Solar Powered Homes

[Art Deco]

Very true. Our farm was built at the time when tying to the grid was commonplace and expected, even though the reliability of the utility didn't have the best track record. Almost every farm surrounding us has a partial house or whole-house generator for backup power should the Grid go down. I tend to think that is overkill. We have a small generator that powers the few items we deem essential (refrigerator, TV), but for the most part the outages rarely exceed a few hours. Maybe a few days every half decade or so. So the cost of buying and maintaining a whole house generator that uses fossil fuels was a big NO from me.

I was used to living off grid while I was competing in equestrian sports, so learned early on what works and what doesn't when it comes to providing ones own power needs.

What eats power are well pumps and HVAC systems. We do rainwater capture (treated), store bottled water, have a wood burning stove (for winter that will heat the entire house) and fans (for the summer that run off 120v), so the two major power hog appliances are covered by lower power consumption backup, or electric free options. The electric stove is backed up by a camp stove that runs off propane cannisters, and an outdoor grill. Small appliances and internet are run off deep cell batteries that are recharged by small portable solar panels on a rotational basis.

The only problem with a Grid outage is with the electric vehicle(s). I plan to talk with our solar installer about putting in an EVSE directly tied to our array to charge our vehicles right from the panels themselves (which can only happen when our panels are producing at their max of 8.9kWh for the draw of 7.7kWh required by a Level 2). In the meantime any outages requires me to drive to an area where the Grid is still up to charge the car from any available Level 2 or 3 station. I could charge a car from my generator, but only if it was the last resort.

Wellpump and water heater in my case. Like you I keep bottles of water and have a whole house woodstove. But indoor plumbing is the very thing I missed the most. And as I understand it, running plumbing without any battery or grid means no taking showers, washing clothes, or dishwashing after sunset, and probably remembering to fill a five gallon bucket for flushing toilets at night ... ok for a few days.

 

[Art Deco]

Mine takes 178 watts. You should rebalance your ebike battery with an extended charge about once a month and avoid short charging cycles or do a longer ride and full recharge once a week.

Only 175 watts at what voltage ? I expected 3 times that on 120v but never checked it.

 

[Solarcabin]

Wellpump and water heater in my case. Like you I keep bottles of water and have a whole house woodstove. But indoor plumbing is the very thing I missed the most. And as I understand it, running plumbing without any battery or grid means no taking showers, washing clothes, or dishwashing after sunset, and probably remembering to fill a five gallon bucket for flushing toilets at night ... ok for a few days.

Not if your system is set up correctly. I use a solar composting toilet of my own design and sawdust toilets and commercial composting toilets are available. Showering can be done with a hand pressured tank shower or gravits shower bad heated in the sun and they sell them for camping on Amazon. Washing clothes can be done in a crank handwasher and those are available or a good clean toilet plunger and 5 gallon bucket works. Dishes can actually be washed in any pan and if you have a few dogs they do the prewash at my place, lol!

My well is free flowing artesian so no pump needed and that is used to fill a 35 gallon RV tank under my sink which is enough for a week of showers, dishes and a small load of clothes.

If your well requires a pump I recommend a holding tank that you can fill that will take care of your basic families needs for a week. 12/24 volt water pumps work off solar. They may not have the pressure of your big electric water pump but enough for basic needs and to refill a holding tank.

This is a a barrel washer I designed and used for awhile begore I got a compact spinner washer that runs off solar. That has been built by several people and used by one off grid business that fosters rescue dogs to wash the dogs blankets.

 

[Solarcabin]

Only 175 watts at what voltage ? I expected 3 times that on 120v but never checked it.

I just looked on my Ariel X charger and it is 140 watts at 110 or 220 volts and that is charging a 52 volt battery. From empty it takes 5-6 hours but I usually recharge at around 20% in 4 hours.

You don't need a big solar system to recharge an ebikes and 200 watts of solar and a 200Ah Lifepo4 is what I use every day and has enough for the ebike and to run my microwave or other cooking appliances and my 12 volt fridge over night.

 

[pmcdonald]

That sounds about right. I get 45W per amp hour on our 240V circuit, so 180W for my 4A charger.

 

[Art Deco]

Is there a rule of thumb estimating charge time for the various chemistry batteries use? I wonder.
I am no electrician, nor do I play one on the internet, so the whole pile of expensive electronics between the array, the utility grid, the batteries, and my loads is pretty mysterious to me, but I see huge gains in functionality per dollar In inverters in particular. I suspect this is mostly Chinese technology now. But they advertise hybrid inverters now like this one.

6000W DC 24V Split Phase Pure Sine Wave Inverter With Charger

SunGoldPower offers a wide selection of 6000 Watt Power Inverters online. Shop now for top-of-the-line inverters for your power needs.

sungoldpower.com

 

[tomjasz]

COMPLETELY OFF TOPIC
from my former work

FWIW This type of composter should be avoided. Healthy biologically diverse compost should be thermophilic. In other words, go through heat cycles that will kill pathogens and unwanted seeds. The result is a compost that is rich in beneficial bacteria and fungi. OR use red wiggler worms to break down the material. A combination of worm castings and thermophilic compost can actually mitigate some wilt diseases. AND grow more nutritious food!

 

[Art Deco]

only sorta /offtopic for here, a real garden is just as important and needs just as much sunlight as an array to work.

 

[kevinmccune]

True.

only sorta /offtopic for here, a real garden is just as important and needs just as much sunlight as an array to work.True

 

[Readytoride]

Our solar array went "live" on August 12th, making us part of the "Net Zero" program with our electric utility. Just checked my account page for our electric bill due this month. $0.00. Last month was $218.00

Doing the happy dance.

 

[Zekeer]

Our solar array went "live" on August 12th, making us part of the "Net Zero" program with our electric utility. Just checked my account page for our electric bill due this month. $0.00. Last month was $218.00

Doing the happy dance.

Only for a short short time . Wait and see . Net Zero ?? You're adding to pollution not taking away. The Green Dragon has got you . Nothing is free . Don't you know that ?

 

[Zekeer]

Is there a rule of thumb estimating charge time for the various chemistry batteries use? I wonder.
I am no electrician, nor do I play one on the internet, so the whole pile of expensive electronics between the array, the utility grid, the batteries, and my loads is pretty mysterious to me, but I see huge gains in functionality per dollar In inverters in particular. I suspect this is mostly Chinese technology now. But they advertise hybrid inverters now like this one.

6000W DC 24V Split Phase Pure Sine Wave Inverter With Charger

SunGoldPower offers a wide selection of 6000 Watt Power Inverters online. Shop now for top-of-the-line inverters for your power needs.

sungoldpower.com

How is that thing produced ? Have you looked ? Or don't you want to know ?

 

[BlackHand]

Urban Dictionary: thread crapping

v. Thread crapping occurs when a person comes into a thread and posts something contrary to the spirit/intent of the thread, often derailing the discussion or turning it into an argument.

www.urbandictionary.com

 

[kevinmccune]

ability to output high voltage stuff (210 .like the well pump, water heater, induction cooktop, even a clothes dryer on the critical needs box.
If I don't try to run them at the same time, but they can be wired correctly to a High Voltage Critical Loads Box. CN box goe on the west side of house with the arrays inverters batteries, etc.
This is all beginning to make some sense.
I intend to run 110v and lower for lights, modems, USB devices, etc throughout the house. (Must rewire the whole house anyway.,this is background.)
The only high voltage (220 ) needed ever on the east side are luxury circuits for us like the HVAC and a hot tub , clothes washer and dryer ,and all run directly from the main box.

Ah,I can chop two biggies easy=Solar Clothes dryer,clothesline, a little warm, grin and bear it, wait a minute-WH, teakettle on a stove thats not heating the ,house.In the winter, stove can heat house and provide hot water and get this cook food!
You already know this, however thats the way I used to live( even carried water- a bit of a hardship OTH keeps you slim) we actually had a 60 amp service to the house, we only used 45 amps, no TV quite often( who needs that garbage anyway?) the "good old days-that were bad" Early to bed, get up before sun to feed cows and start fires. I called my adolescence"Life in the 2.5 world. I had the advantage of being poor so that I could appreciate a better lifestyle, People these days tend to be spoiled, I am now of the opinion if the grid goes down, maybe not 90% of the People would perish first year, probably a large percentage, there are the fighters and jerks( jerks will go fast unless they have a large gang to protect them) Preppers( no cakewalk for them either) those that give up and finally those that cooperate and have a fair IQ. Power is essential for a good lifestyle.

 

[Art Deco]

I ma

Ah,I can chop two biggies easy=Solar Clothes dryer,clothesline, a little warm, grin and bear it, wait a minute-WH, teakettle on a stove thats not heating the ,house.In the winter, stove can heat house and provide hot water and get this cook food!
You already know this, however thats the way I used to live( even carried water- a bit of a hardship OTH keeps you slim) we actually had a 60 amp service to the house, we only used 45 amps, no TV quite often( who needs that garbage anyway?) the "good old days-that were bad" Early to bed, get up before sun to feed cows and start fires. I called my adolescence"Life in the 2.5 world. I had the advantage of being poor so that I could appreciate a better lifestyle, People these days tend to be spoiled, I am now of the opinion if the grid goes down, maybe not 90% of the People would perish first year, probably a large percentage, there are the fighters and jerks( jerks will go fast unless they have a large gang to protect them) Preppers( no cakewalk for them either) those that give up and finally those that cooperate and have a fair IQ. Power is essential for a good lifestyle.

I will make no predictions other than I'm not hauling water ( in 5 gal buckets uphill), short of a major emergency. Probably in a temporary outage we will be ok for water now.
And yeah we have a state of the art sun and wind powered clothes dryer already. As do most of the plain folk farms around us, and many suburban backyards...

 

[Art Deco]

COMPLETELY OFF TOPIC
from my former work

FWIW This type of composter should be avoided. Healthy biologically diverse compost should be thermophilic. In other words, go through heat cycles that will kill pathogens and unwanted seeds. The result is a compost that is rich in beneficial bacteria and fungi. OR use red wiggler worms to break down the material. A combination of worm castings and thermophilic compost can actually mitigate some wilt diseases. AND grow more nutritious food!

View attachment 134440

Trying to link to a pm
Edit a great use of solar power .

 

[Art Deco]

Our solar array went "live" on August 12th, making us part of the "Net Zero" program with our electric utility. Just checked my account page for our electric bill due this month. $0.00. Last month was $218.00

Doing the happy dance.

My congratulations indeed.

 

[Readytoride]

My congratulations indeed.

Thank you. Been a wish for a long time, now a reality that I'm thrilled to finally have, especially now.

During a charity bike ride yesterday in a rural area I spotted quite a few houses with solar panels on their roofs. A few house roofs were poorly oriented, but the owners had been determined to install panels regardless. Big pat on the back to them. One house had a very old set of panels for solar hot water. Overall it was nice to see the usage of solar technology.

 

[Mulezen]

Solar hot water is the low hanging fruit

 

[kevinmccune]

Solar hot water is the low hanging fruit

actually one of the most effective uses for solar, old tech works great. When push comes to shove using electricity to heat water is pretty inefficient, most of our electric use deals with heat one way or the other. solar can be used for refrigeration without the electric part( except for a small circulating fan.