The Hack My Solar Podcast

Join us today as we discuss Battery Storage vs. Peaking Plants. Peaking plants are power generation facilities that come on only to handle the highest peak loads demanded on the grid. They are meant to quickly ramp up and produce only during the times when the deman is higher than all other generation components can handle. They are very expensive so today we are going to talk about when and how Battery Storage Technology could make them obsolete. At the same time we will talk about the challenges that battery technology will have, even when their cost makes them viable as utility load shifting devices.

Renewable Energy in Texas is enabling Texas to win the Energy War...OK maybe its not a war but whatever it is they are winning.

Join us today as we discuss Renewable Energy in Texas.

Last year 20% of their energy came from renewables, primarily wind, and on somedays that number was over 40%. Governor Bush signed a bill in 1999 to drive the state towards renewable energy, and then after he became president, Governor Perry increased those goals and helped pass funding bills to improve the infrastructure to make the whole system work. One of the biggest advantages that Texas has is that it has its own grid.

Yesterday we spoke about different options for mounting a solar array. Today we are going to dive deeper into ground mount systems and talk specifically about some of the considerations one would need to take when siting a ground mount system in order to get the most optimum solar exposure.

 

The nice thing about ground-mounted systems is they can be

optimally-aligned with respect to both their southern orientation and their

tilt angle. I use a tool called PVWatts in order to look at the different options for azimuth and what kind of impact that will have over the course of the year. In my area, a more Southwesterly orientation is better than due south when looking at overall system production. Where I live, if I were grid ties, I would have my panels facing about 220 degrees, or 40 degrees off due south.

However since I am more concerned with when I get my energy than squeezing every watt our of daily production, we aren't pointing at 220 degrees. When I get up in the morning I work many times from my upstairs office or my front porch. I need energy in order to run my office machinery to include my routers as well as a fan to keep me cool during the summer, where mornings are pleasant but still hot and muggy. If I were maximizing the daily output, it would be 11 AM before I was getting any real production from my panels. Lets talk for a inut about reducing the amount of shade on the panels. Lets say I have an array of three solar panels. And each of those panels has 72 cells...thats 216 total cells Now if a few of those cells are shaded, they reduce the amount of current that can pass through the system by the proportion of shading on those cells times the total number of cells. So lets say one cell is 50% shaded, now I have the equivalent of 1.5 panels worth of energy coming from my three panels. In other words by shading one out of 216 cells, I have erased the generation of 108 of those cells. That's not a good utilization of my investment at all. The reason for this is that every cell in the string has to operate at the current set by the shaded cell.

One strategy for mitigating this issue is to place panels that may recieve shading on a parallel string, so that only the string the shaded cells are in is affected and all the parallel strings are not. This is how our system is set up in that the eastern most string which receives early shade, and the westernmost string which receives evening shade, wont impact the other two respective strings.

An interesting emergiung tech is Module Level Power Electronics which are essentially microinverters that operate on the individual module level and therefore limit shading losses to a single panel. These are initially more expensive but in the right environments can pay for themselves over time. I plan to do a stand alone show on microinverters in the future. Some panel manufacturers are also looking into in panel electronics that may act as microinverter for each cell, limiting the shading losses to the individual cells that are shaded and not impacting any of the other cells on that panel.

As with any solar project, ground-mounted PV systems must be designed with care to meet your individual goals and address practical issues. Siting issues for ground-mounted systems are different than for roof-mounted systems and include such things as property boundaries, terrain, soil properties, the location of electrical interconnections and potential permitting issues. But in addition to these general siting concerns, energy generation optimization in a ground-mounted system (or, for that matter, on most flat-roof installations) must address the unique issue of how to space the rows of solar panels to maximize energy harvest while preventing the panels from shading one another. This issue can of course be avoided by simply keeping the rows of panels sufficiently far apart, but generally one needs to minimize this inter-ro...

Mounting Options for Solar Arrays:

Ok folks, there are two options for mounting solar panels. One is roof mount, the other is ground mount. We are going to discuss the pros and cons of each and Ill sprinkle my opinion in along the way.

Rooftop solar arrays are restricted by the characteristics of the roof on which they are installed. If your roof is at a bad angle, doesn’t face south, or has obstructions like chimneys or skylights, then your solar array will be less productive. On the other hand, ground-mounted solar panels can be located wherever the conditions are best.

Generally, ground mount solar panels cost a bit more than rooftop solar on a per-watt basis because of additional labor and permitting that may be required for the installation. That being said, if your property isn’t ideal for rooftop solar, installing a ground-mounted system can actually save you more money in the long run.

In addition, if your home uses a lot of electricity, your roof might not be big enough for a solar energy system that meets your electricity needs. In contrast, ground-mounted solar systems can be sized to match your electricity consumption without the space restrictions of a rooftop system.

One of the reasons we tell people to perform an energy audit, and put together a usage reduction plan first, is that if you dont, you are going to run out of real estate(roof or ground) before you meet your needs. If you need 1200 sq ft of roof dedicated to solar, but only 800 sq ft of your roof faces south, you can see what I mean. Now that being said if you are going to be going with a roof mounted system, and you have already maxed out your conservation, then going with more efficient, but also more cost per watt panels may be the right option for you.

When you mount on your roof, your panels are going to be hader to access to maintain, and we know clean panels are always the goal. Not cleaning pollen, dust, and other buildup from panels can have a big impact on your output. Snow buildup is another consideration that must be taken into account for a roof system. you cant easily get onto the roof to clear snow after a storm when your panels are on the roof. Additionally, in the summer your panels will be hotter because there is less airflow behind them up on your roof. Hotter panels are less effective.

When mounting solar panels on your roof, you take advantage of a space that is otherwise not being used. You are not sacrificing precious rreal estate on the ground, and while im not aware of any studies, I would imagine that the little bit of shade on the roof itself may have a degree or two impact on your attic temps which might reduce your overall cooling load in the summer. You dont have to dig a trench to bury transmission lines with a roof mount, and there is no excavation or heavy equipment needed for a roof mount system.

Now lets talk a bit more about ground mount systems. Obviously when putting in a ground mount system, you can place the panels at the exact tilt and azimuth you choose, which is best for your goals. Due south might not be the best option in your are due to shading considerations.

The ideal is to have a shade-free array throughout the entire day, from dawn until dusk. However, obstructions such as trees, buildings, and mountains are common. Early morning and late afternoon sunlight isn’t as powerful as those midday hours, so aiming for a shade-free “solar” window from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. will give you most of the energy available at the site assuming that you dont have any shading issues. If you have great sun from 10 to 5, like we do at our homestead, you might cange your azimuth a little bit to take advantage of that. Ground mount also allo for multiple azimuths, so you might have most of your panels facing one direction, but have a few panels off by a few dozen degrees to take advantage of afternoon or morning sun, as your conditions may require.

Today we will discuss the most efficient active methods for utilizing solar energy: Solar Thermal. We will discuss air and water heating and different options.

Today we're going to talk about the grid of the future. I was at. Actually over the past year I've been at several power generation conferences where I've had conversations with people from companies like Duke Energy Southern Company which owns Alabama and Georgia Power Mississippi Power and Gulf Power. And let's see who else...Ameren over in the Midwest. I don't deal with the ones out west very much. Dynegy and Luminant over in Texas all of these guys are saying the same thing the grid of the future is coming and it's going to look a lot different than what we have right now. And it's going to surprise a lot of people how different that it is. And so when I was out this last one down in Alabama.

I was talking to a guy and he was telling me that both Alabama Power and Georgia Power are creating smart neighborhoods. So these companies that make their money off of converting nuclear reactions and coal dug from the ground to energy or to heat which then creates steam which creates energy. These guys are investing quite heavily in renewables and now in what they're calling the grid of the future and so. I thought to be interesting to talk through some of that stuff today. If you go to a smart neighbor dot com that's the Web site for this program that they're doing and it's really neat. I mean it's super high efficiency appliances smart houses you know where things are voice activated and your refrigerator tells you when you're running low on milk and you can change your thermostat from your cell phone while you're at work. All of these things and then it's also there all the houses have solar panels on them.

The neighborhood itself has a natural gas powered backup generator. And then there's a micro grid for the neighborhood. And what's needed about that micro grid is it allows properties that are generating an excess of electricity from their solar panels to take that and put it onto the micro grids so that another person in their neighborhood can utilize that without having to pull any electricity off of the bigger overall grid. And so this essentially creates a fully self-sufficient neighborhood. We talk about self-sufficiency a lot and how you know solar thermal solar photovoltaic systems can be part of that self-sufficiency. But this is a system that that extends out from just the house itself and goes to the neighborhood. And I think about what that might do for a community.

One of the things that happened when we know they are able to take these vast amounts of energy from certain places in the country transport them on railroads to other places in the country generate electricity and then through the magic of alternating current. Transfer that electricity all over the United States and create these massive grids with this step down transformers and all these different things one of the things that that did was it created the ability for humans to exist without community. It created the ability for people to you know either move far away from other people and still have access to all the things that they really wanted. Or you know to move out of the city and away from the customs around there being everyone in a neighborhood knowing each other and talking to each other and helping each other out and getting together for cookouts and things like that you know that. Those are pretty strong customs in the in the cities and where people started moving out to the suburbs a little below that stuck around. But you know by the way the 70s and the 80s you weren't talking to your neighbor in the suburb that much. And by the 2000s you might not even know your neighbor's name.

And so what I'm hoping is I look at some of these technologies and one of the things that I think about is well if you're buying electricity from me Monday and Tuesday and I'm buying it back from you Wednesday through Thursday and then Friday Saturday and Sunday when we're home you know we're sharing the grid we...

Thanks for joining us today as we give a brief rundown of where the homestead is here in the Summer and what our plans going into the Fall will be. We have focused on "Zone 1" for all you permies out there and are very pleased with the results of the new Aquaponics system. That being said our rainfall through this hottest portion of the year has been pretty abysmal so Operation green front yard has not gone as well as planned. I am pleased to say that our need to run the AC units has been very low this year, reducing the amount of time we may have otherwise needed to run the Generator. All that being said our batteries are nearing the end of their life cycle after 6 years hard time on the homestead. As always, shoot us an email at [email protected] with any questions you may have. Anyone interested in consulting work please visit our

Today we're going to finish up the conversation we started yesterday about taking a Holistic View of Energy Use in the Household and reduction of that use where possible. We really hit on the big topics yesterday. And so I'm not going to do any deeper dive into those. Those are the areas where you're using the most of your energy right now. And so therefore they provide the easiest opportunity to put plans in place to reduce that use. But some of the things they're going to talk about today as we finish up the conversation is going to be water usage insulation and windows.

So when we talk about water really the number one thing that we're talking about is how to reuse greywater. The fact that we take potable water and put it into a toilet so that we can flush waste into a septic system is almost a crime when you consider so many places in the world that don't have access to potable water. A simple system like installing a sink on the back of your toilet. So when you wash your hands after using the bathroom that water from washing your hands goes down into the tank and then that water becomes the water that gets used on the next flush. That's a really inexpensive easy install system that helps with this problem.

Another one would be a system that recycles the water from your bathtub and uses that for flushing water so for showers and baths and that it gets a little bit of treatment enough to make it not go bad. It is gray water it's not portable. And then using that for flushing water is a really nice system. The thing that you could do is in addition to try to come up with an idea for utilizing that gray water for flushing your toilet. What we do utilize a portion of it or all of it for outside irrigation for gardens and lawns and things like that you know installing systems that are going to do a pre filter or inheres the reality a little bit of bleach. I mean a little bit of Bleach goes a long way to make sure that you don't have a stagnant stinky you know water storage in between using a shower and using that shower water on your front yard. It's a great way to reuse it realistically if a household were to get really serious.

They could reduce their water usage by 50 percent 30 percent is a pretty conservative estimate and I've seen estimates as high as 80 percent now. Not really sure how many times you'd have to reuse water to reduce your overall use by 80 percent. But those are the systems that give that kind of water reduction are pretty involved. They're probably not very energy efficient or energy neutral and realistically those are for areas that don't get enough rainfall don't get enough or don't have access to very good municipal water systems. But a 50 percent reduction is doable. And like I said a 30 percent reduction is easy with some very simple systems.

I really believe in reduced flush and restricted flow showerheads. I know a lot of people that want their shoulder to split their hair you know or part their hair when they're taken. I don't necessarily need a shower that's that powerful. Our shower at the office off grid homestead is I believe a gallon and a half per minute which is still I mean there's a lot of you out there you can get four a gallon and Minahasa a gallon and a half. You know and you know 70 ish. My wife who has very thick hair doesn't have a problem doing what she needs to do to get her hair washed and all that. So with me I have relatively thin air a bucket of water would do me just fine. But you know using those reduced flush I think we got to one point three leader per flush system that handles anything we throw at it that restrict it flow showerhead you know is a big deal you could put restrict flow faucets on your sinks and it's just a simple situation of the vast majority of the water that comes out comes out hits the fixture and goes down the drain without ever touching us. So if we could get a system in place where we'r...

Today we're going to talk about a holistic view of energy use in the household.

This is not going to be specifically about solar energy any of the things that I'm going to talk about today are things that it could definitely be be used on a household that is on the grid off the grid on the grid with grid solar or it doesn't really matter. It's not a solar specific podcast it's about evaluating your energy usage identifying ways to potentially reduce that usage and conserve your cash. Because in most situations the more energy you use the more cash outflow you have to pay for it. And that energy may be in the form of firewood and maybe in the form of a propane or natural gas or might be electricity. So you're some of the things that we're going to talk about in no specific order. We're going to talk about heating and cooling and talk about Limiting water usage. Talk a little bit about appliances consumer appliances things like that. Want to talk a little bit about insulation windows things that you can do to keep your money inside after you've spent it. And anything else that may pop up as we go along. So. The first thing and this makes a whole lot of sense because it is the place where most of the energy usage in any household exists is conditioning the space whether that be cooling or heating it. And in some areas the humidified that's going to be your biggest annual spend and that's pretty common for just about everyone in the U.S.

If you live in the South you may not be as much in the winter but you're cooling a lot more during the summer and vice versa if you're in North now as someone that lives off grid. I can tell you that I would much prefer to live in a cooler climate because it's much easier for me to go out and pick up and cut up deadwood from my own property and burn that in the winter or even pay someone if someone's got cheap firewood in my area pay someone for firewood and then burn that for heat in the house. That's much easier for me to do. What's more cost effective for me. Than it is to try to keep my house cool in the heat of the summer. We do a pretty good job. We have some systems in place that allow us to cool and stay cool and stay comfortable at night without spending a lot of money that we don't want to spend. But in terms of overall usage it's actually typically cheaper in the south because electricity is cheaper compared to some of the other things like propane and heating fuel diesel and things like that. Some of the other things that people that don't heat with wood with up in the north their winter bills are way more expensive than the highest.

Several bills in the south unless you've just got some crazy bad insulation or inefficient system going on. So one of the options that someone could use and we'll start with cooling would be to take a look at basically three different strategies. One is evaluate the system that you're using for cooling. There's something called a seasonal energy effectiveness rating or sear. That. Rating. Really is I mean one number change is going to have a pretty decent impact on what you're going to spend to cool air space over the course of a year or over the course of several years or even decades. So take a look at what you've got in place and making sure if you're in a position where you can change or in a position where you have to change your system without getting those higher efficiency ratings may cost more upfront with that money is absolutely going to pay for itself over time many times over the next thing is and I'm sure you've heard it before but I would be remiss if I didn't mention it but set your thermostat to reasonable levels if you live in Texas and you're getting 110 degree days you shouldn't have to have your system set up 68 degrees to feel comfortable in the house. Honestly where we live we don't even get that high and we're typically if we can keep the house in the high 70s to even up to maybe 82 ...

Join us on the podcast today as we discuss evaluating when off grid solar makes sense. Utilizing an off grid strategy can make sense once you have made the decision that is what you want to do. But the reality is that taking an on grid property off the grid compared to buying an off grid property or building one from scratch are very different financial decisions. We discuss taking a holistic view of going off the grid but keep the focus mainly on the financial side, with a small tangent discussing internet connections in places where there are no power poles. Off grid solar can make sense from a financial perspective particularly when evaluating the cost of home and land acquisition compared to grid tied properties.