Solar fun in the sun. Solar panels and other alternative energy or conservation projects and notes

Home Made Hybrid Solar Online UPS

Home Made Hybrid Solar Drive Online UPS

I would love to have some grid tie inverters but they are so expensive and I am always looking for alternatives. So I finally tried a variation with one of my test solar panels. I decided to feed the panel and a 12v power supply into the charge controller. I put the power supply on a meter, in the morning it’s running like 15 watts to add charge to the batteries from running equipment overnight but during peak daylight it is only drawing 2 watts. Kinda like grid tie, but only supplying things that are 12v to make life easy. It was surpising actually when I looked around how many of my wall worts ( power supply bricks ) are either 12VDC or 5VCD.

In this configuration, it works like online ups where everything is running off some sealed batteries and when the volage from the solar panel drops, the 120VAC to 12VDC power supply picks up the slack. It's not 100% efficient, but better than zero. Right now it charges the gadgets and runs a bit of my home network equipment ( comcast modem plus wifi ) that either wants 12 VDC in or via car adapter.

The nice thing about this configuration is that it works a bit more reliably during extended cloudy periods or in winter when the days are too short to get a good charge. I only have a few hundred watts of solar panels altogether to play with which also doesn't help.

Our home uses a lot of electricity. Everything we use is all very efficient and our usage overall is down 30% from the previous year. We've used CFL bulbs in most places ( I don't like to read by CFL ) since the early 1990s.

My goal is to get most of our luxury power use off the grid. This would be entertainment systems, computers and gadgets, pool pump, and lighting. This would drop another 30%. The remainder of our power use is around cooking, laundry, and cooling. I learned the hard way running on generator for two weeks after hurricane Wilma in 2005 that those functions use way more power than I can reasonably provide without major investment.

It is an old house and we have upgraded what we can without major construction to improve insulation. Since we have nuclear power in Florida, a major solar array is not a very good economic investment. I'm not totally convinced it's a good ecological investment either due to what is required in the construction of the panels, though it is much better than wind which causes it's own climate change. Finally, I am just nervous about too much stuff on my roof with hurricane winds.

However, having some solar power is terrific for a generator alternative or even supplimental power. If I can get to 1000 winter watts I think I can run everything I need to run anything in a pinch, lighting, radios, fans, and refigeration. We had a 6 hour power outage a few weeks ago and I had a fan, laptop, and high speed internet; you know, the important things.

home solar fun

I had been wanting to put some solar energy projects around the house for a while but was having trouble justifying dropping 10-20 grand on a system that was going to be obsolete in 10 years. Still functional, but the technology is still changing pretty fast.

The best thing I had seen was the EnPhase micro inverters designed to go onto each panel. This seemed like a great idea because it would be possible to add a few panels at a time. While I was waiting for these to become available, I had another idea.

Start small. I didn't say it was a profound idea. So I picked up an assortment of panels from 10 - 50 watts. The first one made lots of sense. In Florida we get lots of rain and I am constantly having to charge the battery on the boat's bilge pump. A 20 watt panel seemed to negate this to keep the deep cycle batteries topped off.

solar powered chumby

We have lots of chargeable gadgets around the house, droids, ipads, iphones, psp, ds, etc. All of these have car chargers. Hrm. A quick drill through the wall, deep cycle battery, car chargers and voila, on demand solar charging for gadgets. Ok, not huge cost savings, but it's fun to respond to 'do you like X gadget?' with "yes and it's solar charged also."

Next I started looking around the house and noticed all the wall warts converting AC line power to DC. Again perfect for solar or solar battery function. The challenge here is delivery. More later...

New Film to Catch Rays

Via ecogeek.org I read this article with something that actually deserves a patent. Rather than the cost and maintenance required moving solar panels to track the sun, it appears SolOptics is trying the 'ah ha' method of applying a prism like film to the top of a solar panel. It also reduces the amount of light reflected and can give a 10-12% boost to an existing panel.

For more info, visit their site at http://www.soloptics.com/fusion/technology_overview or wait for the film at 11 ( must be certain age to get joke ).

Boosts opportunity for electron replacement due to increased distance of light ray within photovoltaic material.

Simple

Simple ways to save some energy and money without a lot of work. It surprised me when I worked out where I used the most energy.

Automobiles

Change or clean air filter
Check your tire pressure

Heating and Cooling

Collect water from air conditioning drip line. Some days I can collect a gallon in a day. It's freshwater so is good to water planters or add to pool.
Change or clean air filter. Blower fan is designed to run at a certain speed. Dirty filters make its electric motor work harder.
When replacing get variable or two speed systems. Rather than on and off, these systems just slow down. Moving fluids takes squared the energy to move twice as fast so this saves more energy than you would think. $100 a month for me.

Cooking

In Summer, grill if you can. This keeps the residual heat outside.
Keep grill in sun which will get it well over 100 degrees to start

Hot Water

In addition to turning down the temp a bit, I closed the valve a bit. Also, if you have an electric water heater, have the second stage cooler than the first. This makes people think they are running out and wrap up the showers.

Laundry

Wash in cold water.
In humid climates, a washer with higher spin can save a lot of drying time.

Refrigeration

Clean the heat exchange elements on your refrigerators once a year. The fan and coils pick up dust. I noticed my old one was running 24 hours a day and cleaned it and it actually turned off.

Lighting and Entertainment

APC and others make some great power strips that turn off the other power ports when a master goes off. I use this on a few things. On my computer, when I turn my light off, all the accessory power bricks go off. It's more than it seems.
In warm climates, an ultra efficient power supply is a double gain. For all the energy in your home you have to waste as heat, you have to pump it out with air conditioning or fans.

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