What did you do today? - 2021 version

[Ronstar]

Went for a hike in the first snow of the season, then put the plow on my atv and plowed the driveway.

 

[MRG]

Ran the snowblower several times and it is still snowing. I was going to make a grocery store run but DW decided it was too dangerous. While it didn't agree I compiled with her wish. Around noon I went to snowblow and I saw the snowplow stuck in the ditch, took a couple hours to get it out. Later I drove to the mailbox and while the plow made a pass it's only one lane and you can't see very much. Passing anyone is dangerous as you can't tell where the road really is and then a wheel drops in the ditch.

Watched the puppies play in the snow. The bernedoodle was rolling in the snow and would have stayed out much longer. After she came in and melted off she was cold, wet and suddenly decided she's a lap puppy.

 

[street]

We were supposed to leave for Florida from the cold Canadian prairies on Monday but a weather system was coming to the Dakotas and Minnesota so we scrambled to leave on Sunday. We left at 11 and drove through some bad weather but made it through okay...lots of vehicles in the ditches!!

It's usually a 27 hour drive that we split into 3 days but we didn't get very far day 1, plus I didn't feel like a long day after driving through a storm so we decided to split it into a 4 day trip. On Monday we stayed outside of St. Louis, and tonight we're near Pulaski, TN. We'll be in Panama City Beach tomorrow.

Good for you! You got out of here just in time. Cold has set in now for a while. They say coldest January in 10 years. I guess we will see if that hold true.

 

[street]

Went for a hike in the first snow of the season, then put the plow on my atv and plowed the driveway.

I just heard on the National News that you folks just got your first measurable snow fall of the year. I see your post confirming that earlier today.

 

[aja8888]

Went to the driving range to hit some balls and get some good iron practice in. Tomorrow, I play with some friends at a local private course here. It should be sunny and 80 F tomorrow.

 

[1242Vintage]

Got a break in the weather and finished up a concrete cobblestones pad and walkway on the side of the house. Path will make it easier to roll the 5kw emergency generator in place and connect to the transfer panel.

All set for the next wave of weather coming later this week.

 

[MBAustin]

Kids flew out yesterday after a very enjoyable Christmas week visit. Started the post-Christmas cleanup this morning - reset the second guest room to craft/TV mode, washed all the extra towels and linens, took a load to Goodwill, etc. Now I need to inventory the leftovers in the fridge and figure out how to use them all up - we have a lot of turkey and ham and some pork loin as well. Did the annual Roth conversions on Monday and need to finish up our charity donations for the year today. We talked about making a short RV trip for New Year's but I think I prefer just hanging out for a few days.

 

[Walt34]

Went shopping online for car tires for DW's car, a 2014 Honda Accord Sport, tires are P235/45 R18 94V. This is gonna be expensive for what I thought were tires on the small side. Apparently not. We have replaced the tires before, but not all four at once, so that got more than usual attention. The OEM tires were Michelin but they're ~$225 each so I think I'll pass on those. The Goodyears on it now work fine so I'll stick with them. I don't even recognize 3/4 of the tire names out there now.

The "V" is the speed rating of the tires, 149 mph. Dang, I had no idea the four-cylinder car would go that fast! But that's what the specifications call for so it must be true.

 

[braumeister]

Costco often has sales. I bought a set of Michelins a few months ago for a better price than any of the local tire discounters.

 

[aja8888]

Played 18 holes of golf today with a dear old friend. We had a great time.

Tonight, myself and three other friends do our weekly Wednesday 2 mile walk on the golf course before heading to the 19th Hole for refreshments.

My butt will be dragging tomorrow.

 

[skyking1]

I made a run by work to drop off a time card and chat about upcoming jobs, then to the hospital to get DW's prescription. On the way I saw a couple of wrecks. It is still snotty out there and promising to get worse. I made a smallish costco run and now back home and hunkered down.
The service manager called me and wanted a load of gravel, and the gravel pit is not running trucks in this weather. Why would I want to run our truck? Yeah, it didn't happen

 

[NW-Bound]

I drove to a local solar store to pick up 6 solar panels of 327W each. These will bring the total number to 34 panels.

This will keep me busy to install them in spring. Mounting the panels on the roof is not hard. Installing the inverters and battery for an off-grid system takes a lot more work, plus running the wires from the panels down to the battery/electronics, then taking the 115V from there to the house panel.

 

[skyking1]

very cool NW. I am planning a 12Kw system for the new house, and began the conversation with the PUD for net metering.

 

[street]

I drove to a local solar store to pick up 6 solar panels of 327W each. These will bring the total number to 34 panels.

This will keep me busy to install them in spring. Mounting the panels on the roof is not hard. Installing the inverters and battery for an off-grid system takes a lot more work, plus running the wires from the panels down to the battery/electronics, then taking the 115V from there to the house panel.

Sounds like a fun project and a financial benefit also. I know you have had some interesting threads on the solar system, and I do believe I ask this same question before.

What kind of savings do you calculate from your expense and energy savings in one year?

Does power supplier buy back an excess power you don't use or are you just using what you generate?

 

[MC Rider]

NW says off grid. No supplier I guess.

 

[street]

NW says off grid. No supplier I guess.

NW is a rich guy and lives in civilization, with all the modern-day luxuries. I doubt he is out chopping wood every day to eat a hot meal or carrying water to bath. Lol

 

[RobbieB]

He's still off grid with the solar, just connects it to the AC in the house.

 

[street]

^^ OHHHHH. Okay, I couldn't remember. So, he is use solar just for his AC units, gotcha.

 

[MC Rider]

Maybe I misread.

 

[NW-Bound]

I am still on the grid. It's very hard and costly to be completely off grid. But I can almost run the whole house on solar, and 24/7 too, depending on the season.


The priority of the off-grid solar system is to minimize the power used from the grid during on-peak hours in the summer, when the rate is 24.4c. The peak period is 2PM-8PM, which extends way past sundown, hence the need for battery storage.

The 4 inverters can run nearly all of the house loads. These include: the mini-split heat pumps, the main fridge in the kitchen, kitchen appliances such as the air fryer, microwave, induction cooktop, toaster oven, lightings, electronics, the pool pump, and the water heater.

When the battery runs out, the inverters cut out and all the above circuits switch over to the grid.

Here's how the system works to offload from the grid, and how the loads are prioritized.


Case 1) Summer peak when the variable-speed ACs run hard nonstop 24/7

I currently have enough production (7.9 kW of solar panels) and storage (34 kWh) to run the ACs and one of the 2 fridges past 8PM on hottest days of summer, and also the kitchen appliances (air fryer, microwave, induction cooktop, toaster oven) to make dinner.

The pool pump and the water heater are programmed to run on grid during off-peak hours.

From 8PM to 10AM the next day, the whole house is on the grid.


Case 2) Early/late summer or the winter when the AC/heatpumps don't run as hard

In the shoulder seasons before/after the summer peak, the ACs don't work as hard and all the above appliances including the ACs run on solar+battery 24/7. Only the pool pump and water heater run on the grid, and only during off-peak hours.


Case 3) Spring/fall when little heating/cooling required

When there's little or no need for heating/cooling (spring and fall), the off-grid system can take on the pool pump and the water heater. And I still have excess power, meaning the battery gets full when the sun is still high in the sky.




The 6 additional panels are to help during the very peak of summer, when the temperature reaches 115F+. Ideally, the panels have to produce enough to satisfy the demand during the day, and still have excess to top off the battery. Right now, the battery does not get full when the sun starts to go down at about 4PM.

The additional panels will add power so that the battery will reach a higher state of charge in the late afternoon. This will extend the run time past 8PM. The additional return will be smaller because the rate drops from 24.4c down to 7.4c. But as I said, this is a hobby more than for money saving.

I look at the money saved as a measure of the technical success. It reduces the electric bill by $1700/year. The system takes a long time to pay off, but I am doing this for fun, and also to have some grid independence in case there's an outage. Outages have been very rare in the last 45 years I lived here.


PS. I will also add another 3.5 kW of inverter power to the existing 10 kW.

 

[MC Rider]

Quite the project. Thanks for the detail.

 

[street]

Thanks, NW, for explaining your unique solar system and how you use it in a 24-hour period and seasonal arrangement.

Very well done. I do know from working in the electrical industry for 40 plus years that secondary power pays off, but it takes many years to calling it a wash. Total expenses plus replacement units and so on is a long-term investment.

I have a friend that has done the solar system and he said it would never pay for itself, but it helps with lowering the cost of energy. He enjoys the tech part and running his system. He lives in the north country so not near as effective/efficient as yours where the sun shines a lot more.

For me it would never pay out in my lifetime. My gas and electric for an entire year are about $800 to $900. I could easily cut that down but have not been good at conserving energy like I should have been.

 

[skyking1]

That is cool, taking on that peak metering head-on to maximize your economy. We don't have that (yet) but I will keep that in mind when building out my system.

 

[NW-Bound]

NW says off grid. No supplier I guess.

NW is a rich guy and lives in civilization, with all the modern-day luxuries. I doubt he is out chopping wood every day to eat a hot meal or carrying water to bath. Lol

It costs a bit of money to be completely off-grid and still live in comfort. The biggest thing is to have enough land for a large solar array.

This is hard to do in the urban environment. The roof top is usually not enough, because the larger the home, the higher the demand for heating and cooling. You will need a ground-mounted array.

Even then, it would be wise to have a diesel generator just for those days of insufficient sunlight, which happens even here in the SW.

 

[Out of Steam]

Put up a bluebird box that was here when we moved in, but was in bad shape.

I took it down and repaired it last summer, including adding a copper protector to keep the hole from being enlarged by other birds.