Australian Politics Forum - Offgrid solar power

barryfromthebush

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Re: Offgrid solar power
Reply #30 - Feb 18^th, 2019 at 7:50pm

Johnnie wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 7:40pm:

barryfromthebush wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 7:27pm:

Johnnie wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 7:18pm:

barryfromthebush wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 7:08pm:

Johnnie wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 6:15pm:

barryfromthebush wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 5:42pm:

Johnnie wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 5:16pm:

barryfromthebush wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 5:03pm:

Johnnie wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 4:58pm:

barryfromthebush wrote on Feb 17^th, 2019 at 8:21pm:

Has anyone had any experience with off grid solar? I already pump from the river and irrigate with solar and now I want to go further and tell power mob to shove there bill up there arse.

Any experience appreciated.

Why would you? how many times have you been without power and for how long and what has been the inconvenience, the power companies pay compensation after being without power for any significant length of time.
Sola panels are a must but batteries cost megabux and have to be replaced, as yet they are not proven as to how long they will last and if they will blowup.
A good generator to run the essentials for $700 is the go if you can't do without power.

I like being self sufficient. Pay off time is 5 years at current power prices. Flooded Lead Acid are not as dear as you would expect and if you take care of them the will last a lot longer than 5 years by which time you are ahead.

EDIT: Ive already got a diesel 3 phase genny that will run the whole house and shed.

What would be the outlay for you to get the power you need? solar panels and batteries included. I hear it takes a lot longer than 5yrs to get your money back.

Roughly $2300 for the panels (I get a good deal buying in bulk for pumps) $2900 for the inverter/charger and $2700 for 600AH of FLA batteries. Power bill at the moment is about $500 a quarter including workshop. given most of the use is in the day I can run directly off solar most of time without worrying about battery draw down.

I got priced on a system from a local solar installer and they wanted $17k installed for a 20kwh system but with only like 3kw of panels, doing it yourself saves a shite load.

So it is only $2,700 for the battery you need?

for 600AH at 48v using 12v cells its about $2750 plus GST

this would give me 28KWH too full discharge and 9.3kwh taking it down 33% which is more than enough to run the fridge and standby loads at night.

So not enough to run your A/C, and if it were a cloudy day what then with only one $2,700 battery and no mains.

And the AC sorry, its a 9000 btu inverter, uses about 300w maintaining temp. basically you can pull 1kw for ~9 hours and the load with fridge (intermediate 120w) and standby loads is no more than 750-800w. these figures are of course working on a very leisurely 30% DOD

5Kw of panels will charge (albeit at a reduced rate) even on a cloudy day with a modest battery pack.

Even if I ran my diesel genny once a week for a few hours during the wet season too top up the batteries if needed it would still be cost effective.

Does your A/C pull 1,000 watts per hour or 1,000 watts over 9 hours?

Sorry mate, came out wrong. I meant you can pull 1000W per hour over 9 hours from the discussed bank (9kwh). AC pulls 0.3KwH

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Johnnie

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Re: Offgrid solar power
Reply #31 - Feb 18^th, 2019 at 8:20pm

barryfromthebush wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 7:50pm:

Johnnie wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 7:40pm:

barryfromthebush wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 7:27pm:

Johnnie wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 7:18pm:

barryfromthebush wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 7:08pm:

Johnnie wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 6:15pm:

barryfromthebush wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 5:42pm:

Johnnie wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 5:16pm:

barryfromthebush wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 5:03pm:

Johnnie wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 4:58pm:

barryfromthebush wrote on Feb 17^th, 2019 at 8:21pm:

Has anyone had any experience with off grid solar? I already pump from the river and irrigate with solar and now I want to go further and tell power mob to shove there bill up there arse.

Any experience appreciated.

Why would you? how many times have you been without power and for how long and what has been the inconvenience, the power companies pay compensation after being without power for any significant length of time.
Sola panels are a must but batteries cost megabux and have to be replaced, as yet they are not proven as to how long they will last and if they will blowup.
A good generator to run the essentials for $700 is the go if you can't do without power.

I like being self sufficient. Pay off time is 5 years at current power prices. Flooded Lead Acid are not as dear as you would expect and if you take care of them the will last a lot longer than 5 years by which time you are ahead.

EDIT: Ive already got a diesel 3 phase genny that will run the whole house and shed.

What would be the outlay for you to get the power you need? solar panels and batteries included. I hear it takes a lot longer than 5yrs to get your money back.

Roughly $2300 for the panels (I get a good deal buying in bulk for pumps) $2900 for the inverter/charger and $2700 for 600AH of FLA batteries. Power bill at the moment is about $500 a quarter including workshop. given most of the use is in the day I can run directly off solar most of time without worrying about battery draw down.

I got priced on a system from a local solar installer and they wanted $17k installed for a 20kwh system but with only like 3kw of panels, doing it yourself saves a shite load.

So it is only $2,700 for the battery you need?

for 600AH at 48v using 12v cells its about $2750 plus GST

this would give me 28KWH too full discharge and 9.3kwh taking it down 33% which is more than enough to run the fridge and standby loads at night.

So not enough to run your A/C, and if it were a cloudy day what then with only one $2,700 battery and no mains.

And the AC sorry, its a 9000 btu inverter, uses about 300w maintaining temp. basically you can pull 1kw for ~9 hours and the load with fridge (intermediate 120w) and standby loads is no more than 750-800w. these figures are of course working on a very leisurely 30% DOD

5Kw of panels will charge (albeit at a reduced rate) even on a cloudy day with a modest battery pack.

Even if I ran my diesel genny once a week for a few hours during the wet season too top up the batteries if needed it would still be cost effective.

Does your A/C pull 1,000 watts per hour or 1,000 watts over 9 hours?

Sorry mate, came out wrong. I meant you can pull 1000W per hour over 9 hours from the discussed bank (9kwh). AC pulls 0.3KwH

If what you say is right I will be looking into these $2,700 batteries to go off the grid myself, I will do some sums just to make sure my A/C can keep up though.

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Johnnie

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Re: Offgrid solar power
Reply #32 - Feb 18^th, 2019 at 8:22pm

Johnnie wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 8:20pm:

barryfromthebush wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 7:50pm:

Johnnie wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 7:40pm:

barryfromthebush wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 7:27pm:

Johnnie wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 7:18pm:

barryfromthebush wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 7:08pm:

Johnnie wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 6:15pm:

barryfromthebush wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 5:42pm:

Johnnie wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 5:16pm:

barryfromthebush wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 5:03pm:

Johnnie wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 4:58pm:

barryfromthebush wrote on Feb 17^th, 2019 at 8:21pm:

Has anyone had any experience with off grid solar? I already pump from the river and irrigate with solar and now I want to go further and tell power mob to shove there bill up there arse.

Any experience appreciated.

Why would you? how many times have you been without power and for how long and what has been the inconvenience, the power companies pay compensation after being without power for any significant length of time.
Sola panels are a must but batteries cost megabux and have to be replaced, as yet they are not proven as to how long they will last and if they will blowup.
A good generator to run the essentials for $700 is the go if you can't do without power.

I like being self sufficient. Pay off time is 5 years at current power prices. Flooded Lead Acid are not as dear as you would expect and if you take care of them the will last a lot longer than 5 years by which time you are ahead.

EDIT: Ive already got a diesel 3 phase genny that will run the whole house and shed.

What would be the outlay for you to get the power you need? solar panels and batteries included. I hear it takes a lot longer than 5yrs to get your money back.

Roughly $2300 for the panels (I get a good deal buying in bulk for pumps) $2900 for the inverter/charger and $2700 for 600AH of FLA batteries. Power bill at the moment is about $500 a quarter including workshop. given most of the use is in the day I can run directly off solar most of time without worrying about battery draw down.

I got priced on a system from a local solar installer and they wanted $17k installed for a 20kwh system but with only like 3kw of panels, doing it yourself saves a shite load.

So it is only $2,700 for the battery you need?

for 600AH at 48v using 12v cells its about $2750 plus GST

this would give me 28KWH too full discharge and 9.3kwh taking it down 33% which is more than enough to run the fridge and standby loads at night.

So not enough to run your A/C, and if it were a cloudy day what then with only one $2,700 battery and no mains.

And the AC sorry, its a 9000 btu inverter, uses about 300w maintaining temp. basically you can pull 1kw for ~9 hours and the load with fridge (intermediate 120w) and standby loads is no more than 750-800w. these figures are of course working on a very leisurely 30% DOD

5Kw of panels will charge (albeit at a reduced rate) even on a cloudy day with a modest battery pack.

Even if I ran my diesel genny once a week for a few hours during the wet season too top up the batteries if needed it would still be cost effective.

Does your A/C pull 1,000 watts per hour or 1,000 watts over 9 hours?

Sorry mate, came out wrong. I meant you can pull 1000W per hour over 9 hours from the discussed bank (9kwh). AC pulls 0.3KwH

If what you say is right I will be looking into these $2,700 batteries to go off the grid myself, I already have the solar, I will do some sums just to make sure my A/C can keep up though.

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Baronvonrort

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Re: Offgrid solar power
Reply #33 - Feb 18^th, 2019 at 10:18pm

barryfromthebush wrote on Feb 18^th, 2019 at 4:55pm:

The batteries are my biggest concern, there are a lot of gimmicks out there and i think the old style flooded lead acid are the way to go. Interested in any first hand experience though.

Worked out I would need about 20kw hours to run the little AC in the bedroom in summer too keep the discharge down to 20%, in winter I would only need 1 battery as everything is LED or off.

Given where I am sunshine is no issue!
Cheers

My experience with off grid is my yacht and a friends remote cabin I helped with.

With batteries the main thing is to have a charge controller that is compatible with the type of battery you're using. Lithium charge controller for lithium batteries LA charge controller for LA battery.

Nothing wrong with LA it will be bulky and heavy since you're not moving them no worries.
The main thing to prolong the life of LA batteries is depth of discharge don't take it below 50% or it will radically shorten life.
This means a 100AH battery really only has 50AH usable.

Lithium has the advantage of being smaller and lighter with far greater depth of discharge you can run them down to 20% which means 100AH battery gives you 80AH usable.
To prolong the life of any Lithium battery keep the charge between 30-90%. Be happy with 90% it shortens their life chasing that last 10% for 100% charge.

Upping the voltage with larger systems is a good idea to reduce current and size of copper wires, something we consider on a sailing Trimaran to reduce weight. Make sure charge controller is compatible with higher voltages if going that way.

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lee Gold Member Online Australian Politics Posts: 21533 Gender:	Re: Offgrid solar power Reply #34 - Feb 18^th, 2019 at 11:20pm 1Kw isn't exactly 1000 Volt-Amps. Power factor is about 0.8. So figure 1250VA for 1Kw.
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DonDeeHippy

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Re: Offgrid solar power
Reply #35 - Feb 23^rd, 2019 at 10:28am

http://micropowergrids.com.au/__Forms/_PACKAGE_DEAL.html

these guys r worth reading about and the Edison batteries look good but need quite a bit of maintenance but will last forever.
I like their combined inverters that control the solar panels and the batteries and will even turn on a back up genny when needed..... for me the less units the less to learn

Vhttps://www.aussiebatteries.com.au/products/deep-cycle-batteries/AGM-deep-cycle...

Aussie batteries are good as well and I used them to make my caravan free camping ready.
They have 3 different lead battery chemistries and give realistic charts on discharge rates / to how long the battery will last... well worth looking at

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