Merrill
Merrill
So are you leaving your powerwall setting as they are for the winter and just run off the grid when the Powerwalls get down to your reserve or do you change your settings and if so what setting do you use.
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Solar production getting worse in Bay Area, California
- Thread starter shaundidrake
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I've been using a 20% reserve during the crazy hot months. And it actually got me through the 8 hours from 3pm to midnight with the Powerwalls running the house entirely (to bank those juicy EV2-A credits) during that time. I was less concerned about backup during the summer since I just need to get to sun-up and I was fairly confident in getting solar to charge the batteries.
But now that it's the wintertime and the grid seems even less reliable, I bumped it up to 40% reserve. This way if I lose power and the next day is cloudcover, I could reasonably still get 24 hours of backup. But now I think I can't get the Powerwalls charged up to 100% since there isn't enough sun... and I may not be able to get to midnight with 40% reserve even with no AC's running.
Speaking of which, I need to turn off the breakers to my ACs to save money on those crankcase heaters.
Potential energy waster in your house: air conditioner crankcase heater
I dunno if anyone here cares about this, but I figure someone might since it’s energy related hah. I just learned that some newer air conditioner outdoor condensing units (in my case with a scroll compressor) come with a crankcase heater. This contraption will heat the lubricant in the...
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Merrill
Merrill
I’m less concerned about power outages this time of year especially when it rains, more concerned how to deal with no sun and Powerwalls not charging to 100%.
I use self powered mode. I only keep mentioning it, because when talking about things like reserve settings and such, what mode you are in also matters in what the system does. Anyway, as we go into fall / winter I actually raise my reserve some, because several things contribute to less solar being available.
For me, my daily goal is to ensure that, if at ALL possible, there is a point during the day that my powerwalls get to 100%. Since self powered mode powers both the home and fills the powerwalls (instead of prioritizing filling the powerwalls and running off the home in off peak), I have to change my reserve to a higher number if I expect rain, or something else that will mean low production.
Right now, on a clear day, my system generates about 36kWh or so of power. Yesterday, however, it generated 15kW. Because I knew it was going to be overcast / cloudy / rainy, I moved my reserve from what I currently keep it at (which is 30%) to 100% to get as much PV in my powerwalls as possible (for backup purposes) and then, when I went to bed , lowered it back to 30% so I would run off that power during the night, because I expect it to be clear today.
I micromanage my reserve depending on weather, myself (not in an automated way).
PG&E is shutting down 10% of its production by closing Diablo. What is going to replace that?
PG&E doesn't own most of the state's production. I'm sure Diablo is much more than 10% of what PG&E actually owns. Wikipedia says that Diablo Canyon represents 8.6% of the state's generation. I assume that is calculated from GWh/year not GW nameplates.
In any case, Diablo Canyon is supposed to be replaced by GHG-free power generation. That was part of the shutdown agreement.
I think it's CHG-free power "generated in California". I think the agreement lets them buy imports from neighboring states that could be supplied by their own natural gas peaker plants or even coal.
I think we discussed this in another thread. A news reporter asked PG&E how they planned to backfill the lost megawatts from Diablo. But PG&E's on chief strategist said it was not of importance on how they planned to backfill the megawatts. It seems PG&E had a plan to offset a steady-flow of nuclear energy with "something else" but wouldn't share what that was.
how does that work? Nuclear is constant. Rain or shine wind or not drought or not. The only way Diablo is replaced is with Fossil (standby or other)
Have to have a huge battery storage to get by with Solar and Wind as replacement. Don't see that happenning in the near future
Am at 21.4kwh so far. Shall be interesting starting friday with heavy rain how bad it gets. I had 5kwh one day last year with heavy rain. Going to have to adjust my battery reserve level soon I expectOnly 5 kWh of production expected all day here.is a solar buzzkill.
20.7 here so far with PowerWalls at 60%. It’s been overcast all day. Hope we get more rain as we really need it.
I will probably adjust my reserve Thursday morning, but power use is down besides charging the car since I don’t need the AC. Might be able to chug along with the 25% reserve as long as I generate enough to cover the house during the day.
I will probably adjust my reserve Thursday morning, but power use is down besides charging the car since I don’t need the AC. Might be able to chug along with the 25% reserve as long as I generate enough to cover the house during the day.
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