Author Topic: Storms and Solar Power  (Read 5767 times)

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Offline wilfor03

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Storms and Solar Power
« on: June 12, 2012, 07:33:15 am »
Yea....One hell of a wind storm/rain came through Alabama last night and immediately knocked out grid power. And we had bought close to $700. worth of meat just Saturday!!  Well, 2 of my 3 8D's are still good, so I shut off the grid power breaker, and fired up the ole inverter for the house. Ran both the reefer AND the freezer in the garage for almost 4 1/2 hours on batteries.

Worked great, just like they were supposed to! I'm just really glad we have this little backup system here. I know my "hobby" is expensive, but last night, seeing everyone else wheeling out their generators, one by one, (mines on standby in the garage!) to get things going again, made me feel pretty good. Worth every d--- penny, I'd say!   ;D

To sum it all up, feels pretty good to be able to do that! Just wondering how everybody else looks at their "stand-by" systems? Or their "bigger" systems, for that matter?

Bill (with the lights on)   8)


Offline birdhouse

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Re: Storms and Solar Power
« Reply #1 on: June 12, 2012, 01:53:24 pm »
nice bill!

that's gotta feel good!

just curious, how low of voltage did the freezer and fridge brink the batteries down to during their 4.5 hour work stint? 

adam

Offline wilfor03

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Re: Storms and Solar Power
« Reply #2 on: June 12, 2012, 02:40:50 pm »
Hey Adam....

They started at 13.2v and ended up at 11.7v. I don't think that's too bad for just 2 of the 8D's. Those suckers are heavy and I've been dragging my feet about getting more. Last night sure woke up the need. When both the Reefer and the Freezer start up, my amp meter shoots through the roof for a split second, then settles back down to just over 10a's total. Most often the reefer shuts down first and the load drops even more. No magic smoke has been displayed at the workshop yet (fingers crossed!).

In the past when we lost power, I had all three 8D's hooked up and I could easily hit 7-8 hours, depending on what extra the "boss" had to have on.

Don't you have some of those 8D's in service?

Bill

Offline ghurd

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Re: Storms and Solar Power
« Reply #3 on: June 16, 2012, 09:22:41 am »
Cool!
(with the lights on) is always good.

Here in this house in the city, I never lost power long enough to worry about warm beer or thawed venison.

I am happy to have LED lights or a TV when they do not, mostly just to show off.   ;)
They all think I am nuts.  Any opportunity to prove otherwise is welcomed.
G-

Offline wilfor03

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Re: Storms and Solar Power
« Reply #4 on: June 17, 2012, 07:05:37 pm »
Hey Senior Ghurd, long time no typeeeee....

Yea, its a cool thing to have your porch light on (LED, of course), when the grid goes down. Sorta like saying, "Nanny nanny-boo-boo" to your neighbors.

Our grid is so flimsy and delicate here, somebody in the county farts, and the power goes out!

Solar is my saving machinery when the grid drops, although I have a big ole 8500 watt gas generator. Re-doing the wind generator stuff now. Gonna carve some 6 1/2 blades out of pine and redo the furling system on the servo motor. That thing is too cool to watch when it gets going good.

Good to hear from ya though, Glen.....take care.....

Bro Bill 

Offline Wolvenar

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Re: Storms and Solar Power
« Reply #5 on: June 18, 2012, 01:26:55 am »
When you see something like this, and hear that its dropping golf ball sized hail...

You know it's time to get your butt back home and cover the solar panels
Trying to make power from alternative energy any which way I can.
Just to abuse what I make. (and run this site)

Offline ChrisOlson

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Re: Storms and Solar Power
« Reply #6 on: June 18, 2012, 09:47:28 am »
Wolv, is that one of the recent storms that's been going thru here in the last few days?

I've gone to rating storms by how much kWh I get out of them with the wind turbines.  On Saturday we had a small 1.8 kWh storm in the morning.  But a bigger 5.5 kWh one blew thru in the afternoon    ;D
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Chris

Offline dang

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Re: Storms and Solar Power
« Reply #7 on: June 18, 2012, 11:58:19 am »
Thats a wee little warp in the space time continuum somewhere in the Dakotas. 

Translations vary, but probably just a standard warning Winter is closer than it appears.
"It may be that your sole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others" - Anonymous

Offline Wolvenar

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Re: Storms and Solar Power
« Reply #8 on: June 18, 2012, 11:13:14 pm »
@ Chris
Yep it is very likely the same storm systems.
I only have solar here right now so I kind of rate rainy days on a solar "suck scale" 
So days like today are great, days like yesterday are a 65% solar sucks day, with an added sprinkle of hail scare, you can guess what the weather was like.  I'm sure all that will change when I get some wind power online.

@Dang
Some kind of warp there for sure, and your right winter is always here way to early each year
Trying to make power from alternative energy any which way I can.
Just to abuse what I make. (and run this site)

Offline Wolvenar

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Re: Storms and Solar Power
« Reply #9 on: June 19, 2012, 03:04:43 pm »
Today is one of those BAD solar days ( 4pm and it is nearly dark from the storm coming in)
Trying to make power from alternative energy any which way I can.
Just to abuse what I make. (and run this site)

Offline oztules

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Re: Storms and Solar Power
« Reply #10 on: June 19, 2012, 05:21:30 pm »
Were getting to the shortest day of the year here, and we still made 20kw yesterday......... today don't look so good.

I have the panels at 45 degrees, so hopefully the hail (should it come here in force one day) will hopefully "skid" off the panels.

Most of the glass in them is over 25 years old, in service over here as water solar panels.... hopefully that tells me they will be fine anyway in our environment...... they are time tested.

They also have the cells and EVA bonded to them, which I think will make them even tougher.

That said. I still get a little fuzzy in the guts when I see a decent hail storm coming.......




..............oztules
Flinders Island...... Australia

Offline rossw

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Re: Storms and Solar Power
« Reply #11 on: June 19, 2012, 07:58:32 pm »
I have the panels at 45 degrees, so hopefully the hail (should it come here in force one day) will hopefully "skid" off the panels.

Murphy loves me. He spends all his time loitering around me.
Murphy hates me. He breaks all my stuff.

If it were me putting my panels at 45 degrees, the hail storm that comes will be accompanied by a ferocious wind that will blow the hail at 45 degrees - and perfectly square on to the panels such that they cause maximum damage.

Offline bj

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Re: Storms and Solar Power
« Reply #12 on: June 20, 2012, 07:04:02 am »
   Hail--we get thankfully very little here.  That, of course will change as soon as I have panels
out where it can get at them. 
"Even a blind squirrel will find an acorn once in a while"
bj

Offline ChrisOlson

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Re: Storms and Solar Power
« Reply #13 on: June 20, 2012, 11:09:49 pm »
Today is one of those BAD solar days ( 4pm and it is nearly dark from the storm coming in)

It's been a bad week for solar here all week.  Only 15.6 kWh here for Monday, Tuesday and today.  But yesterday I had one 3.5 meter wind turbine that put out 34.6 kWh.  Never seen the blades on that turbine all day.  They were going so fast it didn't look like it even had blades on it.  Never even ran the other turbine - couldn't use the power from it anyway.

I recorded a peak wind gust of 49.2 mph yesterday and average of 25.5 for 24 hours from midnight on Tuesday morning to midnight this morning.

4.7" of rain here in the last three days.  I just heard they got Big Water in Duluth and this guy's car ended up in a sink hole:



http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20120620/GPG0101/120620001&located=rss

They said the roads are washed out in Superior and Wisconsin Point too.
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Chris

Offline Wolvenar

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Re: Storms and Solar Power
« Reply #14 on: June 21, 2012, 04:27:46 am »
Yeah, pretty bad in Duluth and that area
( posted about it here )
Trying to make power from alternative energy any which way I can.
Just to abuse what I make. (and run this site)