I am happy to hear that the utility companies are going to have a change of heart. I say it's about time actually. It's never happened before in my 58 years. Such an amazing time to be alive!!!!! LOL
One very important thing for people living in an area that gets cold, is to do the proper math (and lots of research) when sizing your solar system and charge controler, the colder a panel is the more power it makes, so if you dont do the math your system can blow up your charge controler when it gets cold.
There's a number of things that go into that. Its highly unlikely that in the winter the irradiance of the sun and angle of panels will create the circumstances for your panels to generate more than they would during the summer. Its way more likely they will produce less, along with the shorter days producing for less time. The stc rating of the panel is how much it can produce under ideal circumstances which is essentially never in the field so if it says 400 watts it will, in real world applications make 75% of that on average. Combine that with any UL listed charge controller or hybrid inverter is actually rated for 150% of the face plate dc input (in watts) just the standard math should more than suffice. I've sold, designed and installed about 250 systems, and the cold has never caused anything other than Lifepo4 batteries to act up. In theory, it's true but in practice it's nothing to worry too much about.
@7kinhomestead maybe, but if it's a clear sunny day at -40 (which has happened before where I live for about a week or so) and my panels were near the max the charge controller could handle, there is a good chance it would, better safe than sorry I say. Of course if you live in a place that barely gets to freezing each year you don't really have to worry much as it won't make that much of a difference (although it has happened to some people who had things maxed out) I suppose it's more of a concern if you have an array that is tiltable so that you can be constantly at the best angle, rather than a fixed array. And the amount of extra power you get at -40 is a lot more than at around freezing, the last thing I wanted to happen is to blow up a 1,200$ price of equipment because I wanted to save 150$ or have one or two extra panels. Just gives me extra peace of mind to overbuild slightly so I never have any problems and to me spending a couple hundred extra dollars is worth it. And I know that even in the event of my panels maxing out on a cold winter day it won't hurt anything.
@@7kinhomestead also maybe I am wrong as it's been 6 months or so since I did the math, but it's the voltage of the panels that rise as it gets colder, the rate of power is amps, so you are going to get less amps on a cold day but voltage will go up as that is usually constant, so if the panels go from 40 volts to 60 volts it doesn't matter if they are making 2amps instead of 13 amps. The voltage can still go above max voltage of a cc. Say a string of 10 panels is 400 volts in the summer, and the charge controller is rated for 480, if it gets cold enough the panels will be outputting 600 volts, it doesn't really matter if the panels are only producing 2 amps out of 13, the voltage will fry the cc. At least that's what I remember, I could be wrong and I am interested to hear your thoughts on the matter.
@Cody_Ramer yeah, maybe in theory, and that's a big maybe but in practice it never ever happens. I check my panels every day as it gets colder the voltage decreases, the amperage decreases resulting in the kVA ( power available) and watts (power used) decreasing. It's really not a problem. Optimal power production for a solar panel is 70 degrees F. That's the highest rated voltage and amperage the panel can produce. You see diminishing returns over and below that. That's why it seems like the panels make less power for longer because the surface of the panel is very hot. It makes more power down to 70f. Plus the colder it gets, the more likely you have frost on panels, clouds, multiplied by the short days. It's really not a problem you should worry about.
Wife and i bought 2.27 acres of land in north east Nevada for the price of a 2004 used car.. going off grid next April.. bought 800 watts of solar and 4-100aH LiPo batteries with a 2k inverter.. also bought a split unit for A/C and heat in the winter to supplement the diesel heater.. will have 2-275 gallon IBC totes for water.. the land has no restrictions.. and our taxes is a insane $47 a year.. putting 2 RV's on it with a 12x20 shed.. 20 minutes to town with a Home Depot and Wal-Mart.. dry hot summers and cool nights.. honestly cant wait!
I like to be self sufficient but I am, in no way, refusing to use technology that makes my life easier. Because for me that's the point of homesteading. Make my life easier, which sounds stupid because homesteading is making your life "harder" in a way. But you guys get my point.
I don't think it sounds dumb. Its actually been our experience. The first couple years are very difficult then, once everything is established it's kinda just patting the ball and doing the projects you want to do. Its totally doable.
Like the man said, it's only hard in the beginning, once the infrastructure is up, it becomes a lot easier, right now I don't water my animals, it's all renewable, sustainable and automatic, it just keeps on getting easier 😂
You should look at a gasifier for your generator or build one its primitive but it's on fema's website in case of a disaster. No dependence on oil just feedstock or even trash lol
Can do a video of a sample array install? After I get a property I'm doing solar since I'll be either in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado or Nevada since three out of four of those are the only places I seem to be able to afford for the size of plot I want
Before having animals, I got my solar, I put together my own system, after solar, I went with off grid renewable water, my rain harvesting system works with wind and solar, I always keep 10,000 gallons of water as backup, all pumping is 12v, super low power and efficient.
Sounds like you've got a great system! Doing all that before the animals is key to success. everyone ive ever seen fail at this started with animals. ya never get around to the things that make life comfortable when you go full ham on animals out of the gate.
@7kinhomestead I did have a food forest before everything else, my father was a banana 🍌 farmer, that was inherited, so I have multiple mature tropical fruits growing on property, I also have a creek in the back of the property with giant red tilapia, so I'm ahead of the game.
I'm a single dude. I imagine im going to use maybe 2000 watts daily. I'd like to have at least 3 days of battery storage in case the sun isnt out and so that I dont need to be turning on a generator daily when that happens. I'm just struggling with the math of how much batteries I need. I know a 12V system with 100 Ah gives me about 1200 watts of power. Does that mean that with 6 x 100 Ah 12v batteries in parallel I'd have 7200 Watts of power? is that sufficient for a single dude who doesnt use his PC a whole lot other than an 8 hour work day and an hour or 2 of netflix to wind down?
So what you described would give you 7200 watt hours. So, you could run 7200 wats for 1 hour or 720 watts for 10 hours. I think its a good start but you may want more as time goes on. Also, consider a 24 or 48 volt system because they are a lot more efficient. the higher the volts the less the amps and higher amps make more heat which is a loss.
Even the most efficient refrigerator freezer will use 700-800 watts a day, plus inverter usage you are looking at 1kw just for that. Go with 48 volt if you can as it's more efficient, and also try to think of future expansion too, you don't want to have to completely redo your system if you need more power. For 5k I got 2 server rack 48 volt 5.2kwh batterys, a 6,500 watt inverter, and 16 370watt 480watt bifacial gain, bifacial panels, and that was with the shipping cost. I can always buy another server rack battery to increase capacity and it's simple to add on. I will have to spend about 500-600 on wiring for the system but with 48 volt the wires don't need to be nearly as thick as 12 volt, so that's some major cost savings in wiring. Also you say you use your computer 8-10 hours a day? Even if it's a little laptop you are probably looking at 2-3kwh just from that. Not counting lights, appliances, or anything else.
I am happy to hear that the utility companies are going to have a change of heart. I say it's about time actually. It's never happened before in my 58 years. Such an amazing time to be alive!!!!! LOL
🤣🤣🤣 right!?! What a time we live in. Lol
One very important thing for people living in an area that gets cold, is to do the proper math (and lots of research) when sizing your solar system and charge controler, the colder a panel is the more power it makes, so if you dont do the math your system can blow up your charge controler when it gets cold.
There's a number of things that go into that. Its highly unlikely that in the winter the irradiance of the sun and angle of panels will create the circumstances for your panels to generate more than they would during the summer. Its way more likely they will produce less, along with the shorter days producing for less time. The stc rating of the panel is how much it can produce under ideal circumstances which is essentially never in the field so if it says 400 watts it will, in real world applications make 75% of that on average. Combine that with any UL listed charge controller or hybrid inverter is actually rated for 150% of the face plate dc input (in watts) just the standard math should more than suffice. I've sold, designed and installed about 250 systems, and the cold has never caused anything other than Lifepo4 batteries to act up. In theory, it's true but in practice it's nothing to worry too much about.
@7kinhomestead maybe, but if it's a clear sunny day at -40 (which has happened before where I live for about a week or so) and my panels were near the max the charge controller could handle, there is a good chance it would, better safe than sorry I say. Of course if you live in a place that barely gets to freezing each year you don't really have to worry much as it won't make that much of a difference (although it has happened to some people who had things maxed out)
I suppose it's more of a concern if you have an array that is tiltable so that you can be constantly at the best angle, rather than a fixed array. And the amount of extra power you get at -40 is a lot more than at around freezing, the last thing I wanted to happen is to blow up a 1,200$ price of equipment because I wanted to save 150$ or have one or two extra panels.
Just gives me extra peace of mind to overbuild slightly so I never have any problems and to me spending a couple hundred extra dollars is worth it. And I know that even in the event of my panels maxing out on a cold winter day it won't hurt anything.
@@7kinhomestead also maybe I am wrong as it's been 6 months or so since I did the math, but it's the voltage of the panels that rise as it gets colder, the rate of power is amps, so you are going to get less amps on a cold day but voltage will go up as that is usually constant, so if the panels go from 40 volts to 60 volts it doesn't matter if they are making 2amps instead of 13 amps. The voltage can still go above max voltage of a cc.
Say a string of 10 panels is 400 volts in the summer, and the charge controller is rated for 480, if it gets cold enough the panels will be outputting 600 volts, it doesn't really matter if the panels are only producing 2 amps out of 13, the voltage will fry the cc.
At least that's what I remember, I could be wrong and I am interested to hear your thoughts on the matter.
@Cody_Ramer yeah, maybe in theory, and that's a big maybe but in practice it never ever happens. I check my panels every day as it gets colder the voltage decreases, the amperage decreases resulting in the kVA ( power available) and watts (power used) decreasing. It's really not a problem. Optimal power production for a solar panel is 70 degrees F. That's the highest rated voltage and amperage the panel can produce. You see diminishing returns over and below that. That's why it seems like the panels make less power for longer because the surface of the panel is very hot. It makes more power down to 70f. Plus the colder it gets, the more likely you have frost on panels, clouds, multiplied by the short days. It's really not a problem you should worry about.
Wife and i bought 2.27 acres of land in north east Nevada for the price of a 2004 used car.. going off grid next April.. bought 800 watts of solar and 4-100aH LiPo batteries with a 2k inverter.. also bought a split unit for A/C and heat in the winter to supplement the diesel heater.. will have 2-275 gallon IBC totes for water.. the land has no restrictions.. and our taxes is a insane $47 a year.. putting 2 RV's on it with a 12x20 shed.. 20 minutes to town with a Home Depot and Wal-Mart.. dry hot summers and cool nights.. honestly cant wait!
That is awesome!! Very well done and congratulations!!
You guys should move to Okla... No one (gov officials)messes with you off grid 😊
That would be great but we love it here and don't really get messed with either.
I like to be self sufficient but I am, in no way, refusing to use technology that makes my life easier.
Because for me that's the point of homesteading. Make my life easier, which sounds stupid because homesteading is making your life "harder" in a way. But you guys get my point.
I don't think it sounds dumb. Its actually been our experience. The first couple years are very difficult then, once everything is established it's kinda just patting the ball and doing the projects you want to do. Its totally doable.
Like the man said, it's only hard in the beginning, once the infrastructure is up, it becomes a lot easier, right now I don't water my animals, it's all renewable, sustainable and automatic, it just keeps on getting easier 😂
You should look at a gasifier for your generator or build one its primitive but it's on fema's website in case of a disaster. No dependence on oil just feedstock or even trash lol
They are so great, especially in the winter. I had a buddy who built a deuce and a half to run on a gasifier. I'd like to build a biodigester too.
Going to get mine next week. I'm getting a bigger system so when I built my house I can just move it over to power every thing.
Sounds like you're getting ahead of the game! That's awesome!
Make sure to get bifacial panels if they are not going to be up on a roof.
They are about the same price as mono and have many upsides.
@Cody_Ramer yep, rear contact bifacials are the ideal panel.
Can do a video of a sample array install? After I get a property I'm doing solar since I'll be either in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado or Nevada since three out of four of those are the only places I seem to be able to afford for the size of plot I want
Sure. I actually have a whole series on that. The videos are scheduled to post over the next week or so.
@7kinhomestead sweet, thanks!
been waiting for your video on how many batteries recommend for off gridding. solar video was great
I'll try to get that video up soon! The short answer is as many as you can afford. 😂
Before having animals, I got my solar, I put together my own system, after solar, I went with off grid renewable water, my rain harvesting system works with wind and solar, I always keep 10,000 gallons of water as backup, all pumping is 12v, super low power and efficient.
Sounds like you've got a great system! Doing all that before the animals is key to success. everyone ive ever seen fail at this started with animals. ya never get around to the things that make life comfortable when you go full ham on animals out of the gate.
@7kinhomestead I did have a food forest before everything else, my father was a banana 🍌 farmer, that was inherited, so I have multiple mature tropical fruits growing on property, I also have a creek in the back of the property with giant red tilapia, so I'm ahead of the game.
So would you say solar is a good option in an area that does not have alot of sun like Maine ?
I'd have to know what the actual irradiance is for the area to say for sure.
My devices....buc-ees
Smoked brisket on the board!! 😂
MMMMMMO POWA ..... LOL ..
A little Kentucky cobra reference!! 😂
I'm a single dude. I imagine im going to use maybe 2000 watts daily. I'd like to have at least 3 days of battery storage in case the sun isnt out and so that I dont need to be turning on a generator daily when that happens. I'm just struggling with the math of how much batteries I need. I know a 12V system with 100 Ah gives me about 1200 watts of power. Does that mean that with 6 x 100 Ah 12v batteries in parallel I'd have 7200 Watts of power? is that sufficient for a single dude who doesnt use his PC a whole lot other than an 8 hour work day and an hour or 2 of netflix to wind down?
So what you described would give you 7200 watt hours. So, you could run 7200 wats for 1 hour or 720 watts for 10 hours. I think its a good start but you may want more as time goes on. Also, consider a 24 or 48 volt system because they are a lot more efficient. the higher the volts the less the amps and higher amps make more heat which is a loss.
Even the most efficient refrigerator freezer will use 700-800 watts a day, plus inverter usage you are looking at 1kw just for that. Go with 48 volt if you can as it's more efficient, and also try to think of future expansion too, you don't want to have to completely redo your system if you need more power.
For 5k I got 2 server rack 48 volt 5.2kwh batterys, a 6,500 watt inverter, and 16 370watt 480watt bifacial gain, bifacial panels, and that was with the shipping cost. I can always buy another server rack battery to increase capacity and it's simple to add on. I will have to spend about 500-600 on wiring for the system but with 48 volt the wires don't need to be nearly as thick as 12 volt, so that's some major cost savings in wiring.
Also you say you use your computer 8-10 hours a day? Even if it's a little laptop you are probably looking at 2-3kwh just from that. Not counting lights, appliances, or anything else.