Personal finances and budgeting (1 Viewer)

[ann post]

I had the house survey done by the solar lads. They reckon the amount of panels I could manage would generate ~1700kw/h per annum. My annual usage is ~3200kw/h, so thats a reasonable return.

However, having the panels generating that much and actually using that much are 2 different things. So I'm gonna consider the battery option. That way I have a better chance of using every drop of power the panels generate. The return on investment will be slow, but theres more than just the financials for me. The principal of having over half of your power using coming from solar is pretty compelling imo.

Do you know how many metres squared thats based on?

 

[rettucs]

Do you know how many metres squared thats based on?

he just said it would be around 7 panels.

 

[pete]

You can also top up the battery with cheaper night rate power (if you have it available) and then use it during the day.

 

[rettucs]

You can also top up the battery with cheaper night rate power (if you have it available) and then use it during the day.

yep, and you can also get sockets fitted to the battery that can be used if there's a power cut. Unfortunately that's all gonna be hidden away in the attic so its not a very user-friendly option.

 

[pete]

yep, and you can also get sockets fitted to the battery that can be used if there's a power cut. Unfortunately that's all gonna be hidden away in the attic so its not a very user-friendly option.

I think you can get a manual override for the power cut isolator thing. So if the grid goes down it disconnects like it’s meant to, but you can flip a switch that lets you resume powering your house from the battery.

 

[ernesto]

I think you can get a manual override for the power cut isolator thing. So if the grid goes down it disconnects like it’s meant to, but you can flip a switch that lets you resume powering your house from the battery.

Consumer grade domestic UPS innit

 

[pete]

Consumer grade domestic UPS innit

The dream.

 

[pete]

Tested the fridge overnight and the kettle today. Hmmmmm.

 

[ernesto]

Tested the fridge overnight and the kettle today. Hmmmmm.

View attachment 15582

When you consider the amount of power used to make a cuppa.....It's actually insane

 

[magicbastarder]

that's a 3kW spike? i thought kettles were 2kW.
anyway, yeah, it's nuts; a 2kW kettle running for 5 mins eats up 600kJ. which is enough energy to lift a 100kg person 600m straight up in the air...

 

[rettucs]

I had the house survey done by the solar lads. They reckon the amount of panels I could manage would generate ~1700kw/h per annum. My annual usage is ~3200kw/h, so thats a reasonable return.

However, having the panels generating that much and actually using that much are 2 different things. So I'm gonna consider the battery option. That way I have a better chance of using every drop of power the panels generate. The return on investment will be slow, but theres more than just the financials for me. The principal of having over half of your power using coming from solar is pretty compelling imo.

order placed. I'm going with the battery option. Will take around 12 weeks until they install.

 

[flashback]

I had the house survey done by the solar lads. They reckon the amount of panels I could manage would generate ~1700kw/h per annum. My annual usage is ~3200kw/h, so thats a reasonable return.

However, having the panels generating that much and actually using that much are 2 different things. So I'm gonna consider the battery option. That way I have a better chance of using every drop of power the panels generate. The return on investment will be slow, but theres more than just the financials for me. The principal of having over half of your power using coming from solar is pretty compelling imo.

I was thinking about this a little with my place.
Ideally I'd want the panels to just dump heat into water, then that water can get pumped through the house to heat, or just stored as hot water for use.

Maybe I'm not thinking big enough, but I didn't really expect that panels would be able to fully run the washing machine or actual normal appliances. I did think they could harvest power gradually, and this could be useful in the form of hot water.

Am I wrong in this thinking yeah? I talked to one group, I thought it was the SEAI, and they told be to fuck off when they heard I was out living in Outer Bogland. But it's safe to say I haven't a notion what I'm talking about.

 

[ann post]

Tested the fridge overnight and the kettle today. Hmmmmm.

View attachment 15582

Slowly finding out what i told you a bunch of posts ago.

exciting

 

[Cormcolash]

I was thinking about this a little with my place.
Ideally I'd want the panels to just dump heat into water, then that water can get pumped through the house to heat, or just stored as hot water for use.

Maybe I'm not thinking big enough, but I didn't really expect that panels would be able to fully run the washing machine or actual normal appliances. I did think they could harvest power gradually, and this could be useful in the form of hot water.

Am I wrong in this thinking yeah? I talked to one group, I thought it was the SEAI, and they told be to fuck off when they heard I was out living in Outer Bogland. But it's safe to say I haven't a notion what I'm talking about.

It seems to me that heating the water is logically the first thing anyone should be doing with solar panels really.

 

[GO]

It costs me about a euro a day to sit in my shed ,actually more, now that its 30c per kwh

I'm gonna work it out

 

[rettucs]

It seems to me that heating the water is logically the first thing anyone should be doing with solar panels really.

you can do both easily enough

 

[pete]

I’d say heating water is the last thing to be doing.

 

[magicbastarder]

yeah, electricity is multi-purpose but hot water is specific - and would the hot water be in the immersion tank, or used for heating?

 

[flashback]

yeah, electricity is multi-purpose but hot water is specific - and would the hot water be in the immersion tank, or used for heating?

I was just thinking yes in general.
I suppose I wasn't thinking about it in the right way?
In my mind the inputs are slow and a bit stochastic. You want a sump to store this, since most of the stuff in your house is spiky load.
So you want to store this slow input. Water has a huge specific heat capacity, you can use that and use it for hot water for the house or for heating. The other alternative would be a battery.

But in my mind I was suspecting that solar panels themselves aren't really going to be running things other than maybe a laptop or a load like that.

 

[ann post]

IMHO it's better to just setup to take it as general electricity. It'll totally keep the fridge/freezer alive all day, tv, *devices* etc if surplus is going to the water then great, if it it can't hack the water job then it'll help and the grid will make up the differnce. in a few years a better battery comes a long and it's just a swap out and you are golden.