solar notes june/july

[muskeg]

 Going over my notes from solar power recorded from the last two months this is a summary of what the mx 60  and trimetric have recorded.

  The Folowing is a really rough averaging of my notes.

 This is for the Lac La Biche area of Alberta.

  June and July

1000 watts of solar panels are producing a average of 200 amp/hrs per day.

 The weather has been mainly sunny and 30C

 Charging starts at 8:00 am (100watts) and continues to 4:00 pm.

 Max charging is from  11:00am to 3:00 about 800 watts

 Battery voltage averages a low of 23.5 volts to a high of 27 volts.

 I need to hit 28 volts before batteries are full.

 battery percent has been from 75% to 95 average.

 The Hornet winmdmiil  has takin a good beating in some storms.

 1 night of 50km/hr winds was actually adding to the batteries.

 Winds are from the Northwest. More trees to cut.

 My residence is using roughly 176 amp/hrs per day.

 That is running a 60 watt ac window fan, 4cu ft danby freezer, tv and satellite for 5 hrs/day (curse of soap opera).

 we use a 1/3hp ac jet pump pumping about 75 gallons/ day  (gotta keep the horses watered)

 Used the genset twice to top up the batteries during some cloudy weather.

 I start it at night and let it run till morning  about 8 hrs.

0.75 liters/hr.  ( Just buy 20 l can and dump it in the tank, 75cents/L)

  3000 watt deutz diesel charging through magnum 4024 at 40 amps.

 Done 2 equalize cycles.

  Equalize cycles I  plan by using the genset at night to top up and let leave town for the day so the solar panels can equalize.

 Crunching numbers last night pretty much showed I need another 400 watt of panels.

 Power company still wants $5300 for pole and trans, then 500 per pole.

11 grand to bring line in!

Muskeg

 

[electrak]

You have a better site than me.

Be glad your not in Maine, June 23 out of 30 days of overcast rain, fog.  July so far, 19 out of 27 days of overcast rain, fog, I've seen a max of 11 mpg wind 30 feet up.  I'm thinking of micro hydro off the gutters.

this year I'm glad to be on the grid.

[SparWeb]

"3000 watt deutz diesel "

How did your experiments with the Dodge alternator go?  Still on that 15hp motor?

[muskeg]

 The Dodge alternator is still on the 15 hp engine.

 Next time I get into Princess auto I will try to get a 8" dia engine pulley.

Slowing down the engine will help fuel economy as reduce the vibration.

 I hate to mess with it as working great as a automatic unit.

   At the current price of propane 0.46cents litre I am really thinking of getting a 4.4hp liquid cooled diesel from Carroll Stream.

  How to make it electric start is another matter.

  My other option is to find a small nat gas oilfied pumpjack engine.

For the summer it is cooler to run the deutz as it is in another shed.

The deutz was modified to have a extra oil bypass filter and automatic oil level control. Extended run time are not a problem anymore.

 

[SparWeb]

Nobody down here is expecting the price of natural gas to go up any time soon.  Installing a natural gas generator is my "ideal" back-up power supply.  Might happen sooner than later if the power company keeps blinking out like it does (thunderstorms).

Thanks for the update.

[muskeg]

 I work in the Natural gas industry, prices are down all right.

   My next place will haves nat gas.  

   Too bad Marathons Minotaur series cogens are expensive.

 18 grand last time I looked.

 I wonder how much the Freewatt units would be in Canada?

 

[SparWeb]

My neighbour was talking to me about the freewatt just a while ago.  He probably won't do it - his home power consumption is so high he would need 4 of them!  

There are some Cummins natural gas generators (no co-gen options) and the cost to run one of them on natural gas (at retail price) is only marginally lower than the cost of utility electricity.  At least it is where I live.  It would be an excellent back-up option, and the layout of my house would make the generator shed easy to locate.  Just very costly, for a backup!