Looking at Solar: questions

[DaBlue357]

Solaredge has an excess solar charging mode for their EV charger, but you need to have consumption metering to enable it. FYI

Thanks for the heads up. I've got much to learn here.

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[Dino]

I have a 7kw solar system (19 400 w panels) with a 10kw home battery and a 12k Sol-Ark inverter. The Sol-Ark allows for a 50 amp 14 50 nema plug to be wired straight to it. With this setup I (retired) can charge a vehicle (2 ev's) between 9-1 during the winter on sunny days at 16 amps (4kw). Other times I plug my dryer in (uses 6-7kw) to dry clothes. The Sol-Ark can be configured to activate the plug once the home battery reaches a certain soc (45% for me) and also to deactivate it if the home battery drops below a certain soc (20% for me). Of course during non winter months I have around 6 or more hours of charging/dryer time on sunny days.

 

[chl]

That said, my utility company does not have any off peak power program or EV incentives. I just have a simple 1 to 1 kWh credit system. For every kwh I send to the grid, I get a kWh credit on my account to use when my solar system is not producing enough power. Since I produce more than use over the course of a year, I have a nonexpiring kWh "bank" to pull from when I use more power than I produce. I currently have over 7000 kwhs in the bank so until I use 7000 more kwh than I produce, I will never pay for power. Since I add about 1000 kwh a year to the bank, I don't expect to pay for power for the next 25 years or until I leave this mortal coil.

You're in Virginia - Dominion has EV and off peak programs, I am on the EV and Home one they started back in 2015 (I think)...so, when you do net metering do they eliminate you from participating in those programs?

I want to put solar on a retirement home I inherited from my parents on the island of Montserrat, WI:

The house is on the west coast with a lot of southern roof and yard exposure - the main impediments are:

1) shipping and duty makes panels expensive to get there and
2) the utility is Government owned and run and has not been open to net metering so far - selling the electricity is a source of income for the island.
3) the Gov't there has not shown and interest in a distributed power system with solar on many roofs.
4) the gov't there decided geothermal was the solution (because there is a volcano) and has already wasted 10 years and $20m on failed wells
5) there is plenty of wind energy potential, but they say there isn't enough land for them, apparently don't understand that wind towers can be placed off-shore and there is plenty of that on the mostly uninhabited east side of the island where they would not bother anyone's view.

Alas...

They have been running the island's electricity using 2 diesel generators (that were meant to be a temporary emergency source) since sometime after the island's volcano erupted in 1997. They have rolling blackouts when one of the generator needs repairs (and parts are hard to find). And electricity is expensive compared with here in the US.

The most energy using thing I have there is a refrigerator. I cool with fans (no AC) and rarely use the hot water heater.

Based on past bills, I used an average of 10kWh per day before I switched to an Energy Star refrigerator and LED lighting.

With a solar insolation of 5 kWhm^2 per day (guesstimate) I could easily gather enough energy to power my house and sell some back to the utility.

Due to the very hot climate I do not think a battery storage system would be a good idea there.

Just off topic venting I suppose, my bad.

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