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Topic starter
December 27, 2024 5:22 pm
With the shortest day of the year gone, I have been thinking about the upcoming solar season.
In the summer I have a good amount of excess solar. My batteries generally charge up after just a couple of hours and the house runs on solar for the remainder of the day. However, there is more solar than I can use in a normal day and would like to take advantage of that additional power on a non-critical load, and I am looking for ideas.
An AC unit would be nice 2 or 3 days out of the year.
Dishwasher would be cool but don't want to get into a habit that I would need to break from late fall to mid spring.
Would love something that I could store energy long term and get it back in the winter.
Anybody have any ideas for excess solar?
JB
Sometimes the easiest solution is the best solution.
Sometimes not.
December 29, 2024 2:57 pm
Does your electic utility offer net metering? I presume they don't or you wouldn't have the excess power issue. But I thought I should mention that possibility - just in case...
Topic starter
December 29, 2024 4:06 pm
@tristan Thanks for the post but actually I am completely off-grid. Nearest power is a couple of miles away. That would be nice though.
JB
Sometimes the easiest solution is the best solution.
Sometimes not.
December 30, 2024 4:10 pm
Pump water to a higher elevation with excess power and then hydro, unless of course freezing temps
DougL reacted
Topic starter
December 30, 2024 4:15 pm
@ron That would be cool. I can gain quite a bit of elevation; I will have to run some numbers and see how much water I would have to pump up there to make it worthwhile.
JB
Sometimes the easiest solution is the best solution.
Sometimes not.
January 2, 2025 11:27 pm
If you are off-grid then you must have a well/pump or you have a water tank you store your water in. If your water is in a well, you could pump water from your well into an above ground storage tank to burn excess power and then a pump at ground level would require far less power during regular use. You might even be able to incorporate a water heater at that point but you'd need to build or purchase some control systems to manage these things. Another option I have seen in Mexico is where they put the water tank up high on the roof so that gravity is used for pressure. In that case having your water delivered to a ground level tank and they you pump it up to the roof tank using excess energy. And the electric water heater option is still there.
Joel Brodeur reacted
