Solar update for 1st quarter

[J. Clarke]

Here in CT during the blackout last year cell was the only thing that was kind of working. The land lines were down so POTS was out.

[Doug Winterburn]

Charlie,

Are you a Solar City customer or did you purchase from some other solar company?

How do you upload to pvout.org (automatically?) your stats?

I'm leasing my system as I couldn't afford the purchase and as well the lease includes any maintenance and a purchase didn't.

On the lease, any annual credits are paid to me rather than carrying over.

Thanks,

- Doug

[Doug Winterburn]

I've been temped on this one except for the noise, but it would run the AC...

It would probably drive away any neighbors :-)

[J. Clarke]

You don't pay for electricity by the watt-day, you pay by the watt-hour. Multiply your number by 24.

[J. Clarke]

Why do you need to produce this constant high power? Power here was out for more than a week last year. Not just in my house, in most of the state and the neighboring state. Would have been nice to be able to run the heat and the refrigerator for a few hours a day so the pipes didn't freeze and the food didn't spoil. Why would you need all these batteries you talk about to do that?

And your wallet was big enough to buy this solar system you're bragging about so why would batteries be an issue?

You needed all those "approvals" to install the thing in the first place so why is this an issue all of a sudden?

[Doug Winterburn]

Well, J

I didn't spend any big bucks for the system, it was installed for zero. All I pay is a monthly lease.

Also, unless a solar system can produce somewhat of a constant power (which it can't without some storage system), your power level will be totally variable depending on light level, cloud cover, etc. Do you currently live with constant brownouts and power losses?

And I also inquired about a transfer switch and was educated as to why it would be a fools errand without a storage system. After some thought, I determined the experts were correct. You might want to think about it before you espouse yourself as an expert. The best storage system is the grid or batteries. The grid costs only taxes and fees - about $19/month. A battery storage system for 40 kWh/day costs are prohibitive for costs, space and maintenance.

The powers that be did allow the installation of a system that works, not one that you would like to believe that works.

Take up your suggestions with someone who knows WTF their talking about.

[J. Clarke]

Oh, I see, you got something for nothing. Sounds to me like you got what you paid for.

Grok the concept. The scenario is that the grid is DOWN. When the grid is DOWN, "constant brownouts" is better than nothing, and there's been a power loss already.

That's fine when the grid is up. But the scenario is that it is not up. Did you ask your experts why it was "a fool's errand" to want to run the refrigerator and the heat when the grid was down? Sounds to me like they didn't know how to set that up and talked gullible you into believing that it was a good idea to just freeze to death in the dark with all this fancy solar power equipment doing absolutely nothing useful in the event that the grid goes down.

It doesn't matter if it costs 19 dollars a month or pays you a trillion dollars a second, if it's not up it does you no good at all. And you have all this fancy expensive solar crap and your food still spoils and your pipes still freeze.

The objective here is not to live off-grid, the objective here is to provide a minimal level of power when the grid fails.

Why do you need 40 kWh/day to run the refrigerator and the heat?

By your own admission it doesn't work when the grid goes down, so they did not "allow the installation of a system that works" when the grid is down.

Ask your so-called experts what good your fancy system does when the grid is down for a week.

[Doug Winterburn]

In the 20 years I've lived in the AZ desert, the grid has never been down for more than 20 minutes. I can live with that.

The purpose of the system is to save money, which it has every month since it's been installed. It will only save more as time goes on and the utility rates increase since it has provided more power than I take from the grid. So yes, I am getting something for nothing - well not nothing, I'm getting it from the sun.

I'm sure it wouldn't do you any good though as your knowledge in these matters far exceeds that of the so called experts.

[chaniarts]

i bought my system.

if you have a login to pvoutput, you can add either 1 day at a time, or if you have a .csv, you can bulk upload 3 months at a time.

once you're logged in, you can use this

to upload a day. at the bottom are links for different multiple uploaders.

[Dave]

On Thu, 29 Mar 2012 06:11:10 -0700, Doug Winterburn

Doug, look who you're replying to. Several grains of salt are mandatory before even considering what he has to say.

[Michael Joel]

10 bulbs X 100w = 1000w (or 1kw) 1000w X 24hr = 24000w (24kw) 24kw X 30 days = 720000w (or 720kw)

a Kilowatt hour is 1000 watts. So 720000w / 1000 = 720kwh

If you are stuck on a Co-Op electric system you are paying about twice that of the average person ($0.18) - otherwise about $0.09 a kwh)

720kwh @ $0.18 = $129.60 720kwh @ $0.09 = $64.80

[Drew Lawson]

watts x hours is watt-hours, not watts

24 kwh

72000 wh (72 kwh)

(Actually, 24 kw for 30 days would be about 17 Mwh, and probably melt your wiring).

1000 watt hours

(I assume you get it by now)

If your units don't make sense, don't expect anyone to believe your numbers.

I'm not an EE, and I assume neither are you.

[Michael Joel]

SNIP

I think my math made enough sense. I don't want to quibble over terms but I think if you understand what I said you wouldn't say that 24kw for 30 days would melt the wires. The

24kw was the days cumulative watts (which my math made clear).

All energy was expressed in watts until a final conversion to kwh... Kilowatt Hour: noun - :A unit of energy equal to the work done by a power of 1000 watts operating for one hour Kilowatt: noun - A unit of power equal to 1000 watts

... but for someone simply wanting to calc their bill and not planning a wiring system (as the discussion) dividing watts by 1000 is kwh.

[J. Clarke]

If you live somewhere where that is the case it might make sense. Having gone without power for more than week last year my view is somewhat different.

Sorry, little troll, but I'm not rising to that bait, so you can get back under your bridge and wait for the next billy goat.

[Doug Winterburn]

Sheesh - another one in the bin.

[Martin Eastburn]

Caution - that is an RV generator - the 220 volt looking plug isn't.

Mine is somewhat like that - my Honda ran to long - over a week and it was to hard on it.

So I got one like that but with a real 240 that is two 120's 180 degrees apart.

The 220 is 40 amp per line. The 120v is only 30. So I run 220 and split it down into two legs. Wish I had two sets of 240 in real time.

Mart> >> >>

[Lew Hodgett]

--------------------------------- A tip for running 10HP Max Eng-Gen sets

Run straight SAE 30 oil and change every 40 running hours or quarterly.

Learned this the hard way from a small engine specialist.

Lew

[Martin Eastburn]

Sometime during the night the engine block cracked - I think it was fatigue and the oil drained out. Once the black stuff got out (liquid smake ?!) it was all over.

Now, and someday, I might take the alternator and consider a homemade job or buy a new engine. Still awiting a bright idea.

I'm thinking a 'Dutch' windmill generator - lawn decoration. But most of our wind is 20 feet and higher.

Mart> "Mart>> Caution -

[Lew Hodgett]

-------------------------- May have also been corrosive by products of combustion that weakened housing.

That was the basic reason for frequent flushing.

BTW, I threw a con rod that had worn egg shaped.

Lew