Small scale solar solution

[Leigh Winspear]

Anybody made any recent purchases of smaller scale, off grid solar kit?
Its black friday - yes still going apparently and there are some good offers at the moment till midnight.
I have renogy kit installed in my - Solar shed, that powers allsorts down the bottom of the garden but im considering getting another setup to at least charge my power tools and maybe even boil a kettle back at the main house/utility.
Is ecoworthy worth a punt as apart from pmt charge controller as opposed to mppt, some of the kits look good value.
cheers n stuff
L

 

[johnb2713]

It seems a lot of trouble and expense for very little in return.

 

[Leigh Winspear]

It seems a lot of trouble and expense for very little in return.

Err thanks for your useful reply. Ive ordered renogy again as they contacted me with a late offer.........

 

[ProDave]

I looked into this for powering some always on kit I quickly concluded if you size the system for summer PV output, it would fail miserably in winter to supply enough power. If you size it for winter, then in summer it will produce way more power than needed and will be a poor use of your investment.

Simple grid tied PV is far better, whatever is turned on in the house will use what you generate, much more scope for always using all of it.

 

[Leigh Winspear]

Thanks for your reply.
The main focus was on the reduced price of the black friday deals.
As long as the battery is charging up and down in cycles, Im happy to use the free power to charge my portable kit.
Agree with grid tied systems being more efficient and will be installing next year.

 

[johnb2713]

The main focus was on the reduced price of the black friday deals.

Surely the main focus should be on the savings you will make with this equipment 'v' the cost of the equipment?

As long as the battery is charging up and down in cycles, Im happy to use the free power to charge my portable kit.

Is it really free power though when you consider your investment?

Agree with grid tied systems being more efficient and will be installing next year.

Possibly more efficient but definitely more useful, if youre likely to be installing next year it seems even more of a rash decision for the little stand alone units.

 

[Murdoch]

I can’t really see the point of these small systems. It’s hard enough getting much output from a grid tied 16A system for 6 months off the year

 

[johnb2713]

I can’t really see the point of these small systems. It’s hard enough getting much output from a grid tied 16A system for 6 months off the year

My thoughts too, for what they cost the savings are minimal.

 

[Leigh Winspear]

Surely the main focus should be on the savings you will make with this equipment 'v' the cost of the equipment?


Is it really free power though when you consider your investment?


Possibly more efficient but definitely more useful, if youre likely to be installing next year it seems even more of a rash decision for the little stand alone units.

When I go full solar I will probrably pass the older of my small scale solar units on to my father in law, who has just retired and will be in his greenhouse more, keeping away from his wife instead of his butchers shop....

 

[Leigh Winspear]

My thoughts too, for what they cost the savings are minimal.

And?

 

[johnb2713]

And?

Therefore pointless.

 

[MikeJhn]

@Leigh Winspear always nice to dabble before fully committing to what is a very expensive system, those that invested many years ago and still get the old feed in tariff are laughing all the way to the bank, more power to you. pun intended.

 

[johnb2713]

@Leigh Winspear always nice to dabble before fully committing to what is a very expensive system

I'm not sure what you'd gain from this, a grid tied system compared to one of these is as different as chalk and cheese.

 

[MikeJhn]

What you gain is knowledge, in any case I rather like cheese, especially a Roquefort with a nice red wine.

 

[johnb2713]

What you gain is knowledge

If you havent got the knowledge you may learn from such a system, you should be reading more and taking advice from experts like there are on here. A complete waste of money IF you intend to replace it next year with a full blown grid tied system.

 

[Leigh Winspear]

If you havent got the knowledge you may learn from such a system, you should be reading more and taking advice from experts like there are on here. A complete waste of money IF you intend to replace it next year with a full blown grid tied system.

Me and my 10 year old son wired up and learned from the greenhouse/solar shed install. He is currently learning about arduino and smart control, so we can have fans come on at certain temperatures and blinds that shade our plants in full sun. When I can get him off his xbox hes really quite interested. Its good dad n lad time. I also bought him some Solar powered robot kits that he enjoyed making. The mini solar panels we use are mounted to pallets and are semi fixed (mc4 connectors), so we can take them camping and fishing also. Cant do that with a house roof mounted install.

 

[johnb2713]

Me and my 10 year old son wired up and learned from the greenhouse/solar shed install. He is currently learning about arduino and smart control, so we can have fans come on at certain temperatures and blinds that shade our plants in full sun. When I can get him off his xbox hes really quite interested. Its good dad n lad time. I also bought him some Solar powered robot kits that he enjoyed making. The mini solar panels we use are mounted to pallets and are semi fixed (mc4 connectors), so we can take them camping and fishing also. Cant do that with a house roof mounted install.

You never said any of this at the start, you said it was Black Friday deal that attracted you to make the purchase.

Arduino's are very good for sure, I developed an EV charger that morphed into a dual EV charger (wallbox really but most people term them chargers), that was Arduino based and led to some interesting research / development. Some amazing projects, definitely keep him going on that. When you get your grid tied system up and running, continue the theme with Home Assistant connecting into it, lots of arduino style programming for it to read various sensors that can be placed round the system. I have some wifi based arduino boards that I use for local control eg I have taught the arduino all of the Mitsubishi aircon controls by reading the infra red pulses, decoded them. Now my Home Assistant can stop / start the aircon units in any room, set temperatures and mode etc, decisions made on outside air temp and weather forecast data. It also decides whether to run aircon or gas central heating based on energy cost.
Enjoy!

 

[binky]

Therefore pointless.

it's not always about money though John, sometimes it's just nice to do a little project. Saturday was a wet and windy day here in sunny Devon, so I knocked up a Rudolf from things in the shed. Nose has since been upgraded to led red flashing bauble. It also stopped the wife from buying one

 

[Leigh Winspear]

You never said any of this at the start, you said it was Black Friday deal that attracted you to make the purchase.

Arduino's are very good for sure, I developed an EV charger that morphed into a dual EV charger (wallbox really but most people term them chargers), that was Arduino based and led to some interesting research / development. Some amazing projects, definitely keep him going on that. When you get your grid tied system up and running, continue the theme with Home Assistant connecting into it, lots of arduino style programming for it to read various sensors that can be placed round the system. I have some wifi based arduino boards that I use for local control eg I have taught the arduino all of the Mitsubishi aircon controls by reading the infra red pulses, decoded them. Now my Home Assistant can stop / start the aircon units in any room, set temperatures and mode etc, decisions made on outside air temp and weather forecast data. It also decides whether to run aircon or gas central heating based on energy cost.
Enjoy!

Sounds epic. You should do a youtube video for us to learn from........

 

[johnb2713]

Sounds epic. You should do a youtube video for us to learn from........

Too busy expanding the battery storage and other additions to the system