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My solar project installed by Bauer Power! 2kwh with battery back up - Page 2

post #31 of 40
3/25/09 at 1:14pm

What are you going to plug the Sunny Web Box data logger into?  It's not plugged into anything right now apart from the inverter (by the looks of the photo).

 

 

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post #32 of 40
3/26/09 at 8:59pm
Thread Starter 

Either a router or an old laptop.  Just hooked it up last week and learning all the tricks!

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post #33 of 40
3/28/09 at 9:17pm
Thread Starter 

Here are some additional photos that a friend of mine took for me.  array

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post #34 of 40
4/19/09 at 11:41am
Thread Starter 

Just a little follow up, I received my first bill since I had the array installed.  I'm pretty happy with the results.  The bill was about 38.00 less than the previous month and I have been plugging in my PHEV Prius every evening after work.  We have also had many cloudy days.  Things should be great this summer. 

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post #35 of 40
4/29/09 at 5:16am
Thread Starter 

I was very pleased by my first electric bill after having the system installed for one month.  I saved approximately 38.00.  Not too shabby!  I am going to have some addtional work done soon.  As the system stands right now it is dependent on the grid and I do not want that...a little extra wiring and parts are needed and then I can run the system independently. 

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post #36 of 40
5/20/09 at 6:24pm
Thread Starter 

I am going to update my system to be able to be recharged independently of the grid.  My rebate from Illinois should be coming back soon.  Awesome!

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post #37 of 40
5/22/09 at 6:26am

Is that going to be a generator or something?  I thought your batteries were charged from the solar panels anyway.

 

Mine is an off-grid system that charges the batteries first and then a 1kW inverter runs off the batteries. On sunny afternoons there's enough juice from the panels to supply the inverter directly (upto about 450W at the moment). The batteries just provide voltage regulation for gaps in the solar power (the odd passing cloud). 

 

If I need to charge the batteries from the grid (in Winter) I have to manually hook up a battery charger to them.  I bought an old 24V "golf cart" type charger for this. It only puts out 75W but it's enough to stop the batteries rotting in the dark months.  Needless to say, I can't extract much solar power October thru to March (with almost none in November thru January).  Now in May, I'm making about 7% of my total electricity from solar.

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post #38 of 40
5/29/09 at 10:56am
Thread Starter 

I thought my system was totally independent of the grid but found out that my salesman had messed up a bit.  We are correcting that and also giving me the option to add a generator in an emergency situation.

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post #39 of 40
6/24/09 at 5:08pm
Thread Starter 
Chuck and John were here today working on my system.  It is now wired to have the solar array charge the batteries when the grid goes out.  It is also ready for an electrician to wire for adding an emergency generator.  Here are some photos:
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post #40 of 40
9/17/09 at 1:28pm
Nice.  How much have you generated over the summer since you went on line?

I've been buying up second hand panels from eBay and am up to about 1kWp now.  I just passed 220kWh generated this year (since last mid-December).  On a good day last month I could make about 15% of my daily power use (2kWh out of 13kWh).
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