Solar System

[hycheese]

Redwasp @oldjarhead100

No medical bud yet so whiskey be talking...

I only have a small solar setup - four 150 watt panels and a 600-watt mppt grid-tied inverter.

The system recharges 200 amp golf cart batteries using a Samlex 2000 watt pure sine wave high-efficiency inverter and a 3 stage dual bank Samlex charger, I can keep my refrigerator and deep freeze running for 2 days before firing up the generator.

I have a 2500 watt electric start inverter generator, one gallon of gas lasts pert near 5 hours - during the infamous ice storm of 2009 I was golden, my wood burning stove was a spaghetti sent omen.

Using 12volt timers and a transfer relay I was always assured of uninterrupted cold beers for at least 2 days, then with a flick of a switch a full week on only 5 gallons of gas.

[DrPhoton]

Nice, i see your doing a bit of plumbing work there with that boiler ?

You do all the electrical, plumbing and carpenting yourself ?.

[hycheese]

Does this answer your question? see enclosed picture.
yes, I have re-plumbed and re-wired this house from top to bottom, it was a foreclosure that I got for cheap ($25k).

[hycheese]

My Catahoula will fight you and the woodpile too.

[DrPhoton]

Yea iv renovated houses with my old man. The most interesting of late was plumbing and tiling a bathroom. Surprisingly it came out great, unbelievable infact. Looked like a proper job!

One thing i will never do again is plastering and painting ^.^ Cant stand it.

[hycheese]

10-4 on the plaster & paint, I too will never touch it again

[DrPhoton]

Oh man, i feel your pain ^.^

[Redwasp]

Yes I love solar. And while I do most of the work on my house I bring in my brother in law to help with plumbing and electric. I just cant keep up with all the codes (laws) and after I wired my garage I had done something wrong and had to rip it out and start over according to the code inspector. So just get him to do it now.

But nice setup.

[DrPhoton]

Yea thats the same with me, my old man is the registered gun.

[DrPhoton]

Nice score on the house. Im actually an audiophile myself, spent a few years reading books on several related fields such as electronics, data communication, acoustics, audio electronic designs and signal processing. Signal processing was the most difficult to get through. Knowing how a signal behaves and is manipulated with signal amplifiers is easy enough, but then once you move into digital electronics, there is so much going on. Sigma delta modulators are FUN!

[DrPhoton]

I see that your solar switchboard doesnt have any mains ?. Are you completely off the grid for those circuits, i assume you have mains for other parts of the house as i see that boiler is comnected ?

[hycheese]

I'm not familiar with your drawl, sure am cute though - kinda like a bugs ear.

[DrPhoton]

What i mean is, i dont see any mains electricity. Other than the mentioned grid tied for feedback. So i assume this is not the main electrical board, of course. I see that you have a 2000 watt inverter directly connected from the batteries, paralleled with the 3 stage charger. I also assume you replaced the 600 watt inverter with this 2000watt inverter. So i would think that because your inverter is not connected to any outlets, that you use this for emergencies only and rely on electrical mains for power.

Im curious about doing this for my hydronic underfloor heating. Currently its connected to a 9kw boiler, which costs quite a bit to run. I was thinking about a wetback system from a fireplace, but its quite difficult to find a wetback with such high output. I have also looked hydro heat pumps, like the ones they use for pools to heat the hydronic system. Its possible, but quite expensive. Though i would say solar would be just as expensive!.

[hycheese]

I follow the code of the wild... Unfortunately, at my age, no one wants to read books anymore - Farenhight 451, its a sad state of affairs. I still have about 1000 physics and chemistry books left if you want to collect them. I burned several hundred 8 tracks still have a hundred or so of 45 jukes- gonna burn them next. who wants them?

[DrPhoton]

Why you bruning them all ^.^

Im all good, i put most my time into biology now. However if you have ravens biology of plants, i will gladly take that off your hands

[hycheese]

I doubled engineered, mostly by accident - in 1980 I went to college (university) for organic chemistry then after 2 years that didn't suit me and I changed my major to digital electronics. Around 1990 I went to tech college for an HVAC contractors license because an ass.in the hole wanted to charge me too much to move an AC unit.

[DrPhoton]

Nice, quite a journey.

[hycheese]

@DANGERDAN , my system is a 2800 watt CerwinVega pro amp, a pair of 215xl , a Carver M500t monoblocked at 700 watts, Carver 400 watt , a pair of Kenwood preamps, but most importantly a Carver C4000 holograhic sonofabitch. I also have their time lense CD player. all good shit. My house was cheaper than this system cost me.

[DrPhoton]

Nice, what music you listen to ?. Iv got a vast range of genre i like. 70s, 80s, 90s, Now. But i do fine i enjoy the artists of the 80s the most. Phil collincs, eric clapton, beegees etc. The quality of the instruments and artists authenticity just cannot be replaced by synthesizers.

I have worked on my system for a while now, currently have a pair of focal 948's powered by a mcintosh 302 and sourced with a auralic vega. Very happy with the sound.

[hycheese]

Sounds like you have one helluva system - get that dirty high note from Barry Gibbs (CBE)...
I'm a bit older and prefer some Grand Funk, Canned Heat, Zombies, 10 Years After... etc

[DrPhoton]

I can dig that, some good music there.

[hycheese]

@DANGERDAN
After 40 years in the industrial electronics field and traveling all around the world programming PLC systems I sure am glad to be able to sit down and grow something I once smoked a millennia ago.

The first bet is to stay away from Zimbabwe (it sucks), second hide your money when going to Poland, third when in South America eat the porcupines with glee and smoke the football. you will be gladness.