, then covid and imaginary shortages another knock down for the common man, things are perking up a bit, so watch the next reset will come faster and the SOL will suffer again.I have said it once and will say it again"If you have the money and want something you had better get it now".

 

[kevinmccune]

Off grid 20 years and have used most types of batteries out there. I would not go with flooded cell as they require way more maintenance. Good AGM sealed like the Vmax tanks will last 10 years and were designed for military in the Iraq war. I have 3 still in use at 9 years with very little drop in capacity.

I also like LIfepo4 and have two 200Ah and a 100AH on my recharging systems. You get twice the capacity and lifespan at half the weight and maintenance free.

Well you can get an automatic"watering system" for the flooded cells( seems that FeNi cells will tolerate inattention better than the Pb cells,I noticed "Carbon Foam' batteries were quickly dropped from the "Iron Edison site, seems they have a following as well, when its all said and done on the grid, flow batteries and the "molten metal' types seem to have true heirloom quality.
The "Trojan" batteries seem to be pretty good but require a lot of attention,I am on the fence about the Li-ion cells they seem to have a great potential for catastrophic failure OTH with a service contract and extended warranty they could be no brainers.

 

[tomjasz]

Remember some information is from limited use and users. We can’t all live with $35 heated bags to cook warm our food. Fine for warming junk food from corporate fast food chains but good nutritionally complete meals require decent stoves. It’s one thing to power a tiny house but another adventure meeting the needs of a family.

 

[Art Deco]

If I was doing a small amount of power generation (under 1kW), I would love to try a wind turbine. But, you are right that solar is a better option - silent, flat, unobtrusive if placed on a roof.

We are in a valley where wind isn't a good option. There is one business ( an industrial energy switching company) that has both a pair of Savonius wind turbines and a 18 panel array on their south facing roof beside the highway I ride.

The turbines rarely move, but I assume they generate a lot of power when they do. Along the ridges where we have strong winds the giant windmills are almost constantly moving. Very slowly, but moving . I guess this means that wind is a big commercial supply, but not enough for an individual typical farm.

Anyway, i am wondering about batteries. I assume a kilowatt-hour is a kilowatt-hour no mater if it is produced by the grid, an array, or drawing on batteries . Is that true?

 

[Solarcabin]

Lots of homes and off grid homes use propane for cooking, heating water and heating their homes every day.

Cooks as well as natural gas and you don't need electricity to run a propane ventless or OD water heater so they work even in a blackout.

If they are good enough for millions of homes and expensive RVs they will work fine in your home.

I also have a wood stove with water tank back up in the event I can't get propane and at least a year of seasoned wood ready.

I also can cook and heat water in my solar oven on sunny days or in various small cooking appliances or my microwave using free solar power!

 

[Solarcabin]

We are in a valley where wind isn't a good option. There is one business ( an industrial energy switching company) that has both a pair of Savonius wind turbines and a 18 panel array on their south facing roof beside the highway I ride.

The turbines rarely move, but I assume they generate a lot of power when they do. Along the ridges where we have strong winds the giant windmills are almost constantly moving. Very slowly, but moving . I guess this means that wind is a big commercial supply, but not enough for an individual typical farm.

Anyway, i am wondering about batteries. I assume a kilowatt-hour is a kilowatt-hour no mater if it is produced by the grid, an array, or drawing on batteries . Is that true?

Yes and it is same measurement regardless of source.

VAWT or vertical axis turbines require even higher wind speeds but they don't have the stall effect and are less likely to be damaged in high winds.

 

[Art Deco]

Yes and it is same measurement regardless of source.

VAWT or vertical axis turbines require even higher wind speeds but they don't have the stall effect and are less likely to be damaged in high winds.

No clue what you just said. SORRY.

 

[Solarcabin]

No clue what you just said. SORRY.

Lol, Ok a Savonius wind turbine is a vertical axis turbine like shown below.

They do not need a tail and can handle sudden changes in wind direction without damaging the turbine.

Savonius wind turbine - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I actually designed one that uses a shield to block the wind from one side of the blades and has a tail and applied for a patent.

The more typical turbines you see are horizontal axis or HAWT turbines and those are the commercial turbines used in wind farms and off shore but there are improvements to a VAWT now that could make them competitive.

 

[pmcdonald]

I have done the math on my household and I believe with a little discipline we could get by on a 7-8 KW array, what I would use for storage would be the "Iron Edison" battery setup,heck you could actually get by with lead acid if the bank was big enough, the real trick on LA is to never discharge to heavily.The Nickle Iron batteries will stand a fair amount of abuse, the electrolyte(KOH) is not hard to replace.

Checked the numbers on our 6 KW array out of curiosity. Since install last April it has generated 13.8 MWh. Over that period we've used substantially less, but our usage is typically the inverse of the generation (an 'M' shape morning and night, versus an inverted 'V' for generation). Per annum we're net positive on the power bills, but winter racks up a couple of hundred $$$ per month which we claw back with the feed in tariff over the warmer 8 months.

We're currently in the middle of a wet, overcast week where there's no way we could sustain our usage if we were operating off a battery/solar combo - we'd need grid power to see us through the week. V2H with the attached 60/70/80+ KWh battery would solve this neatly, but compatible models are expensive or low capacity (Leaf, Mitsubishi hybrids), we don't need a new car, and the technology is still in its infancy here in Australia. Watch this space though - V2H combined with EV mandates has the potential to turn every house into a virtual power plant (VPP). This will be hugely disruptive to the energy game, we're already seeing some providers attempt to get into that space. How is the VPP landscape developing in the US? Is it commonplace?