nwdiver
Well-Known Member
I saw a news report that a lot of schools are being canceled. It's frustrating that in 2019 with solar <$2/w they can't survive off-grid during the day.....
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Storm Watch in CA 9/22/19?
- Thread starter sevenout
- Start date
I saw a news report that a lot of schools are being canceled. It's frustrating that in 2019 with solar <$2/w they can't survive off-grid during the day.....
To be fair to them, they are also concerned about students having to travel through areas that have no power (and hence no working traffic signals, etc.). I believe some of the schools that are closed actually aren't expected to lose power.
How does your solar power your well? I am also out in the country on well water, but neither my solar nor Powerwall are powering the well. Also, my app shows my house currently (9:30am) being powered by my Powerwall not solar. Anyone know why this is happening and how to force our house to be powered by solar not Powerwall when electricity is off?
nwdiver
Well-Known Member
The news report I saw said the schools are closing due to a lack of power. But even if transport was the concern it doesn't take much energy to power traffic lights. 5kWh should last >72 hours. Add in one 300w solar panel and it should last indefinitely. We really need to upgrade our infrastructure from the 1950s to 2019
This time of year, if I keep my pool pump off or on limited low speed, I can go indefinitely. I have two Powerwalls and just under 10kW of PV. Once the batteries are full again, I plan to top up our cars. No curtailment!
I’m working with our school to get batteries installed. It won’t take much considering how much solar they have, and the fact they don’t require overnight power.
My entire panel is backed up by my Powerwalls, and the well is run out of that panel. I specifically ensured that my well was backed up, as that was the main driver in getting my batteries.
Where does your app show your solar going? Is it possible there wasn’t enough being generated yet? My house is powered by solar and all excess is recharging the Powerwalls.
nwdiver
Well-Known Member
This time of year, if I keep my pool pump off or on limited low speed, I can go indefinitely. I have two Powerwalls and just under 10kW of PV. Once the batteries are full again, I plan to top up our cars. No curtailment!
I’m working with our school to get batteries installed. It won’t take much considering how much solar they have, and the fact they don’t require overnight power.
That's awesome! It will be interesting to see if this increases interest in more resiliency. Hopefully the interest is more for solar + storage instead of generators...
Just an update on this. The power was out around 1am. The batteries reached their lowest SOC around 9:30am at 67%. From there on, they got the excess from our solar generation. At 1pm, they were full and I began charging the cars. Solar was still turning off so I also turned on the pool pump. We’ve done some laundry and I’m about to bake cookies and get the oven up to 550F for pizzas tonight. I plan to eat early so that the Powerwalls can top up before the sun goes down.
This is all possible because we aren’t too far past the equinox and because our weather is ideal this time of year - highs around 80 and lows around 50. So I don’t need heat or AC, which would certainly change things quite a bit. The winter definitely would pose a lot of problems with clouds, short days, and a desire for heat. That’s why I’d like to double my solar capacity and probably add two more Powerwalls.
nwdiver
Well-Known Member
Solar but no batteries, and no generators either. It’s pretty quiet out there. Comcast internet is down and cell service is congested. I’m a little embarrassed for Comcast that some hominid in a house has full power but they can’t keep their service up during a power outage.Do your neighbors have solar? Hopefully it's not a cacophony of generators outside
nwdiver
Well-Known Member
IMO the lack of resiliency in general is embarrassing; I looked up the energy requirement for traffic lights... if they're LED it's <2kWh/day. There's no reason to NOT have battery backup w/solar. How much would that add to the capital cost of an intersection? ~2%? On the news they were showing stores that clearly have solar but no power because the grid is down. The cost of adding the ability to be off-grid probably would have paid for itself if they're closed for the next 6 days.
I think this could end up being a very good thing and on some level I think we need MORE outages in MORE areas to goose resilience. Hopefully this will motivate people to be more self-reliant so when there's an emergency that isn't announced days ahead of time we can be better prepared.
Funny you should mention that. During a power outage a year or so ago, the first truck I saw was a Comcast truck. A guy set up a little Honda generator and ran a power cord up to a pole mounted box. I think this is the neighborhood amplifier for the cable. About an hour later PG&E rolled up and 30 minutes after that had the outage resolved. The Comcast truck came back a little after that and they guy packed up the generator.
Most LED intersections use about 7kWh per day, and many have battery backup systems installed. The most common are AGM batteries in a 24v or 48v configuration, without any solar. It would be great if they could recharge by solar, but the inverters are not capable of it. Typical run time is about 8 hours.
This time of year, if I keep my pool pump off or on limited low speed, I can go indefinitely. I have two Powerwalls and just under 10kW of PV. Once the batteries are full again, I plan to top up our cars. No curtailment!
I’m working with our school to get batteries installed. It won’t take much considering how much solar they have, and the fact they don’t require overnight power.
My entire panel is backed up by my Powerwalls, and the well is run out of that panel. I specifically ensured that my well was backed up, as that was the main driver in getting my batteries.
Where does your app show your solar going? Is it possible there wasn’t enough being generated yet? My house is powered by solar and all excess is recharging the Powerwalls.
When we hooked up my system and battery they wouldn't back the well up to the battery (nor oven) as they said they needed their own battery since it was too much load if we ran everything at once. I dont recall how big the breaker is for our well and pressure tank (greater than 50amp breaker; maybe 100)
Even right now i cant get the battery to charge past 76%. I have a 13.25kw system so its large enough to handle. I dont know why it wont charge past the 76%. what customize setting do you have it on? View attachment 464629
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If you take an extension cable to your neighbors, and connect it to a 240 volt outlet, you can create a microgrid and their solar will also turn on. They would have to physically disconnect from the grid though first.
