Pellet heads!! What's up today?

Actually, Southern facing panels that have the tilt adjusted for the lower sun angle do pretty darn well. I make just as much as I do in the summer.

I took the backup up to doing several critical circuits. Was only going to do as backup at first, but now I'm running in UPS mode and with solar as priority actually reducing my crazy high electric bill. But that is a total whole different reason and worth slinging $$ at it. We pay $0.31 a KWH where it used to be $0.22/KWH. So making some free juice is worth it for us. As for back up the price of these power stations is reasonable. Expanding the run time is the pricey part. Adding more reserve can cost as much or more than the main unit.

I do see where a non electric stove would benefit! I miss my wood stove in the power outages. No juice required!!

 

Gotta make hay when the sun shines. Store it for future use. Its a big issue if you converting to go total solar, But if your just using it as backup in small batches, It's much easier. Just saying. I know solar isn't for everyone, But planning and storage can buffer out some of the obstacles.

I only get 4 hours of good sun. I have enough storage for 8+ hours of run. Slowly building the system to where we can produce and store a days worth of free energy. But small steps. I'll go up to 50% of our critical needs this spring. And aim for 12 hours of storage. Then as $$ allows slowly up the storage to say 2 to 3 days.

If I was just going to generate and store for back up. I would aim for 3 days of storage or the longest outage you've seen in the years you've lived there. Or if your power is cheap, Just use the grid to charge the storage batteries. Doesn't have to be solar. Our case is solar is cheap, The grid is whats killing us. So far, My worst outage has been 2 days. So I want 2 solid days of storage, but I also have the gas genny which I can run in the daylight hours to take over and also recharge the storage batteries.

Again Just sayin, Do whatever works for you!

 

Sure was slickery this morning! Even Brodie with his built in cleats was sliding. He came down the slope and nearly wiped out. I couldn't go past the walk way. Started to melt off, But the wind picked up and froze it all over again.

 

Wow, That much. We are looking into eventually getting to around 12KWH's backup. But we aren't doing the whole house power. Just the critical circuits like the pellet stove. fridge freezer fish tank and some lights. I may add the Wifi/Bluetooth to it once we get the larger power station.

The next power station has to have a better app. I want PV priority UPS and history of the total KW's we capture with solar. Looks like Bluetti has the better app for that stuff. Most of the others you need to buy their smart home panel. I'd rather spend the extra on the batteries or more solar panels!!

 

Panels aimed east or west do little in winter on roof mounts. Plus the angle is usually too low. Winter angle needs to be higher(my long-lat is 44º). This is why I ditched the idea of have a company solar my house roof. Did the research you suggest when I asked.

I only have an acre+ so no solar field! I just have 2 540w panels on the garage/shed roof. Aimed directly south. Its winter so I have them set to 44º. The roof is low enough I can reach them with a roof broom to keep them clean. I average 2kw during the winter. My best day was 3.3kw worst day in January was 0.5kw. Summer I'll drop the angle down to 34º to catch just a little more. I've seen more than 5kw on a good long sunny day. The only way I could do better is get the tracking panel arrays where it locates and follows the sun. I could likely extend the gain to about 6+ hours instead of the 4 or 5 I get now.

My panels are bifacial so even when I haven't cleaned them they still produce about 100 watts from the reflection off the roof. Most times they warm up enough to melt off the snow.

 

Don't let us knuckleheads get to you. The no power option of the wiseway may just be all you need to sneak by. If it doesn't work? Maybe you could replace it with a small wood stove and a through the wall vent setup?

I had people tell me I was crazy trying to power my garage with solar. They all said I wouldn't make enough to amount to even run just the lights. I made so much we decided to expand and use it as backup power. And did pretty well with that too. So we are trying the next set to see if we can assist to lower our energy bill!! If it doesn't work at least I can say we tried.

Curious if you plan to burn shells with it or just wood pellets?

 

I'm tinkering with a small 200 watt panel to use while I tear apart the roof array for an expansion of more panels. On a moderately sunny day I was able to get around 150 watts which is good enough to support the battery charge for the garage lighting. I may add another to be sure we will keep that or the power station once we transfer that back out there when its warmer.

Not my actual pic, But its the same model. I've got to figure out how to get screen capture from my Victron solar charger's app and post the history of what it captured.

 

Indeed! I was startled with some of the prices of those! I did see a PoweMr 3000 watt hybrid that you can sister another 2 it that gives split phase, but still is pricey once you double the price. A 6000 watt EG4 is like $1200 iirc.

Luckily my well pump is only 120V(it does have the option to wire it for 240v) and I might add that if I can produce enough with the solar(otherwise it does run off the gas genny). I'm going to up the 3000 watt inverter/power station and go with a 5000 watt jic we can make enough. I may also try to sneak in the microwave if possible. And of coarse the coffee maker and Kuerag. My dang list keeps getting longer and longer!

The only things I'd need 240V split phase for would be the water heater, range and the cloths dryer.

 

My issue is zoning and all the freakin inspections of a DIY system. So going power station with 4 to 6 panels(2000 to 3000 watts). No inspection as its similar to adding a gas generator. Just need to have stuff installed and checked by an electrician. Kind of the easy route for us so the likely path we follow.

My main panel with generator interlok has already passed inspection. Garage stand alone passed as well. Both have the proper interloks installed. I just need to run a conduit from the garage to the house and have that check under the OG permit. I'll run a big enough conduit to handle all the back and forth wiring and leave a fish string in it too JIC.

I've just got to figure out what else I'm going to add to the new powerstation and get some killowatt readings to be sure I have enough umph and storage. Then I'll order the Bluetti AC300 or AC500(the most likely we go with for expansion room). Start with one B300s battery and add another later?

Right now I have 4 100ah 12v batteries connected(48V) to the Pecron E1500LFP and I gained a chit load of storage/runtime. I hope I can do the same with the Bluetti as its the cheapest form of additional storage. Depends on the connections to the internal batterys??