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To: Tell It Right

You got a lot of juice there, I lived in my cabin and trailer on top the hill with my solar setup, but had to run the generator a lot to keep up. I could scale my system up, but It just isn’t worth it and would require more of my time to maintain, right now I check the batteries every 4-6 months and add some water. That’s it.


9 posted on 10/11/2024 10:37:11 AM PDT by eyeamok
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To: eyeamok
Here's what maintenance for me entails:

1. Twice per year I get a water hose and long pole brush to clean the solar panels.

2. Twice per year I change a setting on my main inverter on when it powers a separate electrical panel (when my home batteries are charged at least X %). A circuit tied to that panel is the main circuit we use for charging the EV (when there's enough home battery storage to make it through the night without the grid, I'll charge the EV up to 80% even if it's already charged enough for the next day's drive). This means most of the time we charge the EV it's with free power. If the EV's range gets low, we'll plug it into the constantly powered charging circuit (which may or may not be free that day, but the charge is certain).

3. Twice per year I go to my water heater closet and flip two wye levers on the duct work that directs the free cold air coming out of the hybrid water heater. During the warm half of the year I let that free cold air fall to the floor into the air receiver for the HVAC to spread that free cold air throughout the house (so my home variable speed heat pump can run in lower speed to keep the house cool for the couple of hours per day the water heater runs and produces free cold air). In the cool months I push that cold air export up into the attic out of the living quarters while I'm running the heat to keep the house warm.

4. Once per month when I get a power bill, I export data from my inverters into my SQL database and do some number crunching to compare how much my inverters say they pulled from the grid with how much my power statement said I pulled from the grid. I also record the odometer from my EV to see how many free home charged miles we drove that month, and look at the price of gas at local gas stations to see how much gas would have cost. If it's been 5K miles I assume a savings in an oil change. I also calculate the costs that come with an EV (i.e. it's a new car so I have full coverage instead of liability only coverage like I would if we still had a gas crossover). I see how much the power utility is charging me per kWh (including the fuel rider per kWh and 4% state tax) to see how much the solar saved me on my power bill (by reducing how much power I would have pulled from the grid).

10 posted on 10/11/2024 10:55:34 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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