Random Renewables Thread

I think if I had 200k to invest in this project (I'm currently about 50k all in including everything I listed and the original install and all my little hacked together projects and UPS) I wouldnt put in any wind and would just have masses of solar and masses of storage, perhaps build an off grid DC charger linked to a used massive IFLA bank which I could get for very cheap from a local forklift company (problem is I have no experience with them or how they work), they run to 1000+ AH at 48V quite easily and cheaply, and I have a large garage to put them in.

I have no appetite for maintaining wind turbines. I investigated them to great depths and decided against them, the attraction of solar PV is that there minimal maintenance and minimal ongoing cost beyond adding more. The drawback is the inconsistent energy.

To your point about spartan use on consecutive winter days, that's what the storage and massive array would be for. 50kWh storage would cover at least 2 days use, as well as the intermittent generation of 4-12kWh depending on array size, so even if there was one or two days of zero, we'd still be covered. if I had my way I'd have hundreds of kWp of array, 500kWh of storage and many inverters so we would never be on grid or need a generator even in winter but of course I couldnt afford that - even in a vanity project!

@ELM327 - " if I had 200k to invest in this project (I'm currently about 50k all in including everything I listed and the original install and all my little hacked together projects and UPS) I wouldnt put in any wind and would just have masses of solar and masses of storage,"

And what would you do in December and January? Even with 100kwp and 200kWh you would have nowhere near enough to run and heat a large family house and a few EVs. I guess you could emigrate to Spain for a few months 😉

You wouldn't need €200K - would you? Could be a fun game to ballpark it :-)

€1K per 2.5Kwhr (lets go off the shelf battery) so that would mean €50K would get you 125kwhr of storage. I think that would be a "bit insane" so you go DIY on that and you'd easily get to 200+ Kwhr for probably €30K. Is that reasonable? (I don't know) If you did have 200Kwh you could run your house for a ~fortnight off that at 15kwhr/day. Losses not withstanding of course with zero input from solar.

Looking at some telemetry before I upgraded it my (somewhat insignificant) 5.3Kwp in E/W config did ~80Kwhr in jan last. So if you had 5x times that (25Kwp) and south facing, you'd be getting 400-500kwhr. Not going to sort out your heating requirements of course, but that should see most household right for electricity I'd say.

So probably €50-60K would see you right? Sure not an insignificant amount of money, but substantially cheaper than €200.

So yeah, 25Kwp in panels and 150-200Kwhr in storage and I'd say you'd have a good shot at getting you there or there abouts with solar alone. I think if I had the land/space though, I'd add probably 2 wind turbines, one optimized for lower speed wind and another for mid/higher speeds - assuming you've got land/location which was "daycent" :-)

So currently we have oil and wood stove for heating and DHW, in addition to whatever excess solar is used for DHW only (currently).

Future state would of course be heat pump, have already gotten a few quotes but didnt have the cash to move when I had a good deal on an ex demo unit, not paying 8-10k for a brand new one.

I know what you're getting at btw, I am aware that even step 3, 4, 5 etc of this project will not cover mid december to mid january. But the aim of each step is to close the window of on grid time during the year. For instance, now sometimes I still have to charge cars overnight on the grid, and we're in July, because the weather is worse than last month.

There's plenty of folks in the US doing this , and the UK too, so there's no reason it's not possible. I have already spent a lot of time and money chasing this ogoal but I've seen progress along the way. Even if it takes me till I'm 50 (will be 37 this year), I will get there.

Slightly unusual, normally in Ireland for south facing May is best with June very close second. Then after a gap July, then after a big gap April, then August, September, March, October, the other months very poor

August starts Tuesday. Winter is coming 😂

(says I with huge battery full of charge, one EV full of charge, 360l of water at over 60C, a mining rig running and the other EV empty-ish now but hopefully mostly charged by the end of tomorrow)

Yeah I was kind of thinking of doing something similar, have the pellet stove heating a buffer tank which also has immersion heaters to heat from solar when available, or from a generator if the sh!t is hitting the fan

I was watching a video on draining and refilling the system and it certainly seems a lot of work. Biggest pain seems to be when there's one radiator on its own leg and you end up with water in that loop (and a shock if you try to remove it 😱)

That's actually one handy thing about the heat pump and other external heating systems, the drain valves are outside already at the lowest point in the system and when a surface drain close by. There's also a drain valve in the hot press which I think is for the tank

If I ever get into home automation I was thinking of a system where you'd have automated valves on the drainage points as well as the mains water feed.

That way if you're on holiday and the system detected a flood (maybe water being drained when it shouldn't be) you could trigger the valves to isolate the mains and also drain out as much if the system as possible before it completely flooded the house

I'm making the figures up but he has a big rural detached property that I'm getting the idea isn't particularly well insulated. A median Irish house uses 2000m3 of gas, in his case probably 4000-5000m3 of gas, which is say 50000kWh, ok with a COP of 3 that is about 17MWh per year, not quite what I said, but a lot closer than the 2.5MWh you mention 😁 I'd love to have a newly built A rated house myself, but on the other hand I would have a lot less space for panels than I have now and I wouldn't have a drive way or a large shed!

25Kwp would generate an insane amount of electricity in the summer. So what happens to the excess after the battery is charged, the house needs are met and you've exported the max allowed? An earth rod? Would the ESB allow it?

And if you have more than you can export you could to stuff like crypto mining which is rather profitable if you have zero electricity costs. Could automate for a rig to come on when there is excess electricity. I'm a novice in Home Assistant / Node Red and even I would have a go of that myself.

Or just heat an outdoor jacuzzi. Or something 😁

You have 100 times as much space as me and I have 45 full size panels. Your aim so: deploy 4500 panels 😁😎

a great idea unfortunately there's only single phase running to the house. nearest 3 phase is at least half a mile away.

I heard there were solar power companies looking to lease land for commercial solar farms

You could rent most of the land out for this and seperate out a small area for 50 or so panels for your own house?