Move to off grid home

[Hillhater]

..I will be looking into using excess solar output to drive a mono pump. Then have two water tanks and setting up a pumped hydro down the hill. this will be setup to drain back late at night to recover a few kw charge extending the battery s life.

Kurt,
i understand how this could be done ( and you are in an ideal situation to do it),.. but i would carefully review the ROI of this project.
IE,.. what will it cost you in time, equipment and materials to install, vs any payback you can estimate ?
I guess the tricky part would be estimating the payback,..extended battery life would be a real wooly estimate considering your excess capacity now, and could be completely eliminated by some other unplanned event (??)
But it sounds like the payback for you would be the satisfaction of building it anyway.. ?

 

[Kurt]

Well i need to purchase a tank to collect storm water runoff from the shed/workshop I am planing to build soon. I can purchase one big tank or two smaller ones. smaller tanks are less cost efficient than one big one but the cost difference isn't that big. The pump I can get at trade price and the small hydro unit made from a old FP washing machine smart drive motor is relatively inexpensive at around $600 AU for a complete turbine kit.

link to NZ company
http://www.ecoinnovation.co.nz/p-81-pelton-turbine-low-voltage-kit-set-1.aspx




I already have a good 100m of the 200m of 2" plastic pipe laying around.

Some would say just buy more PV's .The trick is a already have to much pv and I need more storage. Well actually I don't need more storage but if i can reduce the time that my battery's spend at anything but 100% that has to be a good thing.At night there isn't many options other then wind, diesel generator or hydro.

I have a local contact that is setting up the same hydro system for the same reasons I actually got the idea of of him. He has all the gear purchased and is just finding the time to run the 200m of pipe. So will sit on the idea until i see his in action and see how it runs.

Kurt

 

[Hillhater]

Hmm, .. neat kit, but wont you need huge tanks ? ( dams ? )
..looks like you need around 29 cu meters for 1 kWhr ?

 

[Kurt]

Two 20,000ltr tanks with 85m head over 200m. potential for 3kwh. The good thing about the pumped hydro is you can have the valves on a voltage-time sensitive relay so it kicks in when you need it late at night. Once you have installed the tanks,wire and pipework their isn't a lot of ongoing maintenance other than perhaps a new pump sleeve every so often. its a very robust reliable night time 3kwh of charge you can count on. Also the extra 20,000ltrs of fresh rain water is always handy.

Kurt

 

[Kurt]

I finally got a chance to ride my ebike for the first time at the new location. It's been about 5 weeks or more from the last time a rode my E trike. The Lipo pack was showing just under 60v so I topped it up and balanced the pack. The trikes tyres had lost some air and where on the soft side after sitting around. I didn't bother pumping them up, My thinking was a soft ride could be an advantage on the dirt.

What I found to my surprise was the trike with slightly under inflated tires handled the gravel road with very well. The road although dirt is very smooth with no pot holes and is graded regularly . The trike was actually more fun to ride on the dirt that a paved road. I could hold 50kmh while riding one handed.being able to apply little squirts of power and feel the rear end step out was fun. The trike at 60v is actually about the speed I drive the car down that road due to the width of the road and tight twist and short but steep climbs and large trees lining the edge of the road.

It's been raining but I plan to ride from the house to the local town but will take the tourist drive of around 10km (20km round trip) I will try and get some video when i do and post it up.

It's great charging the bikes of solar now.especially when charging them when the sun is up as the inverter is more or less running directly off the pv's

Kurt.

 

[Kurt]

Finally I now have a copy of the original remote monitoring program for my inverter.

I need to run a cat5 cable from the inverter to the house over the weekend and I can fire up the software. It's going to be great to be able to glance at the laptop any time day or night and know what charge level my Battery's are at. Among other things like Voltage, Amps IN-OUT, kw load, kwh consumed over 24hrs & average over 7 days, temp of battery bank, Temp of inverter at three positions- transformer,heat sink and ambient air temp internal external. All historical data can be downloaded and put into excel spread sheet. The generator can be started remotely to from the program.

I was getting fed up with having to walk outside open up the battery room doors then inverter cabinet while watching out for snakes that for some reason love the room. last weekend I had a huge goanna lizard in there sitting above the door when i walked in frighten the crap out of me when I wasn't expecting it .

This is what they look like . The one in the battery room was about 2 foot long without the tail. They get a bit cranky and have some nasty claws.

So rather than deal with the creatures Just to view the inverters lcd panel for simple reading like battery charge % and PV amps in the program will be great.It felt like I was driving a car with no dash board instruments, Not knowing what the fuel, battery voltage,temp level was without getting out of the car and measuring it a real pain in the a**.

My thinking was is would be great to use a cheap android phone or similar that could run the software and a blue-tooth or wifi adapter so I could run the program permanently on it and mount the phone on a cradle . The program gives you the option to emulate the keypad & LCD screen on the inverter so not sure how that would go with a touch screen phone.

Some example shots of the very basic program. It doesn't look flash but it gives you all the data you need.

Kurt

 

[Elliot]

Hi Kurt, I've been watching this local Brisbane company for a while http://www.redflow.com.au/. Some interesting battery technology when you need to turn over your batteries on the house.

 

[Kurt]

Hi Kurt, I've been watching this local Brisbane company for a while http://www.redflow.com.au/. Some interesting battery technology when you need to turn over your batteries on the house.

Very interesting thanks for that. Local to is a good thing. I had a quick read. looks like a nice option with some big advantages. I couldn't see all the data but would be interesting to see how they handle hi C discharge. Any improvement on cycle life has to be a good thing.


I have been shocked at how little energy KWH we use in this new house. We purchased all new appliances for the home. It took me many days researching on the net to find the most energy efficient appliances. Our 500ltr refrigerator - freezer uses 400kwhr PA The Asko front loader washing machine uses 180kwh Pa. the FP dishwasher draws use 134kwh pa. The tv samsung 40 inch led tv uses 180kwh pa. The lighting is LED and compact fluorescent home theater pc is a little asrock ion unit that struggles to consume 30w playing a blue-ray.

All of the sticker ratings on the appliances are over the top. For example the washing machine's rating assumes you are doing 7 wash cycles a week .The Tv's rating assumes you watch something like 6hrs a day . Its amazing how picking your products carefully can save you a lot of energy. Some refrigerators of the same capacity usually cheap and nasty ones used double the kwh to do the same job and it was the same for washing machines and dishwashers.

We are struggling to use 3 or 4 kwhr a day As the design of the home with cross ventilation and very good insulation(given the local climate) heating and cooling are eliminated all year. Its a 4300 square foot home using 1/3 the energy of our little suburban house.

Kurt

 

[liveforphysics]

Great job choosing appliances wisely Kurt.

Sounds like you're really "doing it right" for living. Much respect to you, and thank you for taking the time to share your experiences.

 

[Elliot]

Hi Kurt, Just guessing but I think your near here, and I highly recommend this place for a beautiful Sunday Morning breakfast http://www.walkaboutcreek.com.au/userfiles/file/sunday_breakfast_menu.pdf, cheers, Elliot

 

[Kurt]

Hi Kurt, Just guessing but I think your near here, and I highly recommend this place for a beautiful Sunday Morning breakfast http://www.walkaboutcreek.com.au/userfiles/file/sunday_breakfast_menu.pdf, cheers, Elliot

Elliot,
Our city house in the suburbs about 300 yards away from walkabout creek. My wife and I have had breakfast their a few times and it is nice(shame the dam isn't open to recreational use as its going to wast) I would love to use my electric kayak on it . My daughter likes the animals at walk about creek. As you would know its at the base of a very nice road that heads up into the hills and nation park.

My off grid home is about 100km north in the sunshine coast hinterland.

Kurt

 

[Elliot]

:thumb:

 

[Kurt]

I now have some downloaded data from the inverter to see how the system is running. When viewing the data we are only using the system on the weekends at this stage hence the low consumption Mon - Friday as its just the base loads refrigerator,security and standby loads.

I downloaded 7 days as we had a shocking day last Monday with 236mm of rain over 3 days. The solar irradiation on that day peeked at only 75wm2 and averages around 40wm2 That said I almost covered 100% of my base load with solar that day. On the Tue I ordered the generator to start to do a 6 month Q charge just to shake things up a little. In the future I am just going to let the PV's do the EQ charge.

One thing with a RAPs system compared to a grid tied system is you never get to see your potential PV output as the Pv's only run to charge the battery and then just sit idle each day .

To date i am struggling to use 4.5kwh a day and the max DOC my battery's have been at is 92% so I am using 8% of them to run my home.Its just ticking along having a easy life. That said the last two two days on the graph we had a guest staying with us so had extra water pump time for showers and ran washing machine and dishwasher.Efficient appliances go a long way . when we are not there weekdays the refrigerator automaticly sets its self to eco mode and reduces the defrost cycle to conserve energy.

data and excel graphs.

battery's reach fload early in the day . Every day but monday.

you can see how the irradiation was super low on Monday with thick black cloud.

Weeks load in watts average.

battery volts

On another note I have a little 26hp 4wd diesel tractor to mow the lawns. After getting sun burnt last time riding on it I started looking at a fiberglass canopy that attaches to the rollover bar. They offer some sun and rain protection.

Something like this

I got a shock that they want around $400 for something so simple. It got me thinking I could do something different and kill two birds with one stone. The tractor also needs some heavy weight at the front to counterbalance the 400lb 200kg mower at the rear. So my new plan is to mount my 140lb - 75kg 200ah SLA battery to the front of the tractor. I will then purchase a large 200w solar panel that is about the same dimensions as the fiber glass canopy. I will weld together a bolt on support frame and use the solar panel as a canopy. The tractor sits out in the sun all week and would charge the 200ah battery. I can then charge my ebike from the battery on the weekends.This keeps my lipo charging outside safer and gets the big 200ah sla out of my way and adds weight to the front of the tractor so i don't do wheel stands up hills.The funny thing is I priced the panel-regulator and cable (i already have the steel for frame) and its cheaper than the silly fiberglass canopy LOL.

Kurt

 

[Kurt]

This weekend I started the job of changing over all the multiple 11w compact fluorescent spotlights with 6w led drop in gu10 replacements. We usually just have a 30w 4 foot long slim fluorescent tube running above the island bench. Given the main living area is one big open room this provides enough ambient light for watching tv and general lazing around in the evenings.

Task lighting for reading is a 20w halogen lamp neer the sofa. Task lighting above the Other kitchen benches came from two spotlight fitting that hold three 11w compact fluorescent gu10 spotlights. Each fitting was on a independent switch with a total of 33w - 66w when both on. The biggest issue I had with e compact F was the start up time..very slow and dim when starting. The 2nd issue was the light quality. Not very natural and the intensity was a little dull and not as focus as you would expect from a spotlight.

After some trial and error I have found some cheep e bay replacement led globes that are a big improvement. 6w LED warm wight. They start and give full output immediately and are brighter and more focus than the compact F. The tone of light is more natural or at least to me is nicer to work with. There is a total energy consumption of 36w vs 63w for the compact F .

I made a small u tube video with comparison test. I think i mentioned a total consumption of 9w its actually 18w I have 12 more of the globes to replace around the home. Then I will start on replacing the bigger ceiling mounted spotlights used around the house as there would have to be around 30 of them Most have 12w Phillips warm white fluo's in them now.

Kurt

[youtube]oTaLEM4-49Q[/youtube]

 

[kevo]

Excellent data Kurt, glad for your success - hoping to join you soon!

 

[Hillhater]

Kurt,
have you checked the actual total power drawn by one of those 6w LED lights ?
I suspect there may be significant parasitic power loss, but have never had the opportunity to check. :wink:

 

[Kurt]

Kurt,
have you checked the actual total power drawn by one of those 6w LED lights ?
I suspect there may be significant parasitic power loss, but have never had the opportunity to check. :wink:

I was thinking the same thing. I just need to dig out a fitting and wire a cord to it. the I can plug it directly to my watt M then.

I did some welding for the guy next door last weekend. Wasn't a very big job but did it just as the sun was going down. In total about 1/2 hr of Tig welding at around 70amps then 10 min of arc welding at around 120amps. It made minimal difference to the days total consumption.

We are really starting to treat the house as if we have grid connected power and just let the system do its thing. The Generator is just gathering dust and the aim to go all year without running it. I might program the inverter to automatically start it for say 10 min run every 3 month's just so its not sitting stationary all year.

Kurt.

 

[kevo]

That is absolutely gorgeous country and views. Off the grid, etrike, ekayak aka paradise!
Gotta have a few snakes and lizards to keep it real. Been enjoying your designs on living.

 

[Kurt]

A few weeks ago I decided to upgrade my two Plasmatronics pl40 40A charge controllers with one large 83A MPPT controller.

Why i did the was because apparently the two Pl40's needed a external device so they could talk to each other and run as a team together. Running the two regs without the unit caused some issues with one unit getting stuck in bulk while the other was trying to do absorb and eventually just one unit would take over 90% of the charge while the other sat idle.

This extra linking unit wasn't installed when my system was first built ,funny enough the unit is listen on the system design spec sheet Anyhow the unit has a RRP of $400 . It also adds some other features in regards to logging and remote control although its all a bit dated and I didn't fancy investing that kind of money into the two older tec charge controllers. I found a guy on a local solar forum who was keen to purchase one of the old controllers from me for $250 so I put that money towards a new MPPT charge controller from Midnte solar. I kept one PL40 for a backup emergency unit and I might put it to use as a single 40A reg in another system or project down the line.

This new Midnite solar Class 150 is a great solar charger. Max output 83A from the single unit. I picked the classic for it's features and support. USB firmware that's user upgradable was a big one to. Another reason and my favorite is Ethernet connectivity and remote online monitoring and control and data logging. Being MPPT is nice as I will gain some extra efficiency from my Pv array

Whats in the box

The installation went smooth and the unit fitted perfectly into the old location of the two PL40's with only slight cable modification and upgrading was needed. The job was done and system back online in a few hrs. Setting up wireless communication and remote monitoring was a snap with detailed simple instructions.


The guys at midnight seem to be keen to keep the firmware updates coming and feature list improving on a regular basis and seem to read there own forums and listen to the customers requests for improvements.

This is a screen shot below of my remote monitoring software. You can see all the basic data for the system input - output volts amps total KWH produced for the day and instantaneous output watts, fet temp, pcb temp, battery temp.. other windows in the program offer historical data logging and graphing as well as the ability to change all the controllers programed settings remotely.

This screen shot was taken at 8:30am The classic is very efficient I have 4000w of Pv and its extracting almost every last watt on a nice day. My pack is usually on float my 9am and the home is running directly from PV for the remainder of the day. Its great for keeping check on the system when we are away from the house for some time.

Kurt

 

[jonescg]

It's a shame the PL40 wasn't MPPT based, cause they make an otherwise solid product. 83 A at 48 V is perfect for a 4 kW system. Keep us posted on the progress!

 

[Kurt]

Yes the PL40's are a very robust and simple charge controller that's made in Australia. They have some balls for there tiny size to. They are a bit outdated on the features but most of the important basic setting are fully customizable.

As I said I'm keeping one of them and the other a guy down south wanted the other though I haven't sold it to him yet .

Its actually more expensive to use two pl40's and the linking alarm unit for 80A than one classic 83A controller.

Kurt

 

[parajared]

When I saw your awesome looking setup and pond the first thing I thought of was aquaponics. With just a few grow beds and a dc electric pump you could have a renewable source of food too.

Eventually your batteries will wear out. Is there a way to repair lead acid batteries so they are like new again without having to go buy new ones?

 

[Kurt]

Growing food is something we are working on. The plan is to be able to grow a good portion of our food to add to the self sufficiency ideal.

Yes led acid battery's do have a limited life like all Battery's do . The aim is to try and get 10 years from them. Although 15years or more isn't out of the question being a robust 2V industrial battery with our very shallow 24hr 10% DOD So we only use (133AH) - 6.3kwh maximum. But Only time will tell.

When the time comes to replace the led acid battery's. They will be replaced by a smaller and less expensive lithium battery around 400ah at 48v and we will use a max 30% DOD on the lithium (120AH) 5.7kwh.

Kurt