Solar
So, i’ve decided to stop waiting for the government to make some sort of ‘green new deal’ happen and put my money where my mouth is. It also helps reduce my paranoia to know that I will have backup water and power supplies if the government (who provides both things in the city of Seattle) experiences some sort of outage or other difficulties. So, I’m putting out 3.5kW divided as 1.6kW of monocrystalline and the rest amphorous (the idea here is to make power in both sunny and cloudy conditions). Realistically I expect to see maybe 1kW output except high noon on the brightest parts of summer, but that is still enough to keep my fridge and freezer running, and I can also add a grid intertie inverter to reduce my power bills when I’m not using the array for backup power or to charge my electric car.
I’m also putting in 10kW of backup energy storage, which can be charged either via the grid (I’ve got a 40 amp charger) or via the solar array. I will likely also experiment with solar towers and solar tracking. Those of you who know me know I often have hobbies-for-a-year – this is my hobby for 2020.
I am also adding numerous rain barrels to store rainwater and a 12 volt pumping system that can be used to pressurize my pipes via a water filter from the rainwater, as well as some 12 volt emergency lighting.
April 5th, 2020 at 1:54 am
Sounds like you’re prepared (or preparing) for almost any catastrophe. Good for you. Solar power is neat.
April 6th, 2020 at 6:13 am
Quite a useful hobby for the year! Will you be running fridge and freezer off your solar as soon as it’s ready or is it backup because may have too many cloudy/rainy days for the amphorous to handle? It sounds like an awesome project, especially since it’s the Green thing to do and we should all be doing more of it. How many rain barrels (and what size) do you have? I have three. If I remember correctly, they are 70 gallons each.
June 24th, 2023 at 10:56 am
This is the point where we say goodbye to having a front yard. ; )