New member introductions (READ THIS FIRST)

[Jacotenente]

Chris - Love my Midnite Solar equipment...and building my system (see the stuff I got below). Retired USAF, living in Oklahoma (originally from MI), do lots of DIY solar/home project videos to help people.

[MRSOLARWIND]

Hey everyone, my name is Rahdi, I'm a bit of a young buck with a few years of experience under my belt. I work for an online wind and solar hybrid retailer.  I look at everyday as a learning opportunity!

[nzbrad]

sorry for the very slow reply,havnt realy got a handle on this forum thing yet ,was about $3.20 per day

[keppelk]

In NZ daily line charges are (for you others) in general high. In the order of 0.5-3.00 dollars per day. It tends to make your efforts toward energy conservation more pointless.

We have a powerline 100m from our place, and chose not to connect. The initial connect fee was going to be 20K.

Same story here in Otago, NZ. Lines charges in our area ~NZ$1.50/day and, so far as I know, have only ever increased. Initial connection cost was in the $25k + 15% GST region, which made off grid a no-brainer. We've produced 5,561kWhr over the last year from a 6.1kW array. Saved $547.50 in lines charges and $1,415.25 in power costs = $1962.75 saved. Lines cost would contribute over quarter of the total annual cost.

sorry for the very slow reply,havnt realy got a handle on this forum thing yet ,was about $3.20 per day

Those lines charges are criminal. Solar installers should be rushed off their feet in your area. $3.20 x 365 = $1168... wow

[dgd]

...
Those lines charges are criminal. Solar installers should be rushed off their feet in your area. $3.20 x 365 = $1168... wow

Problem is there are almost zero installers in NZ who can deal with an off grid system. DIY can be cost effective but suppliers who do installation (using staff or contractors) are very very expensive often making the off grid system payback period (vs on grid costs) more than a lifetime. Worse when factoring in battery replacement.

Thats why those advertising solar energy systems in NZ are always grid tie. Not cheap either and some of the claims of energy savings, which always seem to mention optimum insolence conditions, may be unrealistic.
Then some of the power suppliers will increase the line charges to cover costs of net metering equipment even though you pay up front for meter upgrading.
dgd

[zimnismoboy]

Hello all my Name is Adam,
Im not so much a newbie but would still like to introduce myself here, im going to be asking loads of questions relating to theories and some elements of input i have on some ideas and hopefully can get some answers on here or hopefully even enlighten a few people to ideas i might have, at this stage i have a 400w array mono panels running a kid b with a small lead acid tubular battery, going to change to 24v lifepo4 soon. Any ways thanks for the welcome and catch you on the forums .

[CharliVN]

Chinh is my name, I live I southeastern of Wisconsin.

For years I again those utilities company, I have my house heat from corn, last couple year I installed solar panels and solar water heater to not depends on local utilities co.

My system start out with (3) lg265, magnum ms4024, classic 200 and (4)slr175 batteries, will continue grow them in future.

[Powerplay]

Hello,  Gary here joining up.  My small off grid system has been up since September, and gone through 3 major re-configs already.  Located in mid-western US.  My next step is to install system cooling fans in my metal gear cabinet & home made battery box to run off of Aux 1.  No hurry, as today the panels are under about 6 cm of sticky snow and the AGM batteries are near their 'blue line' (blue line is -10C and batteries are -2C).  Would like to double system capacity by summer and raise the pitch on one section of panels (900W that faces south)

[Cniemand]

DGD : That is ridiculous. Price Gouging. Jacobene above from OK,USA can relate. The idea that you as a consumer can pay outright to setup a system and feed back into the grid so that a Utility company can meet its government mandated levels of Renewables and quite possibly make the line more stable (in addition to lowering fuel costs by taking off the peak loads) with them turning to you for a greater line charge or $1-2 a kWh for the few you do buy is atrocious! Somehow the Utility can claim that us on Solar are "getting a free ride" and need to pay our fair share.... We already did in upfront costs of $1000s USD/NZ/AU et al.

[zoneblue]

I agree. If the govt and distributors were to work together to optimise the solar contribution to the national grid, then our finite hydro resource could be used properly and everyone would benefit. But no, if you look in the long term energy policy documents the word solar appears exactly one time, to say "its nice but the sun doesnt always shine". Idiots.

[Westbranch]

A bit off the thread topic but...

They don't know what They don't understand... so They disregard/ignore it

The 'they' are the people who control the economies of the world...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk4VCT5fo7M

[dgd]

... If the govt and distributors were to work together to optimise ...

The only reason for working together will be to protect the grid power distributors income stream and protect the govt's tax revenue take from energy supply.  Also, but less important,  perhaps make sure the profit is there for those that bought shares in the energy generators such as the grandad investors in the Mighty River SOE sell off.
Thank God the world market for coal collapsed, prices plummeted  and Solid Energy SOE went bust before the govt managed to sell it off to many thousands of small investors who would have lost it all.

I expect that as home solar energy schemes become more popular then the govt will find some way of taxing the energy, already there has been some suggestion of an energy generated metering system for off grid systems perhaps managed by the power companies. No doubt this would have fixed regular admin fees, metering fees as well as energy generated volume fees.
Also hefty fines and enforcement action for those that try to steal free energy 

dgd

[Cniemand]

DGD, sounds nearly like the fight over rain-water and water rights here in Colorado, USA.

[Powerplay]

Cniemand : Interesting vid about bottom balancing your LiFePo Battery bank.  Your end amp setting at 5 amps caught my eye but I'm using AGM battery so not applicable for me.  Yesterday, I thought I had my end amps set to high (4.5 amps) on a very cold battery bank (about -5C) and the bank only took about .5 Kw before it went to float.  That would have been about 3% too little by my calculations for the state of charge the battery bank had at the beginning of the day.  It turns out we had the unusual condition of an overnight warming trend that added 3C to the bank overnight and therefore 3% more capacity by the mid next day.  My missing 3%.  Interesting stuff.
I like your weather proof enclosure for your classic (plastic bag).  A lot of my stuff is out in the elements as well.  Thank you for the video.

[Cniemand]

Haha , Powerplay. Thanks. I am surprised how well the bag held up! The high dollar equipment now resides happily indoors with the heat and lack of precipitation in its many forms.

-5c ! That is a chilly bank! One of the reasons I enjoy LFP cells is that temps around freezing the capacity is still near 97%. Safe to be discharged. You only have concerns charging them at 0c and below. Something having to do with it creating internal shorts and the inability of lithium to interchelate at those temperatures.

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