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Off grid water heating project
dochubert:
Here's a pic of my dump control for my pre-heat tank;
Now that I look at the pic it looks pretty sloppy. A kludge. I need to dress things up.
The 2 white framed meters are actually voltmeters I'm using as power indicators. The upper one lights when the upper element is on and the lower is for the lower element. That way I know what's going on.
The breaker under that lets me shut off the ac feed to the tank elements. Black box on lower left converts 48vdc to 12vdc to power the dc/ac relay to its right. Bottom right is the actual 48vdc dump control.
Its all been working very well. (unlike my previous setup)
dochubert:
A month or so since last report. I don't think I switched to grid for water heating even once during April. Only twice that I remember in March. Early March. Now both water heaters are up to temp by late morning (unless someone uses a bunch of hot water during that time). It easily regenerates after one daytime shower. We're not even in full summer yet!
I'm pleased with the results so far.
solarnewbee:
Well, young man, that’s just Awesome!
Keep up the most excellent work!
Take care!
eidolon:
Been a long time. Almost forgot this place existed. This summer I ran my large LG washer off panels with no battery. Nice to just start a load, close the garage door and go shopping without having to watch the generator. I'm all about hot water. The house has two tanks powered by just excess solar not going to batteries. I had stored a 40 gallon water heater in the garage for a couple years and finally got that working to supply hot water to the washer only. That heater only gets excess energy not going to the other water heaters and battery. Hoped to get it up to 75 or 80F, but this often gets over 120F and is fed into the cold water hose of the washer. All cycles are hot. Chart is month long record of tank temp. This board keeps the panels at power point for heating water and can divert as little as 1W to a KW automatically sensing whatever excess is available. It can track power point and has arc interrupt so existing heater control can be used in current path. Indecently, the whole house works on a car battery and even have a dishwasher with heated dry.
dochubert:
Eidolon, I didn't see your post until I started to post myself. I have to say you are accomplishing some amazing results there. You are way beyond what I can do. Hats off.
My system seems pretty common compared to that, but its what I've got.
I just got a new 24v 15kw Upower inverter. This one is to replace my oldest and longest working inverter. It's still going strong but I had nothing else in 24v to back it up if (when) it finally fails. My experiences with trying to repair the older models prompted this purchase. Also, the older 24v is just an 8k model and won't power the water heater at 230v. Using it at 115v works fine but it takes much longer to heat up the tank.
With this new 15kw model I should be able to run it at 230v for a faster warmup. And my new larger Lifepo4 battery bank should handle it just fine.
So a stainless steel case is nice. More importantly, it has the new much simplified v10.3 control board.
This control board can be jumper-selected for 48, 24, or 12v inverters. A big plus for keeping backup parts!
Regardless of what voltage is used/selected, the fan connection is only for 12v fans. This inverter, in keeping with powerjack's record of being inconsistent, has a 24v fan controlled independently from the onboard fan connection. Go figure.
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