[permaculture] batteries vs grid-tie
Rain Tenaqiya
raincascadia at yahoo.com
Tue May 12 13:24:15 EDT 2009
In general, I've decided that if you can easily connect your energy system to the grid and avoid batteries, that's the way to go. Batteries have a high embedded energy, though they are recycled. If lithium batteries ever become affordable for home systems, that would be a big improvement. However, the grid has the potential to even out the supply and demand of energy, making renewables more viable.
On the other hand, your system is very small (a little smaller than mine), and the cost of the equipment required to hook up to the grid may not be worth it in your climate.
As for your fridge (I also have a small Nova-Kool), the hot temperatures must consume a lot of the energy that your panels produce (mine uses about 240 watt hours/day). You might want to install a low voltage disconnect to protect your batteries. Bringing the batteries indoors would extend their life and increase their capacity, as well.
I hope this helps,
Rain
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