what to do with pesky over flow?

[Muffloj]

     I dont as of yet  have a system in which i must have concern about  over flow

(i do plan to soon) but i may see a way to make the most of it.

     There is a lot i may not wholy understand . Is it not possible that once you have gotten your batteries full to have an automatic switch that would divert your overflow to your direct household usage bypassing your batteries.

    Maby you could have your washing machine loaded in anticipation of overflow and put that energy to work as a maid(with proper wiring of course).

    For that matter have a plug wired to use this excess energy to charge your other batteries RC's, Battery powered drills,  a little vacume robot whatever

   What about a flywheel to store this extra electrical energy as kinetic energy for later battery charing or direct need.

   

[DanB]

To get things ideal is always rather complicated.

When I have extra, it automaticly dumps to heat.

If were home... and aware of the fact, then we do laundry - we vacuum (if necessary) - or pump water.  (pumping water is quite a nice way to dump power)

Refrigeration could be handy.

Unless your very wealthy or have tons of time on your hands.... automating it all seems impractical.  The trick is pay attention, use big loads when the power is available - and have a reliable way to dump power in an automatic way to save your batteries I think.

[Muffloj]

  Could you pump this water up high enough to use the stored energy in the raised water to power a hydo gen.

   Just a thought i dont think its a waist of time

[domwild]

Get into Hugh Piggott's web site (scoraigwind I believe) and look at his load control circuit if you wish to automate. It requires a bit of electronic knowledge, though. It is not really switching on when the batteries are full, but it switches on when the RPM (=frequency of generated AC) gets too high and you have to put a break on the mill via water heating or pumping. On that web page he also has a new circuit to switch the load on when the batteries are full, if I remember right.

Dominic

[PaulJ]

   Yes, but I did the maths on this a while ago and worked out that it would be way cheaper to buy more batteries.

[PaulJ]

   I'll qualify that. If the water storage and generating capacity already exist, it may indeed be viable; water is often pumped uphill at hydroelectric power stations when there is excess baseload capacity in the grid. With an off-grid system there are much better ways to spend your money.