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kscherer
Which way is up?
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
 
2021-07-21, 17:32

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kickaha View Post
C'mon, man, you know this by now, if it doesn't blow up someone or buy a yacht, it's soshulizm.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We have our priorities out of whack, I get that. We need to get them in whack! Solar power and storage are top contenders IMO, and need addressing. That and water desalination — preferably solar-powered. Actually, the water desalination plants should be powered by garbage-fed power plants, since near the ocean is where we have the most garbage. You coasters can thank yourselves for that problem and solution.

Yada, yada, yada



Turtle, if you want to go down this route, do some rock-solid research. There are used solar panels available (sold by the pallet—see Will Prowse channel), make-them-yourself battery options (you've got the electrix skilz for this), and all kinds of buzzing doodads that suck power but are needed for conversion/monitoring, your electrical panel will likely need rebuilding, permits, disconnection fees — or worse, connection fees should you decide to remain on-grid, in which case you will also need an auto-disconnect in case the power goes out (your system cannot dump power into the system if the power is out, lest some lineman gets zapped by you ). There are just a ton of things you need to know/install to make the system work reliably. For a 400sf Paul-y-dome, this stuff is complex enough for most do-it-yourselfers to hire out. For a full-on home with all the fancy, it's nuts!

Good luck. I'm still investigating, and I'm still not convinced things are ready for what I want to do. I've been experimenting with my RV (about 160sf) and even in that small space A/C is out of the question, as is anything else other than lights and the heater fan — although I do have a 110 2000w inverter installed for Stuff™. I also ran some wiring for my storeroom fridge/freezer so I can tap into the RV inverter to take advantage of its batteries and solar panels, and to make the generator more efficient should the need arise). I'm just not ready to dump $30,000 into the problem, yet, since, for me, the only reason to do this is to gain the backup should the power go out. Being in Idaho, pretty much all of our power is hydro-electric, solar, hydro-thermal, or wind. We have very little in the way of fossil-fuel-powered plants, so "save the planet" reasoning just doesn't fly, here.

At the end of the day, I want the sun-powered backup power! And I'm not quite sure it's worth the money. Although I have also considered a grid-powered battery to supply backup power, w/o the solar input.

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