Alternative Energy Powered

[Daniel Scherer]

Any new Tesla owners with alternative energy systems?

 

[rewski]

Great thread and some sweet systems. My wife and I had a 5.4 PV system installed about 4.5 years ago in our new home in sunny Denver, CO. Most days will produce between 17-22kwh. While we were in our residencies and before kids our system was funneling power back into the grid. Since the kids and being home more, covers the majority of our usage but no longer in the negative. Have used about 4000kwh of grid power since installation.

I've owned a Vectrix electric scooter and two Zero motorcycles but the MS P85+ will be the first serious EV! Wish I could add more panels but no more roof space. We are currently set up with a level pay program with our power company based on previous year average. We pay $62 a month for gas/electric/fees. I will need to call and have that number adjusted after the MS arrives in about two weeks!

Below is an arial of our home. Obviously the red home in the middle with the panels on the roof. Live in the great community of Stapleton in Denver. Old Denver airport was turned into this green master planned community. Also the location for last years HGTV Green Home giveaway.

 

[Daniel Scherer]

I haven't visited this in a while. Any new systems out there. Post pictures.

 

[dhrivnak]

Many Tesla owners have solar. Check out this thread. Driving on Sunshine. And add your vote.

 

[Cottonwood]

Third shot is the proof of the pudding: yesterday, 4/4, sun gave me 49.92kWh, or 945Ah, of electricity (used 384; stored 561).
Fourth photo shows something else. We also have an array of solar heat collectors; these bring the heat to this Big Black Box, which is an 1,800-gallon (6800 liter) hyper-insulated water tank - heat is then dispersed to our domestic hot water, radiant heat in the shop/garage, our laundry system, the bathhouse, and soon, to radiator heat in our Great Room. To the right of the box is an auxiliary 30kW diesel generator. Of importance is that there is no radiator attached to this water-cooled engine. Rather, I plumb its cooling directly into the Black Box, and that includes a water jacket around its exhaust. That system is wondrously efficient: so little heat is lost to the atmosphere that I literally can hold the exhaust pipe with bare hands (albeit not for long). It immensely enhances the amount of hot water we have for use. Use of the generator varies: it's not been on for two weeks, as w've had a great spell of fine weather, and virtually no guests at this time of year. But on a cloudy summer day when we are full - say, 20 guests - we may run it for a four-hour stretch every other day.

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Great system! Just looked this from another thread.

Here are two more ideas for some "icing-on-the-cake," added efficiency.

1. When you have excess, not usable or storable, solar PV power, use it to heat your water-tank, thermal-mass storage unit. For real efficiency do this with a heat pump! Some are even claiming that a Solar-PV/Heat-Pump combo is better these days than passive solar thermal collectors.
2. When the thermal storage unit is up to temperature and you still have heat available, put some coiled under your vegetable garden (deep enough to avoid the tiller) to warm up the soil and grow the vegies a little faster.

 

[AudubonB]

Great system! Just looked this from another thread.

Here are two more ideas for some "icing-on-the-cake," added efficiency.

1. When you have excess, not usable or storable, solar PV power, use it to heat your water-tank, thermal-mass storage unit. For real efficiency do this with a heat pump! Some are even claiming that a Solar-PV/Heat-Pump combo is better these days than passive solar thermal collectors.
2. When the thermal storage unit is up to temperature and you still have heat available, put some coiled under your vegetable garden (deep enough to avoid the tiller) to warm up the soil and grow the vegies a little faster.

I do have that; guess I didn't write it up. Most likely because it's not functioning properly. Overall, the PV portion of my system is working admirably but although the heat-capture pencils out great on paper, there are far too many oopses for me to recommend it to anyone....even if it were free. Which, for me, it most definitely wasn't. That's not on the solar heat panels - they are absolutely terrific. It's regarding just about every single piece of the system downstream from there. Too sore a subject for me to spend more time on

 

[andydoty]

I started a new thread asking pretty much the same thing. I don't have my Tesla as of yet (it's being built as we type). I have 40 panels and went with a 7.2 kw system.

I chose to go with a grid interactive system in the event I lose power (which appears to be quite a bit). There are 40 x 210w panels. The grid interactive works extremely well. I really treat like a very large UPS that happens to be charged by the sun!
I've some of the other pics on here illustrating other energy saving appliances.
I also chose to take a holistic approach and replace the furnace with a 98% efficient system with head pump. I pretty much heat my house for almost nothing. To that, I also put in a tankless hot water. The savings from each of the devices helped to offset the install costs of the next. FYI, we are also a SREC state, so I make money for producing the power whether I use it or sell it.

Andy

 

[Daniel Scherer]

Awesome system Andy!