Personal Energy Independence

[Jamie]

No good deed goes unpunished.

Snip <We're removing this tree and replaced it with a cutoff from the storied "Wye Oak" of Maryland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wye_Oak. Snip.

The Wye Oak cutoff is a great idea.

[Ken Heaton (Salazar)]

Okay, this is interesting. I've been sort of following this, but thinking it will be years before Tesla Power Walls and related technology will get to our little corner of the world. then I open my power bill and there is a little flyer included, which points me to this:

"February 8, 2018 - Nova Scotia Power has launched a pilot project to learn more about how battery storage can help it deliver “cleaner, affordable and more reliable energy to Nova Scotians”.

Known as the Intelligent Feeder, the pilot involves the installation of residential energy storage batteries (Tesla Powerwalls) at 10 homes in the Elmsdale community, and a much larger grid-sized battery (Tesla Powerpack) at the Elmsdale substation.

These batteries will be connected and feed into an electrical line powered, in part, by the nearby Hardwood Lands wind turbines.

Sensors will be placed on the powerline to monitor and gather data about local system activity and be fed back to Nova Scotia Power’s control centre for analysis and planning.

The 10 Elmsdale families were selected following an open application process. Each household received a Powerwall that will be theirs to keep after the pilot ends."

I would have liked a free Powerwall. I'll have to pay a bit more attention to this project and related developments.

https://www.ebmag.com/energy-storage/el ... ect-20139#

https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-powerpa ... r-project/

[Ajax]

After a slow churn through the bureaucratic processes, my Tesla array is finally active.

[BeauV]

Last trip to LA I was guided down 101 south due to a massive wreck on 5 south. While cruising along south of Salinas I noticed multiple LARGE windmills being installed. (I'm guessing the base tower is 200' and the diameter of the windmill is at least 200'.) This area has a predictable NW thermal wind from just before noon to well after dark all summer. Just when the local area really needs more power to run AC units etc... After looking into this a bit, I found that these are farmers who can install these massive windmills and sell the power, keep their farm, and just clip coupons. Pretty cool! The real benefit to all of California is that these massive windmills are sitting right next to the main power connection between Northern and Southern California, so there's no big modification to the grid.

[kimbottles]

After a slow churn through the bureaucratic processes, my Tesla array is finally active.

That is REALLY cool Ajax!!

[Orestes Munn]

Love the interface. Ours just gives you the array output and the performance parameters for each panel, but not what the house is using.

I hope there’s a plan for support if Musk tanks the company. Wow!

[Ajax]

Yesterday, I had my ancient, mercury switch thermostat replaced with a Nest thermostat. I'm not a huge fan of IoT, but it was a "Lagniappe" with the solar installation.
This will help reduce energy loss so that I'm not wasting solar production.

Now that I've gone down the Nest rabbit hole, I'm going to have to work on hardening my home network.

[Orestes Munn]

Yesterday, I had my ancient, mercury switch thermostat replaced with a Nest thermostat. I'm not a huge fan of IoT, but it was a "Lagniappe" with the solar installation.
This will help reduce energy loss so that I'm not wasting solar production.

Now that I've gone down the Nest rabbit hole, I'm going to have to work on hardening my home network.

The Russians can make it mighty uncomfortable.

Just completed a year of Pepco bills and we came out ahead by 544 KWH sold five SRECs for about 385 a piece, and paid about 100 bucks in overhead charges. On track for about 5 yr payoff.

[TheOffice]

Rich,
What kind of output are you getting with all this rain?

[Ajax]

Joel- I get 42kwh on a full, sunny day. In this rain, I'm getting roughly 18kwh per day.

I have still offset my consumption by 80% for the month of July, even with the rain.

[TheOffice]

Joel- I get 42kwh on a full, sunny day. In this rain, I'm getting roughly 18kwh per day.

I have still offset my consumption by 80% for the month of July, even with the rain.

That's amazing!

[BeauV]

Rich,

First, you win the day so far. I had to go look up: Lagniappe Fun word!!

Second, good on ya for the solar stuff. We keep going around and around to find a place to put it. Too many darn trees and we're having difficulty finding a place where there is the right space even without the trees. Grrrr.

I'm impressed with the output.

[Ajax]

I don't advocate slashing and burning just to get the right environment for solar panels. If you live on a heavily wooded property (such as Larry), just enjoy the trees and forget about solar.

[BeauV]

I don't advocate slashing and burning just to get the right environment for solar panels. If you live on a heavily wooded property (such as Larry), just enjoy the trees and forget about solar.

Yes, we've ended up there. But, as the Sudden Oak Death has killed two of our trees and the drought killed our big douglas fir, the land is clearing up slowly. That said, so far we have replanted with fruit trees and are probably going to add more.

[Orestes Munn]

Joel- I get 42kwh on a full, sunny day. In this rain, I'm getting roughly 18kwh per day.

I have still offset my consumption by 80% for the month of July, even with the rain.

We produced a proportionate amount (smaller array) with a similar reduction 15 June—15 July, which is our historical maximum-use billing cycle.

We produced the most in March and April when the albedo is low, skies, skies are frequently cloudless, and the cold lowers the internal resistances. Our max has been about 31. In the summer 25 KWH is a good day. Daily consumption averaged over 2012-2016 was about 16.

[Ajax]

Ah, very interesting!

[kimbottles]

You guys are motivating me to look into adding solar here. I already use it to keep the boats and ham radio station back up batteries charged.

We have a smallish pretty simple house, so even here in the cloudy PNW we might be able to produce much of what we use.

Please keep the reports coming.

[Orestes Munn]

Definitely worth looking into. Around here, cooling is about 2/3 of electricity use for most houses.

[BeauV]

Kim, if you use gas instead of electricity for heating and cooking you'll probably get close to covering your electrical use. Just don't buy an electric car - actually the electric cars are the primary reason I want to add solar. B

All up and down CA-46, the pass that James Dean died on, the farmers are installing very VERY large solar arrays. Given what poor grazing that area is and the cost of water being what it is, I'm guessing this is the best use of the land.

[JoeP]

My brother added solar to his house on Whidbey Island. He has 25 300W panels on a south facing roof which is partially blocked early mornings and late afternoons. He has not had a power bill since March. They will be switching to an electric water heater so they won't be using gas for hot water, only cooking (EDIT and heating). Kim, contact me and I can put you in touch if you want to talk with him.

[Ajax]

This is a view from the MySolarCity app. You can use both apps to see how things are going.

This is a limited sample since the array was only turned on around mid-July. The first two days were maximum production days- Completely cloudless with long, high solar exposure. I'm curious to see what happens in March and April as OM said.

Every friggin' day after that has been solidly overcast with inches of rain.

Today (July 26th) marks the sunniest day since July 21st, but still partly cloudy so not as sunny as the first 2 days on the graph. I've already offset my consumption for today by 122%. By 4pm, I should be close to 150% when I turn the A/C on. Most of that 50% surplus will be gobbled up by evening activities such as A/C use, cooking, TV, and running water (I'm on a well so the well pump uses electricity.). I still believe that we'll offset 100%

[Rob McAlpine]

Joel- I get 42kwh on a full, sunny day. In this rain, I'm getting roughly 18kwh per day.

I have still offset my consumption by 80% for the month of July, even with the rain.

What was the unsubsidized cost of the array?

[Ajax]

$26k.

[Rob McAlpine]

A recent electric bill here priced delivered juice at just under $0.06/KWH , meaning you generate electricity at $2.52/day (based on our Texas rate).

A $26000 investment paid back at @ $2.52/day has about a 28 year cash payout period, sans subsidies.

[Ajax]

.06? Sheesh, it's .12/kwh here.

Edit- sorry, it's a little over .10

[Orestes Munn]

A recent electric bill here priced delivered juice at just under $0.06/KWH , meaning you generate electricity at $2.52/day (based on our Texas rate).

A $26000 investment paid back at @ $2.52/day has about a 28 year cash payout period, sans subsidies.

Whoop dee doo.

So, just because a price structure exists it is part of Nature, ordained by God, contains no hidden subsidies, and prices in every externality and social cost?

All kinds of things are subsidized and almost everyone here is benefiting like crazy.

[Chris Chesley]

A recent electric bill here priced delivered juice at just under $0.06/KWH , meaning you generate electricity at $2.52/day (based on our Texas rate).

A $26000 investment paid back at @ $2.52/day has about a 28 year cash payout period, sans subsidies.

This of course, also assumes that the price of electricity and associated fees, doesn't go up during those 28 years....

[BeauV]

So it turns out that the average price of electricity is 12 cents per Kwatt-hour in the US. Texas is a radical outlier at Rob’s price. California is right on the average. As Eric says, there are all sorts of subsidies, economic, social, etc....

But, using the national average seems reasonable in planning nationally. Individually, your local price is obviously correct.

What I’m amazed by is that we are at the beginning of the cost reduction curve for solar cells. The semi industry will deliver a lot more coast reduction! Based on what I’ve read we could see the raw cost of solar drop by at least another 80% over the next 5 to 10 years, which has nothing to do with subsidies.

[kdh]

You guys are motivating me to look into adding solar here. I already use it to keep the boats and ham radio station back up batteries charged.

We have a smallish pretty simple house, so even here in the cloudy PNW we might be able to produce much of what we use.

Definitely worth looking into. Around here, cooling is about 2/3 of electricity use for most houses.

We also have a small house with an efficient passive solar design, don't use our dryer, and rarely use the air conditioning (hasn't been on this last week, for example, in the hot, sticky weather we've had).

The best way to be green is to reduce consumption.

[kdh]

Meanwhile, at work we dispose of ungodly amounts of plastic in the form of take-out containers used for lunch.