UGHHH POWER OUT AGAIN....
-
Welcome back Guest!MARSH is a private reefing group. Comments and suggestions are encouraged, but please keep them positive and constructive. Negative threads, posts, or attacks will be removed from view and reviewed by the staff. Continually disruptive, argumentative, or flagrant rule breakers may be suspended or banned.
Power Out (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter BigRick
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Users who are viewing this thread
soymilk
Supporting Member
Solar time
OP
OP
Yep.. generatorz are DINO-saur's
need it but don't want it.
soymilk
Supporting Member
my power has gone off 3-4 times since my system has been online. sometimes I don't even realize until I see the email.
sadly the battery capacity I have wasn't as much as I really really wanted. ultimately I think Imma add a generator so it covers me for longer outages
sadly the battery capacity I have wasn't as much as I really really wanted. ultimately I think Imma add a generator so it covers me for longer outages
gregg
President
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Board Member
Supporting Member
Build Thread Contributor
im not sold on solar just yet unless its for a calculator or yard lights and those dont work all that well either. At the end of the day your just using stored energy in the batteries and those will run out. considering how seldom we need to use a backup power source, i would think it would be a better investment in a generac that can run endlessly without battery storage. Rather than putting up solar shields all over my roof that may get damaged in a storm and having battery storage that may run out...
soymilk
Supporting Member
I don’t know what calculators you have Greg but I have not come across a solar power calc that just didn’t work. You’re also thinking about it the wrong way. You’re apply generator logic to solar panels and it just doesn’t work that way. Like you said, we only need the generator in a pinch. Some people might use it once or twice a year. But Solar is used pretty much everyday as long as there’s sun.
But my solar panels are powering my house every day. Some of that gets stored into the battery for emergency use or I just end up spending it to lessen my power load at night. Not to mention the excess power I make during the day gets banked and I pull that power out at night. So I’m effectively using the grid as a big battery.
Solar panels are something you use every day. You can’t compare something for emergency use vs something that you use daily.
The picture is an example of my daily use. This is my system without PTO. So I’m currently not able to add to the grid until I get permission. I wouldn’t be surprised to see something like 50-70kw produced in one day. Considering I only use 42kw, i should be able to bank a decent amount for rainy days.
soymilk
Supporting Member
I’m not saying Solar is going to work for everyone right now. It’s too cost prohibitive and not to mention it takes up a lot of space. But if you’re planning on being somewhere for a while and don’t mind the hassle of setting it up.
Generators are a sunk cost. It cost X dollars to buy and set up. Y dollars for upkeep and maintenance. It will never break even.
Solar in the other hand has an exorbitant start up cost. But there is a break even point and then eventually the system has paid for itself and you’re left enjoying free electricity.
Generators are a sunk cost. It cost X dollars to buy and set up. Y dollars for upkeep and maintenance. It will never break even.
Solar in the other hand has an exorbitant start up cost. But there is a break even point and then eventually the system has paid for itself and you’re left enjoying free electricity.
OP
OP
Greg just wait til you pay for one weeks worth of LNG to run that genny. $1k plus a week. And generators aren't really made to run 24/7 in the Hot houston heat.. unless you got some fancy custom engine with radiator... boy them generac boys could sell ice to an eskimo...
Solar+battery is a generator. Batteries are your "gas" tank and solar is the "pump". Undersize either and you will need to reduce usage in an outage. If you want your tank and fridge kept online you need a smaller system than if you want your entire house online like nothing happened for a week regardless of weather.
Gas and propane need to be refilled, and electricity is needed to do that. Mass outage and you are going to have problems getting them.
Natural gas is a grid itself that is also used to keep the lights on. That gets disrupted and an NG generator will be no use and there is a high risk of rolling outages due to ng power plants going offline.
Generators need regular maintenance, can only run so long before you have to change the oil, and the older they get the more likely they are to break down.
I'm not saying solar is flawless and the best, no, it has issues too. Neither is perfect and you need to keep the issues of both of them in mind when deciding.
Don't get trapped by "but sometimes". Those can be solved and the alternative has them as well, you are just used to them. For example, up north they were changing to led traffic lights. All was fine for a few years then there was some bad blowing snow and the led ones got blocked since they ran much cooler and did not melt the snow. A lot of places still refuse to use them because but some times they get covered in snow. Other places added heaters to the lights to solve the but some times. Sure, they use more power now, but still a lot less than the old ones and they don't burn out every time a gnat sneezes near them.
Gas and propane need to be refilled, and electricity is needed to do that. Mass outage and you are going to have problems getting them.
Natural gas is a grid itself that is also used to keep the lights on. That gets disrupted and an NG generator will be no use and there is a high risk of rolling outages due to ng power plants going offline.
Generators need regular maintenance, can only run so long before you have to change the oil, and the older they get the more likely they are to break down.
I'm not saying solar is flawless and the best, no, it has issues too. Neither is perfect and you need to keep the issues of both of them in mind when deciding.
Don't get trapped by "but sometimes". Those can be solved and the alternative has them as well, you are just used to them. For example, up north they were changing to led traffic lights. All was fine for a few years then there was some bad blowing snow and the led ones got blocked since they ran much cooler and did not melt the snow. A lot of places still refuse to use them because but some times they get covered in snow. Other places added heaters to the lights to solve the but some times. Sure, they use more power now, but still a lot less than the old ones and they don't burn out every time a gnat sneezes near them.
Regarding cost, with the recent price increases I'm about break even in that over a year the amount of money I don't pay for grid electricity will be about the same as what I pay on the solar loan. With no batteries I would be saving money by going solar, but would not have backup.
The CCS standard used to charge all cars except Tesla should be getting v2h/v2g support in the next year or two. A few companies are working on it already. So, you may be able to go light on battery cost, just enough to act like a ups on short outages, and use your car as the main backup.
The CCS standard used to charge all cars except Tesla should be getting v2h/v2g support in the next year or two. A few companies are working on it already. So, you may be able to go light on battery cost, just enough to act like a ups on short outages, and use your car as the main backup.
Had my first outage of more than a few minutes since I got solar and powerwall. About 4 hours starting at 1am. Didn't know till I got up and checked my phone and saw the notifications from the powerwall and centerpoint. Checked the security cameras and I can see the street light go out and my neighbors lights go out, but my lights didn't flicker and the ac kept running.
I'm doing self powered with free nights so from 7am to 9pm I run off solar and battery and at night I run off grid. Had 43% battery when I lost power and 18% when grid came back up.
Side note, police station generator did not wake me up either, and they have a huge portable one parked next to it now. I wonder if they can fix it or if they have a garbage truck sized paperweight now....
I'm doing self powered with free nights so from 7am to 9pm I run off solar and battery and at night I run off grid. Had 43% battery when I lost power and 18% when grid came back up.
Side note, police station generator did not wake me up either, and they have a huge portable one parked next to it now. I wonder if they can fix it or if they have a garbage truck sized paperweight now....
reeftopia
Supporting Member
Ive looked at the total cost of solar power. You are wrong in that you will never break even not even close.
Everyone has different priorities. If you have ever looked at Cost for a small parcel of land to hook up to the grid, solar starts looking pretty attractive. Especially if you consider that now, you are not tied to building close to the road. Furthermore, I would like to add that batteries are still in an infancy stage right now. There are batteries in the horizon that will allow 5 min full charge for an iPhone. If the telegraph to cell phone development time line has any resemblance to batterie development even in the slightest bit, there will be vast Improvements and opportunities in batteries / energy storage forthcoming. The value equation will continue to change and develop.
Are you saying I will never break even?
I used 2,501kWh of electricity last month and my electric bill was $26.78.
System cost was $50,605.19 and about half that was the batteries.
Solar has a 25yr warranty for production percentage and battery has a 10yr. Battery has been losing less than 1% capacity a year. I'm currently at 101.8% advertised capacity.
Alternative would be a 20kW generator with a 5yr warranty at around $10,000 with maintenance and running costs and no electric cost reduction.
soymilk
Supporting Member
curious to see the math on that. If you don't buy batteries and have a good net metering plan, you'll break even faster
reeftopia
Supporting Member
While you may have gotten a 25 yr warranty there has never been a co that has stayed in business that long. Seems they all go out of business once their units start breaking down.
soymilk
Supporting Member
Are you saying to installer companies don't last 25 years or the manufacturers?
