Loadshedding solutions

[Frosty]

18 minutes ago, Schnavel said:

Oh, and another very important thing to consider, which is often not done, is to wrap your geyser with a proper blanket. The amount of thermal energy loss is more significant than you think, especially in winter with cold atmospheric temperatures

The new geyser that I had installed doesn't require a blanket; they are insulated between the two skins. I've still wrapped it with the blanket I had from the last one.

[BigDL]

Loving this thread and learning a lot from it. I just had a quote last week for a PV setup. We're in a different position to a lot of you folks in that we don't have load shedding to worry about, but electricity is very expensive and traditional energy generation doesn't help global warming, so we've decided to go the PV route. 

We have an electric shower, so don't need hot water going into it, and our water pressure is so poor that a bath will take 45 minutes to run to about 8 inches deep, so only really need hot water for washing hands, dishes that don't fit in the dishwasher etc. At the moment, our house and hot water is heated by an oil boiler, with a 1200l heating oil tank outside. I have a TADO system to automatically manage the house, so run the boiler for an hour a day to heat up the hot water tank/geyser and that gives us enough hot water for our daily needs. That may change in winter, but the boiler will be running the central heating at that stage so hot water will be no issue. 

The plan is to install a system now, without batteries but battery ready, and to set washing machine, dishwasher etc etc to run during daylight hours to maximise use of generated electricity. The excess then gets sold back to the grid for 25% of what we buy it for. Installation cost is about £6,800, which will hurt. 

Next step, after we properly insulate the house (new windows, thicker insulation in the ceiling etc), is to install a battery system and a heat pump setup to control temperature in the house, which should be largely run by the PV system, especially in Summer. This will allow us to get rid of the oil boiler altogether and save the £1,200 per year (based on last years prices, twice that now) that we spend on heating oil. 

We investigated a small windmill at the top of our property as the wind never seems to stop at our place, but decided, for all of the reasons listed on this thread, to stay away from that at the moment. 

Anyway, the point wasn't to bore you all with my plans, but wondering if anyone has any thoughts on whether this is the right plan or is there a better way to do it? 

[Robbie Stewart]

On 7/18/2022 at 12:55 PM, Schnavel said:

Wow, where do you live, Australia?

Sunningdale in Cape Town, which sometimes makes me think I'm in some namby pamby run woke city by all the things I am constantly reminded I'm not allowed to do , like paint my house any colour other than white, or enclose my braai area for fear of the architect not signing off and making me pay his retirement fund instalments disguised as a fine.

[fanievb]

15 hours ago, BigDL said:

Loving this thread and learning a lot from it. I just had a quote last week for a PV setup. We're in a different position to a lot of you folks in that we don't have load shedding to worry about, but electricity is very expensive and traditional energy generation doesn't help global warming, so we've decided to go the PV route. 

We have an electric shower, so don't need hot water going into it, and our water pressure is so poor that a bath will take 45 minutes to run to about 8 inches deep, so only really need hot water for washing hands, dishes that don't fit in the dishwasher etc. At the moment, our house and hot water is heated by an oil boiler, with a 1200l heating oil tank outside. I have a TADO system to automatically manage the house, so run the boiler for an hour a day to heat up the hot water tank/geyser and that gives us enough hot water for our daily needs. That may change in winter, but the boiler will be running the central heating at that stage so hot water will be no issue. 

The plan is to install a system now, without batteries but battery ready, and to set washing machine, dishwasher etc etc to run during daylight hours to maximise use of generated electricity. The excess then gets sold back to the grid for 25% of what we buy it for. Installation cost is about £6,800, which will hurt. 

Next step, after we properly insulate the house (new windows, thicker insulation in the ceiling etc), is to install a battery system and a heat pump setup to control temperature in the house, which should be largely run by the PV system, especially in Summer. This will allow us to get rid of the oil boiler altogether and save the £1,200 per year (based on last years prices, twice that now) that we spend on heating oil. 

We investigated a small windmill at the top of our property as the wind never seems to stop at our place, but decided, for all of the reasons listed on this thread, to stay away from that at the moment. 

Anyway, the point wasn't to bore you all with my plans, but wondering if anyone has any thoughts on whether this is the right plan or is there a better way to do it? 

check out the sunsynk channel on youtube

They have specific solutions/setups which they describe for the UK. The whole buy during the day, store some for night use and sell the rest.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCirp6bMpAK7AvyKnAo-14FA/videos 

[DJuice]

We have installed a 300l solar geyser 3 weeks ago.

We are a household of 4, with the boys 2 and 5, bath time is a big thing, they have warm water, unfortunately my wife after them not so much.

Myself in the mornings...not a chance.

With the PV and battery system a 2kw element was installed but it struggles to heat the water up within 60-90min.

We have not yet installed a timer, can`t get an electrician to come out, so it is switch on by me before my morning jog, this morning delayed the whole run, brekkie and even after 90min, it was not pleasant.

It is a large double story home, but the solar geyser only serve the top two bathrooms, we have shorten the route of the water to save water and heat loss, down stairs we have installed gas for the kitchen and bathroom.

The size of 300l is probably to big, I lend my ears out for heating up the whole 300l, it will be easy and very hot in Upington, if the cold water for second bath time mixes in, the temperature will drop but not significant. 

Do your homework, I have not and paying school fees.

I am still to report back on the PV and batteries, could not make the appointment yesterday. 

 

 

[Robbie Stewart]

@DJuice

Hot Water Donkey heats water up in no time. My dad uses one on the farm. He also has a solar heater on the geyser to heat the water during the day, but in the mornings and evenings the donkey takes over the heating duties and it get's scalding hot.

This is an example of one found on the intergoogleweb;

[Dicky DQ]

On 7/15/2022 at 6:42 AM, PhilipV said:

A car dual battery system can probably be built cheaper by yourself. And building it into a portable battery box is easy. I've done it before.

But it won't be as slick and we'll presented as this solution. 

Do not be tempted to use Car Batteries even if the appear cheaper. Their design application is not the same as Deep Cycle batteries.

[ChrisF]

1 hour ago, DJuice said:

We have installed a 300l solar geyser 3 weeks ago.

We are a household of 4, with the boys 2 and 5, bath time is a big thing, they have warm water, unfortunately my wife after them not so much.

Myself in the mornings...not a chance.

With the PV and battery system a 2kw element was installed but it struggles to heat the water up within 60-90min.

We have not yet installed a timer, can`t get an electrician to come out, so it is switch on by me before my morning jog, this morning delayed the whole run, brekkie and even after 90min, it was not pleasant.

It is a large double story home, but the solar geyser only serve the top two bathrooms, we have shorten the route of the water to save water and heat loss, down stairs we have installed gas for the kitchen and bathroom.

The size of 300l is probably to big, I lend my ears out for heating up the whole 300l, it will be easy and very hot in Upington, if the cold water for second bath time mixes in, the temperature will drop but not significant. 

Do your homework, I have not and paying school fees.

I am still to report back on the PV and batteries, could not make the appointment yesterday. 

 

 

 

A 300 liter geyser typically comes with a 4kW element, for the 90 minute heating.  So a 2kW element would take to 2 to 3 HOURS to heat the water from "cold".

 

May be worth your while to consider a gas geyser for the SHOWER.  Or just an inline heater for the shower line - huge power draw, but for a short period.  You will still have a significant saving compared to heating 300 liter for a single shower.

[Eddy Gordo]

Solar geysers are best during summer. I have 2 now for a good few years, around the time the rebate was offered we installed. 

During winter the best time for hot water is during the afternoon or not at all if the weather is bad.

I am wanting to install a gas geyser for winter, as the load shedding at 6am does not help too have hot water to shower. I know a few people who have done this and it wors brilliantly. If I had to redo the solar, I would just install a gas geyser. But looking at the times, who knows where we gonna be with gas in the future.

[117]

Why not put in another solar geyser? 

[Frosty]

1 hour ago, DJuice said:

We have installed a 300l solar geyser 3 weeks ago.

With the PV and battery system a 2kw element was installed but it struggles to heat the water up within 60-90min.

We have not yet installed a timer, can`t get an electrician to come out, so it is switch on by me before my morning jog, this morning delayed the whole run, brekkie and even after 90min, it was not pleasant.

It is a large double story home, but the solar geyser only serve the top two bathrooms, we have shorten the route of the water to save water and heat loss, down stairs we have installed gas for the kitchen and bathroom.

The size of 300l is probably to big, I lend my ears out for heating up the whole 300l, it will be easy and very hot in Upington, if the cold water for second bath time mixes in, the temperature will drop but not significant. 

Do your homework, I have not and paying school fees.

I am still to report back on the PV and batteries, could not make the appointment yesterday. 

What size is your PV and battery?

What solar geyser is it? Evacuated tubes with water circulating between the panels on the roof, or is the PV powering the element?

Have to lagged the pipes to/from the geyser?

As for a timer, there are many options, eg. pool pump timer installed in the DB, a smart switch that connects to the element and works with your WiFi, or a control panel on the wall closest to where the geyser is installed.

Upington may be hot during the day, but I'm sure it's cooler/colder at night and mornings in winter. Cold water filling the geyser needs to be reheated otherwise by the morning it will be cold.

[DJuice]

3 minutes ago, Frosty said:

 

@Frosty

Please see below. 

What size is your PV and battery? Two 5.2Kw Hubble batteries, we only have 8x545watt panels. 8.8Kw Sunsynk inverter

What solar geyser is it? Apollo Vacuum Tube

Evacuated tubes with water circulating between the panels on the roof, or is the PV powering the element? The plan was for the PV to power the element during they day if needed, but no need so far for that, during the day enough warm water. Was planning to use the batteries at night to power the element for a specific time frame, but so far I have done this limited times, due to the batteries not going to full charge.

The panels is not performing to my liking, they should  be able to generate more and dump this into the batteries which it is not doing. As soon as I start the pool pump, the panels generate more but the same principle should be to charge the batteries to full. On Sat the panels generated 12Kw, yesterday on my return was barely on 6Kw and the battery at 60%.

Have to lagged the pipes to/from the geyser? This is still in process, it is an old house, we had to replace all of the galvanized pipes in the walls and we are running out of $ very fast.

Thanks for all the inputs, I am way out of my comfort zone and have not done my homework.

Last night I told my wife, I take 6 months to decide which tires to replace on our vehicles and went out and installed this system on a whim. 

Will post pics of why I am not satisfied with the energy generation of the panels, once again the app is not installed on my phone...will sort it this week.

 

 

[DJuice]

First complaint, it is 14h on a beautiful sunny day in Upington and only at 20% generating capacity. The SOC was at 67%. Was explained that we do not use the energy that is available, but why not charge the batteries.

[DJuice]

After the complaint, the best generating, but once again fell at after 13H,battery not full but as soon as I start the pump, the panels can generate more. 

[DJuice]

Yesterday on my return from Cape Town. Was expecting the batteries to be full, but it was not below SOC of 60%, the panels not performing, generating 6.9Kw, the same weather as Saturday, why on Saturday 12Kw, could generate again 12Kw and fill the batteries.

 

Thanks for all your inputs, know it is a cycle forum, hopefully we can get back to bicycles. Ps. For the record I think a bicycle is the best invention ever.

[fanievb]

@DJuice what's your settings for the following;

1. timer use,
2. SOC (on the timer)
3. PV priority (load or battery)

 

Mine is set to timer with different SOC per specific time



If you set it to battery priority it'll charge the battery up to selected charge and then load when the SOC is reached (see below)
 

 

If load priority is ticked, all PV goes to load and excess to charge the batteries

Do you have the sunsynk logger installed? Much easier to set up from there