Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - Re: [Homestead] Shaking the grid

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: sjc <indexer AT fairpoint.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Shaking the grid
  • Date: Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:25:36 -0500

On 2/4/2010 2:04 PM, Leslie wrote:
2000 watts is not going to going to provide much electricity. That is 2k for an entire
day. There are some "solar generators" available for low cost that provide
that kind of KW.
Hey, that's what the battery bank is for!

But there are so many variables it's mind-boggling in the beginning. Talk to knowledgeable solar folks and get some help with sizing the system/battery bank and go from there. Don't know about other states but there is plenty of free knowledgeable help here, through the land grant university, state energy commission, solar-system dealers, and a huge number of persons with long experience. There were a lot of people here with solar setups when I came here (but where I left there wasn't one that I knew of and still are none there that are visible from the road, and that's in a good area for solar) in the 80s and there are a lot more now. Just about every town (including mine, total pop 700 +/-) here has a 'solar guy' these days, as well as several folks (often women) who are very good at energy-saving building techniques. They live where their customers live, go to church with them, belong to the same snowmobile club---not gonna rip off their neighbors....all sources of information and ideas.

Probably half of large businesses here have at the very least a solar preheat for water heating and a lot of small-medium businesses in my immediate area (there is no large business for many miles from here) are fully solar-powered (and more using solar+wind) now. Also we see a lot more energy-saving ideas used in buildings here--industrial buildings/shops situated to take full advantage of the sun, sun spaces on everything from retail stores to a window manufacturer's new assembly plant (drove by there on a day when it was -18ยบ and some of the employees were sitting out there eating their lunches, looked toasty), sun tubes instead of windows (saves 2 ways, no daily cost for lighting and no heat transfer), in addition to heavy insulation and other more standard techniques for saving energy. Most of these businesses are more than willing to show off their setups and ideas, more free info for us brain-pickers.

We are rarely 'stuck' with a given usage that's inflexible unless there is medical equipment to supply. After that the needs are choice-driven. First step is to decide how much you have in your own 'need' category, and that will vary from day to day but over a week or so within a season it will come to a somewhat consistent average. It's also usually advantageous to begin timing high-use activities to coincide with high-production times. Then size the battery bank to store the excess for the days there's not a lot of sunlight.

For instance if I had my batteries fully charged, I could withstand 6-8 gray days in a row, depending on my usage and just how gray it was (pouring down rain? just enough clouds to make a thin overcast?). That included a refrigerator, and 2 freezers, pumping of water with the house but not from well to the house. I got some charge on a fairly 'dark' day, and most gray days got somewhere around 20-25% of a sunny day--that being the winter situation. Less charge on a gray day in the summer, which tends to be nasty storms and they don't last for long; frequently they are immediately followed by brilliant sunshine....so a different charge/storage pattern.

So for myself --my deep well pump on grid to use up the minimum charge and a water jacket for heating water; it's cool enough here to do that--and all household heating needs supplied by woodstoves, I had 300 W on the roof, mounted on angle irons so I could adjust their angle summer/winter. Had a third set of holes drilled but found I didn't need them.

Short story is: if folks have to have their electric toasters and dryers, hair driers and whatnot, they are gonna lay out giant bucks. I think one of the reasons solar is readily used here is that regional cultural mores result in minimal consumerism. That makes us real suckers for solar power :-)

SJ, on the brilliantly sunny Maine coast









Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page