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You've got to have batteries to make solar work. I've got 66 solar panels (7 kwh), but only 3 power walls. Wish I had 3 more, because 3 power walls only give me 20 kwh or less of power storage., not nearly enough to charge one car, much less two. Of course, I have to realize that charging one car uses more electricity than my house uses in a week but charging the car a tiny bit each night is a pain.
Seeing your picture, I would think the helicopter transported batteries would have to shed the load over your property, not wait for that truck.I keep hoping 2 Megapacks fall off the truck into my yard. Then I'd have a chance to get through winter.
Congratulations, you have a pretty efficient refrigerator, those numbers are amongst the best energy star rated refrigerators tested by the DOE, for a refrigerator in the 18-24cu.ft. range.I was just mulling over how much ice is needed to coast through the night.
On a typical day my fridge/freezer consumes about 1 kWh, so about 0.5 kWh of ice is needed for the night
That would be ~ 1700 btu.
It takes 144 btu to thaw one pound of ice, so the answer is about 12 lbs
It sounds like a home with PV power while the grid is down can protect the fridge contents from spoiling.
You've got to have batteries to make solar work. I've got 66 solar panels (7 kwh), but only 3 power walls. Wish I had 3 more, because 3 power walls only give me 20 kwh or less of power storage., not nearly enough to charge one car, much less two. Of course, I have to realize that charging one car uses more electricity than my house uses in a week but charging the car a tiny bit each night is a pain.
On a typical day my fridge/freezer consumes about 1 kWh, so about 0.5 kWh of ice is needed for the night
That would be ~ 1700 btu.
It takes 144 btu to thaw one pound of ice, so the answer is about 12 lbs
Congratulations, you have a pretty efficient refrigerator
When we installed our PWs I had a freezer next to it (they were the first PWs installed in Idaho). My installer took a picture and sent it to Tesla, with the (true) note that they were installed to preserve my freezer full of precious elk meat. AFAIK, however, Tesla never used it. Alas...It sounds like a home with PV power while the grid is down can protect the fridge contents from spoiling.
The load balancer is basically Enphase's gateway for their ESS, can be installed without batteries. A friend is getting solar quotes, particularly with microinverters due to tree shading - the additional quote to support this grid-down scenario was $13K on top of the solar panels/micros, that's without any batteries.Apparently Enphase now has microinverters and a load balancer that can continue to power the home in a grid power outage without batteries. Obviously not at night, but provides power during the day.
The load balancer is basically Enphase's gateway for their ESS, can be installed without batteries. A friend is getting solar quotes, particularly with microinverters due to tree shading - the additional quote to support this grid-down scenario was $13K on top of the solar panels/micros, that's without any batteries.
Though it sounds like $25-30K is typical for third-party installers for a gateway and two batteries, so subtract the price of two Powerwalls or other ESS and $13K is typical around here for equipment plus install of a gateway, backup subpanel, and migration of critical loads.
No one here is saying it is easy. The question was do we generate enough to go off grid in the winter and the answer is yes for some of us, myself included.I live off grid on an island in Maine. 15 kw ground mounted panels, 100 kwh batteries (not Tesla, installed before before Tesla was available).
Passivhaus, all heat passive solar and firewood, no propane or generator. Sophisticated hot water system from combination of heat pump, wood stove circulation, and electric resistance, runs dishwasher easily. "Smart house" (Homeseer) controls electric loads by priority. Induction cooking, Starlink communications. Energy "splurge" in summer includes hot tub (sunny days only). The Tesla is on the mainland, so no EV charging.
It can be done, but definitely is not a simple plug and play nor cheap. Not much sunlight in foggy, dark December, and have to scrape snow off the panels.
Proselytizers claiming easy off-grid are lying or incredibly uneducated, probably both.
90 panels, 7 batteries, 22kw generator connected to a 500 gallon propane tank. I am ready for anythingI have 56 panels installed with emphases iq7+ inverters and another 7 panels in garage to go up later. Waiting on 8 powerwall install with another 12 panels, engineering plans are done and just waiting on install.
Got a 12kw generator, dual fuel, with three 100 lb bottles of propane. Installed generator interlocks on both circuit panels.
Got two propane Mr heaters. Uses two 1lb bottles each, got refill adapter for the 1lb bottles. Pro tip, found out tracker supply in Texas sells propane by the gallon.
Got model Y on order, just deferred until 2024.
Cut down two trees this year, so got about a cord of wood. Really want to get a wood stove fire place insert, double burning. That will come after powerwalls are installed.
Really would like a solar injector to charge the AC connected batteries, like powerwall, from a generator. 2kw would be enough, would like the load on the generator to be adjustable. This would be really easy to develop.
How are you guys preparing.