Solar Powered Generators?

[jimeve]

37 minutes ago, Mike J said:

Same here, not enough sun the past 4-5 days.  Normally we are back to full charge by noon.  If the battery does not get full wouldn't you need additional panels instead of another battery.   We use about 350 kwh per month.   Our battery is 10.2 kw.

Both battery and panels but battery for now. 

We use a lot more than I stated in the previous post, it's about 250 kwh per month, don't know where I got 60 kwh from!

[jimeve]

13 hours ago, jimeve said:

We use a lot more than I stated in the previous post, it's about 250 kwh per month, don't know where I got 60 kwh from!

Quoting myself, 

Yeah the 60 Kwh per month was for power purchased (grid power) So an extra 6k watt battery making it 12 kw in total would make me grid power free

[hk blues]

15 hours ago, Mike J said:

It feels great to have a solar system with battery backup.  No more brownouts and our electric bill has dropped dramatically.  The last one was only 192 peso. 

Weeks like this one make me seriously consider it...then the next 6 months or more with next to no problems make me think again!

[jimeve]

1 minute ago, hk blues said:

Weeks like this one make me seriously consider it...then the next 6 months or more with next to no problems make me think again!

It could be comparable to having a hole in your roof, great when it don't rain but.......

[hk blues]

14 hours ago, Mike J said:

Same here, not enough sun the past 4-5 days.  Normally we are back to full charge by noon.  If the battery does not get full wouldn't you need additional panels instead of another battery.   We use about 350 kwh per month.   Our battery is 10.2 kw.

This is another factor that dissuades me. I'm not that interested in the cost saving as our bills are pretty low, merely the convenience of having no outages.  But, I can easily live with the 2 hours or so outages which make up 99% of ours. It's the 7 or 8 or more outages we have which only happen once every year if that and always due to typhoons - which mean days with no sun which means no power!

I'm still undecided.

[jimeve]

1 minute ago, hk blues said:

This is another factor that dissuades me. I'm not that interested in the cost saving as our bills are pretty low, merely the convenience of having no outages.  But, I can easily live with the 2 hours or so outages which make up 99% of ours. It's the 7 or 8 or more outages we have which only happen once every year if that and always due to typhoons - which mean days with no sun which means no power!

I'm still undecided.

My neighbors and surrounding towns had an outage that lasted more than 8 hours. I never knew there was an outage

[hk blues]

10 minutes ago, jimeve said:

My neighbors and surrounding towns had an outage that lasted more than 8 hours. I never knew there was an outage

I get that but it's  less than once a year and 4 or 5 hours for us hence my quandary. 

I suppose the fact that only 1 house in our (not poor) area has it probably suggests most are like me. 

 

 

 

[jimeve]

7 hours ago, hk blues said:

I get that but it's  less than once a year and 4 or 5 hours for us hence my quandary. 

I suppose the fact that only 1 house in our (not poor) area has it probably suggests most are like me. 

 

 

 

Not worth it for you then.

[Mike J]

17 hours ago, hk blues said:

I get that but it's  less than once a year and 4 or 5 hours for us hence my quandary. 

I suppose the fact that only 1 house in our (not poor) area has it probably suggests most are like me. 

 

 

 

The primary reason we installed our solar system was the high cost of electricity here.   Our bills typically ran from 4.5 to 6.5 peso depending on use of aircon and the pool pump/filter.  Aircon was seldom used and only at night.  I calculated the ROI at five years at our current usage.  We just added two LG split type inverter AC to the main living area of the house.  Now during the hot season we can keep the house bearable during the day.  Had we installed those without solar our bill would probably close to 6.5 to 8.5, maybe more?  So the true ROI will be less than four years.  

So you get a great ROI, add value to the house, and protection from brownouts.  Also even on cloudy days there is more than sufficient power for appliances, lights, etc.  You may not want to run AC if being frugal, but you can and pull what you need from the grid.  I had wanted solar for years, it was a question of priorities and budget.  I looked at purchasing another battery, but the ROI for that additional purchase would be greater than 10 years for us.  

[Possum]

4 hours ago, Mike J said:

So you get a great ROI, add value to the house, and protection from brownouts. 

There is another advantage often overlooked and that is undervoltage protection.. Blackouts are inconvenient but only damaging if there is a surge when it comes back on. Undervoltage is a killer of electronics but you don't notice it unless it's really bad as it's an invisible killer. I had a discussion with the AC guy a few weeks ago and he was telling me most of his service calls are in areas known to supply low voltage. Sometimes consistently under 200v. When volts go down amps go up which causes heat to increase. Bad for anything especially anything with a printed circuit board.

The power companies haven't upgraded their lines and transformers in many years especially out in the countryside because...