Random Renewables Thread

Would it be something like a contactor or a transfer switch? I would imagine a relay would be a lot quieter

Price of them 😲😲😲😲

Be sure it has the DC rating on the actual spec sheet from the manufacturer. The descriptions on RS can be a bit dodgy

Seeing discharging limit at 50A. I wonder is this due to the low ambient temps. Attic dipped below 10C and inverter temp dipped under 20C.

Yep. You guessed it, I have. Several of them actually. They usually have multiple uses like my eBike battery doubles as a portable power station too. During the last power cut, I roasted a full chicken on my eBike battery in our air fryer 😁 That was a 14S lithium ion system, so almost 59V fully charged, working grand with my cheap 48V 2kW Chinese inverter. Be careful before you decide on a 12V system. Even if you only plan to run a max 1kW out of it, you will already need 100A rated cabling. Inefficient and expensive and hard to work with.

I can also use some of them as direct grid tie in systems, for when my home battery is about to run out in the evening. I really do not like paying nearly €0.30c / kWh for day rate electricity

You'll like it a lot less when your discount expires and day rate costs 47c/kWh 😱

Might take another look at a 48V system, an ebike battery would actually be a nice option for a higher voltage pack

What I dont get is how demand for electricity appears to be as high as ever despite all the increases. The media is rife with tales of fellas throwing the dust from the bottom of their change jar into their prepaid meter, but the silent majority/industry are continuing on the old foot and paying the higher prices and not even bothering to reduce usage the slightest. Though I suspect at least some portion of them will get a bit of a land when their bill arrives in December

Yes, the payments are stupid.

Most folks may not have seen a high bill yet on the new tariffs. However the increase will be eaten by the 200 quid credits. Essentially the credits are direct funding of energy companies, by giving money to people who don't need it.

I'll likely not have an electricity bill at all for 6-8 months now as the 3*200 credits and deemed FIT will eat the standing charges plus night rate.

This is why I say the payments are stupid. I just spent 25k on a large solar install, does anyone think that it's a good use of taxpayer money to fund my bills, or someone like me? The money for the 4*200 credits committed or paid so far would ahve been better spent on 100% funded solar installs of say 2-3kW

+1 there.

Naturally nobody (nobody) wants to see the €200 taken away from them, but it should be means tested and the money given to people who actually need it. Like you ELM, I've low bills with a system in place of €15K or so to help me weather the energy crisis.

I'd rather see my €200 go to part fund an actual solar installation on a roof of some house who is in energy poverty. People will instinctively go "Ah why should they get for free something I had to pay for" and it's a fair comment. However, we need to break that thinking, and go for what's right for the climate.

It's like the comment "If i give a man a fish I feed him for the day, if I teach him to fish.....I feed him for life". Giving out these €200 blocks isn't solving the problem LONG term. What are there? 2 million homes in Ireland. So that's 2m x €200 = €400m

Let's go with an (outrageous!) €10K for a "standard" 5Kwp installation, no battery. That €400m could fund 40,000 solar installations and generate meaningful electricity for 20+ years. That's more than the number of houses in total that have solar today.

OK, the infrastructure isn't in place to install 40,000 houses by Christmas, so the money is a quick fix to a unique problem, but that kind of money would help reduce climate change, help protect some of the more vulnerable members of society who are in energy debt..... as opposed to a single once off payment which effectively ends up in the Exxon's/Shell of the world.

It's ok though. We're fooking stuff up and increasing inflation by 7-10% YoY so that 200 will be worthless soon!

Anyone suggesting to means test anything, should be hung. Basic income for everyone, that's it. Nothing else. But that's probably for another forum 😂

I'm okay with the idea of the payments as a short term solution. I think the government, ESBN, Eirgrid and the CRU should all be booted out for our current over reliance on imported gas. But, there's no use in punishing the consumer for their incompetence

I think the real question that needs to be answered is what to do going forward, how do we really encourage the use of renewables

Currently the approach by the CRU seems to be the utter shambles of installing smart meters and punishing customers for daring to consume electricity

I think it would be good to look at ways of giving back to the customer for certain actions, for example the UK paying people for shifting usage to night rates.

There also need to be more measures to encourage deep retrofitting of existing houses. IMO there could be a stick and carrot approach to this. Make the grants more generous and easier to access for homeowners, and also make stamp duty and LPT higher for houses with a lower BER, so that more efficient homes are more competitive

Nah, no grants. They simply go towards the profit of installers. As government the main task is to up our renewables percentage drastically and quickly. So make sure we are getting very large wind farms off shore. Make sure we are getting interconnectors with the likes of Spain and France (exchange our wind for their solar and nuclear) and make sure we are getting some substantial commercial PV farms on or off shore (lakes)

Stimulating micro generation by subsidising panels or equipment, having zero VAT on them or install grants is nice for all of us who are into that or would like to on an individual basis, but it's not really efficient use of tax payers money. Simply enforcing net metering would though. Up to the utility companies to make that work commercially for them (could well mean higher day rates than we have now) and particularly higher winter peak rates. Bring it on!