Plans change, that's life.

[Klayton]

Well today I planned on working on my water storage project a little, finish putting up the support on the 4 new fruit trees, and do some solar/battery/inverter research. BUT!!! Life happens, as I was surfing the web waiting for the outside temperature to rise a little the mrs says, hey want to go to the gun range??? STOP THE PRESSES!! DO I WANT TO GO TO THE GUN RANGE? DOES A FISH LIKE TO SWIM?

So, off to the range, wife popped off 90 rounds through her new AR (yippee) and I fired about the same out of my Springfield XD (45acp). Met some new shooters, one guy was firing his 300 mag out there OMG that thing is INSANELY loud. He fired about 20 rounds and I was like MY GOSH his shoulder has to be feeling that by now, I walk down to his lane and look over his shoulder and LOL hes firing from a supported rest (you know the kind you use to zero your scope). I walked away scratching my head. To each their own.

So, before I hit the surfboard and start searching, here is the burning question my wife came up for me while we were discussing the purchase order of our solar stuff. When the batteries are at full capacity, where does all the power go that our panels are making? Can't we use it somehow? I "think" the answer to this is the "grid-tie" inverters, but do I have to do anything special for the charge controller to know to switch to the grid tie inverter once the batteries are juiced up :confused:

[1Admin]

What size system are you talking about?

At first glance, the whole grid-tie "sell excess power back to the utilities" deal SOUNDS good.

The parts everyone overlooks-

1. You will probably have to have some serious inspections. At the bare minimum this will cost you some more coin.
2. Few local inspectors know crappola about solar, even fewer rural electric companies do. At least in our area.
3. You buy power at retail, sell it at wholesale.
4. Congratulations you just gave 24/7 access via an easement to the power company.

For just pennies a day you too can have these great benefits! Lol :)

Might be worth it with a larger system- think 5 kw of solar. Isn't worth it- FOR ME- with a 3,120 watt output, but I have NO electrical or other easements on my property. Mr. Power company guy, nor anyone else, has legal right to enter my property. The local county (no inspections in our area anyways) agency has no idea we have a solar system. Off grid and OFF GRID, if you know what I mean.

Read the "Beginning your alternate energy journey" (use the search feature) thread I put up over a year ago. It will help you get started and avoid wasting money on equipment that later won't integrate with a larger system. "Begin with the end in mind."

[Klayton]

Thanks 1Admin :)

#4 was the nail in the coffin for that idea!!

[miked2345]

I once read an article on line about a guy who used his excess solar power to pump water UP to a holding tank on his property. Then when he needed more power, he let the water run DOWN thru a generator to get power from it. I have no idea how big his tank or holding pond was, or how much power he actually got from it, but he was doing it.

I do know that some power companies do this on a large scale, filling a reservoir to later generate power by releasing the water.

[trkarl]

Hi Klayton,

My system is totally off grid and it is the MOST inefficient way to use solar. But it is the way I like it. If I were to jump through the hoops of grid tie then I would be charged a higher customer charge from the electric coop. Also I would have to have an extra liability insurance policy strictly for my system. They don't pay as much to purchase the power as they charge and they can shut the system off anytime they want without asking.

One idea some people do who are hooked to the grid with an off grid solar system is use two separate hot water tanks. Both plumbed into the water system where you have one hooked to the grid and one run off the dc from the charge controller(s). You can switch between them using ball valves or something similar. Some CCs are able to "dump" excess power to the hot water heater once the batteries reach the absorption voltage so instead of feeding the grid you heat the water. This way when you are producing plenty of excess power you heat your own water. When it's cloudy for several days you heat it from the grid or gas or what ever you use now.

I know people who have wind turbines must use a dump load to take the extra power if not hooked to the grid. Same principal here. Other than that if you run the system through transfer switches like I do mine then when it's sunny out you try to use as much from the solar as you can when you can. Then flip the switches back to grid if you need to at night or during periods of cloudiness.

One thing I did for a while is I bought 1500 watt 240v elements for my hot water tank. Then during the day I would heat the water from the inverter once the batts were absorbing. It of course takes a lot longer to heat but I just laugh when I see people buying huge genny's just so they can heat their water instead of just switching out the elements. The reason I did this is because my solar is only 3980 watts. Now if I had 10kw I wouldn't worry too much about it LOL.