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Some have wondered about my attempts at playing with solar, so here's a couple pics ...
Maybe I should mark this as mature for all the naked wires? :-P
Top left is the breaker box that decides if any power is heading to or from the house wiring, only the 240 out is currently wired; the 120 in is for using the inverter to charge the batteries, and the 120 out will only be used if I'm forced to use the 2000 watt backup inverter.
Next to the AC breaker panel in the 80 Amp solar controller, the smaller one down and right is the 40 Amp backup.
More to the right is the solar panels connections - which I will load a (slightly) better picture of.
Below left is the 6000 watt inverter (with a little meter that needs to be set up tacked on.)
Oh, the Xmas tree lights? They let me know the inverter is up (and they run to the door so I can see where I'm going when switching the system over!)
Maybe I should mark this as mature for all the naked wires? :-P
Top left is the breaker box that decides if any power is heading to or from the house wiring, only the 240 out is currently wired; the 120 in is for using the inverter to charge the batteries, and the 120 out will only be used if I'm forced to use the 2000 watt backup inverter.
Next to the AC breaker panel in the 80 Amp solar controller, the smaller one down and right is the 40 Amp backup.
More to the right is the solar panels connections - which I will load a (slightly) better picture of.
Below left is the 6000 watt inverter (with a little meter that needs to be set up tacked on.)
Oh, the Xmas tree lights? They let me know the inverter is up (and they run to the door so I can see where I'm going when switching the system over!)
Category Photography / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 4640 x 3472px
File Size 4.23 MB
Listed in Folders
Oh it'll have some lethal voltages soon. I'm putting in a flatter bed. the current one is warped by as much as .5mm due to the thin aluminum it's made from. The new bed is 8mm of cast aluminum at an average deviation of .1mm. but to keep the heated bed, i'll have to use a mains powered bed.
first line of defense is a 10amp fast fuse in the input socket. the printer, the bed, the case its in, and the ssr will be grounded. the bed will have a 150c thermal fuse giving me a max working temp of about 130. software will detect thermal run-away too.
I'm in the process of figuring out if i should also wire in a 15amp breaker switch too.
I'm in the process of figuring out if i should also wire in a 15amp breaker switch too.
They are called Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters, or GFCI. They are mandatory in bathrooms and outdoor outlets. They are designed to keep us fragile humans from getting zapped.
I know from experience that getting zapped isn't fun.
Regular circuit breakers are designed to keep from overloading the wiring. A circuit breaker won't protect us, but it does protect the house. It trips before there is enough current to turn the wire red hot and burn the house down.
I know from experience that getting zapped isn't fun.
Regular circuit breakers are designed to keep from overloading the wiring. A circuit breaker won't protect us, but it does protect the house. It trips before there is enough current to turn the wire red hot and burn the house down.
Cool! It looks like you are having my kind of of fun there.
I designed and built my own grid tie solar power system in 2019. Mine is a ground mount setup with 64 x 340W panels and 3 x 6kw grid tie inverters. No battery storage though.
I designed the system to yield 72 kwh per day on average, and it is actually performing slightly better than predicted (78 kwh/day average). Its been running for a bit over 2 years now and turned sunshine into over 60 mwh of clean electricity so far.
I was able to cut my power bill by ~75%, and by doing the design and build myself, I paid 1/3 - 1/2 of what the local solar contractors are charging. I figure my system will pay back its cost and turn profit in 8 years of operation.
I designed and built my own grid tie solar power system in 2019. Mine is a ground mount setup with 64 x 340W panels and 3 x 6kw grid tie inverters. No battery storage though.
I designed the system to yield 72 kwh per day on average, and it is actually performing slightly better than predicted (78 kwh/day average). Its been running for a bit over 2 years now and turned sunshine into over 60 mwh of clean electricity so far.
I was able to cut my power bill by ~75%, and by doing the design and build myself, I paid 1/3 - 1/2 of what the local solar contractors are charging. I figure my system will pay back its cost and turn profit in 8 years of operation.
I'll try to remember to take a shot of the panels today or tomorrow.
Sixteen 210W panels for 3360W (best seen so far was 2978W) feed 15.36kWh worth of batteries. I've seen a couple 14kWh days from the panels (less with clouds or when the batteries are topped off and there's still plenty of sun.)
As a first test it isn't too bad, but it's not long legged enough to survive a very cloudy day (it died about two hours from the coming dawn), and it doesn't have the power or storage to run the drier (it ran, but dropped off when something else kicked in and overloaded the 6000W inverter; and even if it had run for an hour it was drawing +4800W, draining the batteries even with full sun.)
Just started it this year, so no real numbers on savings as yet.
Sixteen 210W panels for 3360W (best seen so far was 2978W) feed 15.36kWh worth of batteries. I've seen a couple 14kWh days from the panels (less with clouds or when the batteries are topped off and there's still plenty of sun.)
As a first test it isn't too bad, but it's not long legged enough to survive a very cloudy day (it died about two hours from the coming dawn), and it doesn't have the power or storage to run the drier (it ran, but dropped off when something else kicked in and overloaded the 6000W inverter; and even if it had run for an hour it was drawing +4800W, draining the batteries even with full sun.)
Just started it this year, so no real numbers on savings as yet.
I'll post some pics of my setup tonight.
The rules on grid tie and net metering in my region make it favorable for me to use the electric company as my battery. That said, it would still be nice to be able to go off grid if I wanted or needed to.
I'm also interested in adding some batteries and a controller/inverter to shift my demand cycle so I can cover my nighttime usage. Given that my system is currently grid tie only, I still have to buy power back at night at a higher cost. I still save a lot, but I can never cut the power bill to zero without storage
I can actually generate well in excess of what I consume overall, but the sell/buy price ratio still favors the electric company. In order to add demand shifting to my system, I would need to add a storage system AC -> DC -> Charge Batteries -> AC grid tie inverter. The electronics would be pretty trivial, but the batteries would need to be really cheap for this strategy to pay off for me in my remaining lifetime. LiFePO4 looks like the best commercially available chemistry right now, but the cost/benefit doesn't work out for me. Something like a redox flow battery or a liquid metal battery could work, but those are made of unobtainium right now. Its probably doable with the information on the net, but it would take a lot of experiments to pull it off.
The rules on grid tie and net metering in my region make it favorable for me to use the electric company as my battery. That said, it would still be nice to be able to go off grid if I wanted or needed to.
I'm also interested in adding some batteries and a controller/inverter to shift my demand cycle so I can cover my nighttime usage. Given that my system is currently grid tie only, I still have to buy power back at night at a higher cost. I still save a lot, but I can never cut the power bill to zero without storage
I can actually generate well in excess of what I consume overall, but the sell/buy price ratio still favors the electric company. In order to add demand shifting to my system, I would need to add a storage system AC -> DC -> Charge Batteries -> AC grid tie inverter. The electronics would be pretty trivial, but the batteries would need to be really cheap for this strategy to pay off for me in my remaining lifetime. LiFePO4 looks like the best commercially available chemistry right now, but the cost/benefit doesn't work out for me. Something like a redox flow battery or a liquid metal battery could work, but those are made of unobtainium right now. Its probably doable with the information on the net, but it would take a lot of experiments to pull it off.
A thought.
The 6000W inverter I picked up does have an option to charge its batteries from the grid (but it cannot be supplying power and charging at the same time!)
So the first question is how much power does that inverter need to be able to supply your house?
Second question would be how many kWhs the batteries need to be able to hold.
Then you need a AC battery charger with enough kWs that can both charge your batteries and run the house during cheap power times (and the batteries inverter power the house through the high power times.
(Which is about what my solar system is doing. During the day the panels' power feed both the inverter and charge the batteries, come darkness the batteries feed the inverter. Sadly I do have to switch back to the mains to run the drier and the mains feed the A/C compressor.)
The 6000W inverter I picked up does have an option to charge its batteries from the grid (but it cannot be supplying power and charging at the same time!)
So the first question is how much power does that inverter need to be able to supply your house?
Second question would be how many kWhs the batteries need to be able to hold.
Then you need a AC battery charger with enough kWs that can both charge your batteries and run the house during cheap power times (and the batteries inverter power the house through the high power times.
(Which is about what my solar system is doing. During the day the panels' power feed both the inverter and charge the batteries, come darkness the batteries feed the inverter. Sadly I do have to switch back to the mains to run the drier and the mains feed the A/C compressor.)
That looks like a nice setup.
Our next project might be solar. We just finished setting up a 240 V outlet to charge our car. It's a lot faster (6 2/3 X) than charging from a 120 V outlet. Since installing it, we haven't had to use a supercharger (which costs about 4X what you pay at home.) Every time we want to go somewhere, we drive off with a full charge.
But we don't want to depend on the grid, even though we only live a mile from a (peaking) power plant. Once we get the solar installed, we don't have to worry about the electric company playing the same games that the petroleum industry has been playing for decades.
Where we used to live, the water company kept charging more and more. Here, we have a well. Once we have solar, we will be off the grid for everything but food and data.
Our next project might be solar. We just finished setting up a 240 V outlet to charge our car. It's a lot faster (6 2/3 X) than charging from a 120 V outlet. Since installing it, we haven't had to use a supercharger (which costs about 4X what you pay at home.) Every time we want to go somewhere, we drive off with a full charge.
But we don't want to depend on the grid, even though we only live a mile from a (peaking) power plant. Once we get the solar installed, we don't have to worry about the electric company playing the same games that the petroleum industry has been playing for decades.
Where we used to live, the water company kept charging more and more. Here, we have a well. Once we have solar, we will be off the grid for everything but food and data.
First thing to do is look at your electric bills, that'll give you a hint of just how much power you've been drawing. If you get a lot of cloudy days you'll need more panels and batteries to cover your needs.
You may want/need to set the car charger with its own panels/batteries as that could be your biggest draw - especially if you drive by day and charge at night. (and depending on the setup it could act as part of your 'cloudy day reserve'.)
Good luck and stay safe!
You may want/need to set the car charger with its own panels/batteries as that could be your biggest draw - especially if you drive by day and charge at night. (and depending on the setup it could act as part of your 'cloudy day reserve'.)
Good luck and stay safe!
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