Nerdishness and Solar power

[Pfitzy]

I wonder how soon, and by how much, things like the powerwall will come down in price. I remember even only (five years say) a short time ago I idly pondered making my own solar panels, plenty of tutorials back then how to do it, vacuum your own weather protection, source the individual cells and solder them together etc etc.

you simply would not bother just these few years later, the prices have come down so dramatically it is not worth your time (and get a better result commercially anyway). Such is the speed of change.

Agreed, and with guys like Redflow stepping into the market, along with Panasonic, Enphase, and a few others, the competitiveness is only going to make it better and better for the consumer.

I've no doubt that my Powerwall will be a dinosaur by 2020, and I'll probably be in a position to replace or add to it a couple of years after. But for right now, early adopters like me in this case, and the publicity generated by people like Musk are where it starts.

There is going to be a breath-holding period while all the techies* come up to speed with this as well, and the guys doing mine learned a lot on Day 0, and continue to get feedback from me on some things they consider witchcraft moving forward.





* EDIT: by that I mean the solar installers who were used to just banging an inverter on a wall, panels on the roof, and twisting a few wires together. Now you've got to deal with firmware, wifi config, battery module integration, the works.

The lead sparky on the job reckoned I should go into consulting.

 

[Pfitzy]

spam

Double-smoked spam, my good man!

 

[ChargerWA]

* EDIT: by that I mean the solar installers who were used to just banging an inverter on a wall, panels on the roof, and twisting a few wires together. Now you've got to deal with firmware, wifi config, battery module integration, the works.

The lead sparky on the job reckoned I should go into consulting.

It would be interesting to see how much gains a well dialled in system could generate in benefits compared to one chucked in but the sparkies and largely forgotten.

Gains wouldn't necessarily be in quantity of power generation, the quality of the panels and inverters MPPT that largely influence that. It would be in battery life by better controlling charge and DOD. And in dollars by having an algorithm worked out for individual premises to know when to sell back to Reposit and when to instead charge the battery.

If you could sell that as a premium service with an ongoing service component (come back once a year and reconfigure system as required) you could be onto a winner.

I know as a sparkie I have enough trouble getting my guys to set the clock once they install an oven, forget about firmware upgrades.

 

[Pfitzy]

https://enphase.com/en-au/products-and-services

Enphase are already looking at this - full home integration. They have a 1.2kWh modular battery system that you can "click-together" in order to expand your array.

The key difference is they want to go the whole hog and smarten up your house in the IoT (Internet of Things) path, integrating heating, cooling, battery+solar hybrid management etc.

Its very nice looking tech, and others are sure to follow.

 

[Pfitzy]

P.S. Charger - if you know anyone in the solar game, they need to start schooling up on this stuff, because its not going away.

They need to get the basics of wifi configuration and these new inverters with highly configurable firmware. Otherwise they'll be on the phone to the manufacturer support a lot (if it exists).

 

[boyo]

Trust Runner to get things arse-about.

 

[Pfitzy]

Let's keep it civil

 

[Pfitzy]

Have you got an e-gauge @pfitzy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sorry, don't know what that is? If you're talking about meter, then I'm presently in possession of the A1100 that Endeavor Energy supply. They're swapping that out for a new one soon, with better accuracy

 

[blindsider]

Ah nice!!
We have been installing e-gauge for a while. It's an energy monitoring device. Pretty popular. Www.eguage.net
We put one on my place when solar got installed, very interesting!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[boyo]

Let's keep it civil

Ironic, coming from you.

 

[Pfitzy]

Agreed. But we already had a couple of threads that blew out under the pressure of intractable dichotomy. We're not doing that again

 

[boyo]

As long as everyone can discuss endeavours such as debating, rowing, cycling, cricket, rugby league, NFL, car rallying, etc. on a rugby union website then it's all ticketty-boo.

 

[boyo]

How quitting the grid – in an energy efficient home – will save you

http://onestepoffthegrid.com.au/how-quitting-the-grid-in-an-energy-efficient-home-will-save-you/

"living in a “glorified tent” the accurate description given to so many homes in Australia, where people build to a price and not to a standard."

 

[Pfitzy]

I found that article really hard to read in terms of structure.

In any case: earth-sheltered home in the side of a hill, covered in solar panels, with basement water tanks and Zinc Bromine battery storage up to 50kWh and you're set like a jelly.

 

[cyclopath]

I found that article really hard to read in terms of structure.

In any case: earth-sheltered home in the side of a hill, covered in solar panels, with basement water tanks and Zinc Bromine battery storage up to 50kWh and you're set like a jelly.

So, go live in Hobbiton with tech?
It's an appealing idea, but fanciful for most people and places. Finding the right topography, bearing the increased building costs (excavation, concrete for thermal mass etc...) for many and making it all happen remotely conveniently for work.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to build and live in such a house, but not gonna happen in this part of my lifetime.

 

[Pfitzy]

Not with THAT attitude its not.



But yeah, I'm basically stuck in suburbia until at least 2025 at this point and won't realise that kind of thinking until I'm in my 50s and/or divorced.

The cost of building earth-sheltered house can be a little on the higher side, but its offset by the location being cheap as chips - because why the fuck would you want to live in a zombie-proof bunker in the middle of all that zombie food?

http://www.baldwinobryan.com/

These guys are working away somewhat from concrete with the earth portion and what looks like double-glazing doing the rest.

Aspect is very important of course. Get the angles right and the winter/summer thermal issue goes away, even without masses of concrete. Dirt is the thing, and biomass of vegetation.

Provided it can live under my solar panels, that is

 

[cyclopath]

Not with THAT attitude its not.



But yeah, I'm basically stuck in suburbia until at least 2025 at this point and won't realise that kind of thinking until I'm in my 50s and/or divorced.

The cost of building earth-sheltered house can be a little on the higher side, but its offset by the location being cheap as chips - because why the fuck would you want to live in a zombie-proof bunker in the middle of all that zombie food?

http://www.baldwinobryan.com/

These guys are working away somewhat from concrete with the earth portion and what looks like double-glazing doing the rest.

Aspect is very important of course. Get the angles right and the winter/summer thermal issue goes away, even without masses of concrete. Dirt is the thing, and biomass of vegetation.

Provided it can live under my solar panels, that is

I get all that, but I don't want to live in the place where land is cheap enough to make it viable. Maybe later, but certainly not now.

 

[Pfitzy]

You're not prioritising the zombie apocalypse high enough.

 

[cyclopath]

You're not prioritising the zombie apocalypse high enough.

I have a high fence and at least one member of the household who has above average ability with a rifle. And a psychopath of a cat. Prioritised.

 

[boyo]

@Pfitzy, I see that you have relented on the external shading.
Why is that?