New Guy

[Joe Blake]

Hi,

Welcome to the board. Hope it proves to be rewarding.

Joe
DownUnder in Sunny Western Australia

[Ervin R Dilly]

Hi all ,the name is Ervin Dilly and I am from DE.I have been into solar now for about 2 years and have just gotten 12 new 230watt panels and a 4.2 inverter from Rob.Need to learn a lot more and hope this site helps.Still dont have it hooked up but been to hot here to work outside much.And if you have any ?s,ask Rob he will help.Glad to be aboard

[Ervin R Dilly]

Thanks Joe,You are a long way away,hope the heat there is better than here 95 plus.Take care ans stay cool.:(

[Joe Blake]

In the dead of winter here obviously, apparently in Perth (just down the hill) it's been 5 days in a row with a minimum of 3 degrees C or less. But interestingly it's been so sunny that yesterday I broke even on my rooftop photovoltaics, making 0 cents and losing 0 cents.

Showers tomorrow however. *sigh*

Maybe top up my water tanks.:D

Joe

[Ervin R Dilly]

Joe ,sounds like you are off the grid,sure wish I was.Sounds like my kind of weather,better than 97F.You are right on the solar panels,the heat really hurts there output.And as you can see USA is burning up,sure hope for some rain.Take care.

[Rob Beckers]

We're having one of the warmest summers on record here (driest too, people on city water have been asked to conserve, a first, luckily we're on a well). For today it's 33C (91F), we've seen 34C (93F) a few times already, and there's no end in sight. For this area (Ontario) that is very unusual. The locals are not used to it and complain bitterly about the heat. Personally I like warm weather, and years in the Middle East and North Carolina resulted in a bit of tolerance for it. We have yet to switch on the A/C (we just open the windows on the north side of the house, and let the air cool the place at night).

The PV output drops due to the heat, but on the bright side, the very long days with clear blue skies make this the best solar year so far. Sun is just rising above the trees here, and the 6.4kW array is showing 1.8kW right now. An average (hot) day means 38 kWh or thereabouts (a really, really good and very cold spring day produces 47 kWh).

-RoB-

[Ralph Day]

You're a tougher man than me Rob. I got so sick and tired of being hot and bothered that I purchased a minisplit heat pump. 1 week of cool conditioned dry air has been wonderful (especially this past week).

There's a long thread on the NAWS forum I will put a link to if that's ok with you Rob. It's about 3 years long and covers the mini splits very well. I'm amazed at the energy consumption of them. If I keep the house closed up until 11am it's temp will rise to 23C when the outside temp approaches 30C. The unit runs at 100-200 watts on the kill a watt meter until the house has soaked up a lot of heat...by 5pm it will be using up to 700 watts...then the power consumption starts to ramp downwards again until it's shut off.

I can run it off renewables only if desired, but on the really hot days I end up using some utility power at the end of the day. The total consumption for a day is incredibly low. For a hot humid 32C day it will use between 2 and 3 kwhrs (either of renewable, utilty or a combination of the two). I bought a Mitsubishi 12000btu heat pump, one air handler. My house is 1100sqft, the air handler is in the 40x13 room, but no fans are needed to condition the bedrooms/hallway/bathroom, natural convection seems to do the job. I was worried about that.

The Mits unit is also rated to provide heat down to -25C. That's probably quite optimistic, but some harvest will be found there. Nov, Dec not so much, but there's lots of sunny days in Feb Mar April when I'd be using an electric oil heater or my water distiller to dump power. I expect the wood consumption to go down in the future with the heat pump operating.

The house had central air for some time before going off grid, but we were too cheap to use it much. Just for giggles I Kill a watt tested the furnace/central air fan and on high setting it drew 460watts, lo speed 300watts, and it was as noisy and obnoxious as I remembered. Just the fan used more power running than the mini split does for most of it's operating time and that's with the air handler blowing inside and the compressor/fan unit running outside. No contest for my floor plan.

Glad to have done this project this summer!

Ralph

[Rob Beckers]

That's amazingly low energy use Ralph... I didn't know there were A/C units out there with such low Wattage. Heat pump efficiency must be getting better and better. Feel free to post a link to that discussion.

Heard yesterday that we had a new record temperature since they began measuring (on Friday), 34.5C if I recall. Seems the previous record was measured in 1931 or thereabouts (my memory may be off by a few years, but it was early thirties).

Another clear blue day here, and much cooler too, which is nice!

-RoB-

[Ralph Day]

Thanks Rob

No sense re-inventing the wheel.

Yes, the energy consumption of the inverter controlled heat pumps (and a/c only units I suppose) is laughable. You have to be within 3 feet to hear the outside unit's fan, and with your ear right next to it to hear the compressor running. There great if you have a neighbour within 3 feet of your house.

The compressor and fans have dc motors, and they only run as much as needed, not on/off only like most a/c units. I remember my old central, oversized, so it would keep the house cool and clammy (didn't run enough to dehumidify properly). The new one dries out, keeps dry, so the environment is very comfortable. I wonder what the heating ability will be like?

To go with the Mitsubishi unit I had to provide 240vac. With only 1 120vac inverter that required wiring in a Xantrex T240 autotransformer. There's a parasitic load for that (10 watts or so), but it's only on when the unit is needed. 2 duplex outlets side by side, one for house (renewables), one for utility (labelled of course) and a plug on #12 extension cord wire complete the hookup. For those thinking of efficiency losses it could go like this: 240v in from utility > T240 (another for utility to provide house system with 120v...battery charging etc) > inverter > house panel > T240 (for 120 to 240 conversion for heat pump) > heatpump. Anyone remember the Rube Goldberg comics?

Here's the link to the NAWS forum thread. |Lots of information therein.

http://www.wind-sun.com/ForumVB/showthread.php?5104-Sanyo-mini-split-AC-(inverter-variable-speed)

Ralph

[Joe Blake]

Joe ,sounds like you are off the grid,sure wish I was.Sounds like my kind of weather,better than 97F.You are right on the solar panels,the heat really hurts there output.And as you can see USA is burning up,sure hope for some rain.Take care.


Ervin, I'm a sort of hybrid-gridite. As a result of being an inveterate tinkerer, I've now got two independent PV systems, one of which (1600 watts, courtesy of a Federal govt initiative a couple of years ago) feeds into the grid and the excess power is purchased (at criminally low prices) by the local utility for public resale (at extortionately high prices), and my earlier home brewed job which is about 2-300 watts, going into about 450 Amp Hrs of 12 volt batteries, and several discrete 240 volt inverters (max 600 watts) which run two camping freezers, my office (computer, modem, telephone) and TV/DVD, plus some minor emergency lighting.

This is backed up by a pedal powered 12 volt bicycle/generator which I can use to keep the batteries topped up in an emergency (as happened only a couple of weeks ago as the aftermath of a very violent storm.) This also helps to keep me warm on wet miserable days by exercising my legs. http://www.greenpowertalk.org/images/icons/icon10.gif

Joe

[Ervin R Dilly]

Joe, I have about 30 panels of varing wattage,which is hurting me at this time .Out of these 30 or so panels I have 12 230W all hooked in series which is doing good.My problem is I now have to figure how to hook up the others which vary from 125 -175 watt.And I am sure you know that they do not like to be mixed.I have 1-4.2KW,1-2.0KW and a extra 1000watt inverter.Going to use mostly the 4.2 until it is full then will start on the other one.Problem I am working on is to try and get the ones that are the closest watts into a series.Just still to warm and humid to do to much outside.I know I should not of mixed panels but got started on the slow side of the curve,paying for it now.

[Penny Walters]

I wish I had enough sunshine to use my solar panels :(

I am from the UK and we have had barely any hours of sunlight recently, considering July is meant to be our hottest month.

If you don't believe me then check out this article http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/hosepipe-ban-lifted--as-forecasters-warn-there-will-be-no-sunshine-for-the-next-ten-days-7923871.html

[Ervin R Dilly]

Penny,I know what you mean by the rains.Been there 2 times on vacation and know about the weather.Sorry to say it but I did enjoy it,just never could understand the men though.Might look into wind if you have the area.Tried it myself and the wind tore up both windgenerators.So will be staying solar.Sun is good ,but the heat is killing my power output.Stay dry:nuts:

[Joe Blake]

Penny,

If you can email us lots of water here I'm sure I can trade you some sunshine.

Despite the recent downpours, we're still a long ways behind on our annual rainfall and the long range forecasts are for a hot and dry summer. The short range forecast is for some showers on Monday coming.

Sadly, your weather bodes ill for the Olympics I fear.

http://www.greenpowertalk.org/images/icons/icon9.gif

Joe

[Penny Walters]

Lol thanks for the sympathy guys, I should be used to London's unreliable weather but it is still difficult to cope with.

Unfortunately I do not have the space for wind power, so solar is my only option.

And Joe, if I could send some rain your way I would 100%!! You are right though, the olympics is set to be a washout

[Penny Walters]

Hi guy!

I am glad to tell you that during Olympic Games it was very very sunny. It has nearly never rained!

By the way, I forgot to say Welcome to Ervin R Dilly!

Have a nice day!

Bye