Going off grid

[openspaceman]

2 hours ago, MattyF said:

with our set up as the genny should kick in if the battery gets below 50% but it usually plunges us in to darkness at around 65% , my phone is sporadic in when it wants to connect to victron and gives false readings like yesterday it was saying it was 61% and would not let me connect to the board to turn it on remotely so got in to a panic about getting back and the genny on but when I did it was reading 81% ! Luckily there is some one here all the time so it's if no real concern but I would love to find some one to set it up properly ... and install more PV's as our engineer is useless at best.

I am not happy with these web based systems and would love something simpler. In my case the Growatt inverter and battery have an interface hosted in china, the app for the phone is far too intrusive so I have denied the access to wifi.  Also as the granularity of the sensing is coarse I see instances of the battery being charged from the grid and also exporting to the grid which I specifically do not want.

The electricians that fitted the batterry and inverter were goodish but were not able to discuss my needs when that varied from the norm.

[openspaceman]

12 hours ago, Macpherson said:

 

 

 

Also thinking about bio-digester to be independent when it comes to gas cooking... after all every morning I produce the feed for such a system which at the moment is being wasted 🙄

 

Even if reliable illumination is all that's able to be achieved particularly with LED's which draw very little, this in itself would be valuable, I look forward to learning from the input of others which is essentially the power of this forum and the reason I joined in the first place. cheers.

 

I'm in a sub urban area and only have 4kW of PV installed, two of us  in the house ,and we seem to use around 6kWh a day. I'll attempt to log it every few days and produce a chart. It is SW facing so not optimal and year on year seems to produce about 9% of its rated capacity in sunny Surrey. This is way  more than our consumption so previously most went back to the grid.

 

I expected electricity prices to rise but not as much as happened so after much delay we had an ac inverter/charger and 6kWh of lithium phosphate battery installed late November. Early days yet but electricity imports have dropped by about 30%. I am still on a fixed tariff but will be on a capped variable from March but am annoyed that not only will the fuel price go up by 40% so will the standing charge.Currently standing charges are  about £80/annum for electricity and same for gas. Electricity is 17p/kWh and gas 3p/kWh.

 

Although I have to be grid connected for the system to run I think with a changeover switch and a pure sinewave generator I could run islanded. It would only be worth doing if I had an EV but then I would have no qualms about running on red diesel or natural gas and recouping heat for the house from the exhaust and coolant ( I was involved with a project that did this before successfully).

 

In the meanwhile I would like to pursue other microgeneration methods as I think I only need 200W while the house is heated to make up shortfall but will need a few more moths to be sure.

 

This is the first year we have not switched the gas on for heating, we have got through a lot of wood, gas still does DHW and costs around 40p/day

 

Quote

It's funny that I've though about this all my life and now that it's a practical reality there may be no time left...

Ain't that the truth

Edited December 11, 2021 by openspaceman

[AHPP]

Are there any no-standing-charge (grid) tariffs available at the moment? Last time I looked the only game in town was Utilitas and you had to have a smart meter.

 

 

[Stere]

Did mirco CHP boilers  never take off?

 

Think they were talked about alot a few yrs back?

 

Vitovalor Fuel Cell - the ultimate innovation in heating

WWW.VIESSMANN.CO.UK

---

The cutting-edge Vitovalor uses advanced fuel cell technology, offering you incredible efficiency and independence from...

 

So hydrogen would be  used like a battery bank?

Edited December 11, 2021 by Stere

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, Stere said:

Did mirco CHP boilers  never take off?

 

Think they were talked about alot a few yrs back?

Yes British gas trialled them  but pulled out. Whispergen made an interesting 3 piston Stirling engined one in NZ and spares are still available but the factory closed after an earthquake. Microgen still do a free piston version at £14k  both were only 1kW and integrated into a boiler. Stirling still makes sense as it can be hermetically sealed , for long life like a fridge compressor. Innovations in battery technology makes a rethink worthwhile. I guess about 15% conversion to electricity but the heat can still be used. PV fits well as during the summer it  works when no heat needed.

1 hour ago, Stere said:

 

Vitovalor Fuel Cell - the ultimate innovation in heating

WWW.VIESSMANN.CO.UK

---

The cutting-edge Vitovalor uses advanced fuel cell technology, offering you incredible efficiency and independence from...

 

So hydrogen would be  used like a battery bank?

Yes but high purity necessary and there are capital cost issues. Where will the hydrogen come from? Up to 10% hydrogen can go in the gas main before pumping losses cause problems, such a fuel cell could filter hydrogen out selectively and methane then burned.

[Macpherson]

2 hours ago, openspaceman said:

I am not happy with these web based systems and would love something simpler. In my case the Growatt inverter and battery have an interface hosted in china, the app for the phone is far too intrusive so I have denied the access to wifi.  Also as the granularity of the sensing is coarse I see instances of the battery being charged from the grid and also exporting to the grid which I specifically do not want.

The electricians that fitted the batterry and inverter were goodish but were not able to discuss my needs when that varied from the norm.

Yes, I'd not be happy with any system that relies on electronics in that way, I'd want whatever power I generated to be completely independent from external influence, but I can already see from the input on this short thread that I've got a lot to learn, cheers.

[Canal Navvy]

I remember seeing the Victron combi with power assist in a canal boat magazine about 20 years ago ....... impressive but eye wateringly expensive (my slightly wonky memory says 3.5 k)

Last year I finally bought one and added a Cerbo GX plus GX touch for half the price the basic jobby was back then.

The technology has improved as the cost has plummeted. Victron with their attitude to sharing information and making software open source makes them an easy choice for self installers.

 

Batteries are the expensive bit now if you need a good round trip efficency and want to run a generator for only short periods.

 

I'd be wary about running a three phase generator set up as it does scream non-domestic and may not be permitted to run on red.

[david lawrence]

Having been off grid for ten days due to the gales the only thing I really missed was hot water

if we swapped our old non boiler stove to another room and installed a boiler stove with an old school convection system linked to a hot water tank which would feed the existing one and a heat sink (?) radiator

 

any good ?

any idea what that would cost ?

 

also I once stay in a remote stalking lodge which had been refurbished to a high standard

they decide to minimise generator requirements so had gas lighting it was very 

Atmospheric also gas fridge

 

 

 

[openspaceman]

12 minutes ago, david lawrence said:

Having been off grid for ten days due to the gales the only thing I really missed was hot water

if we swapped our old non boiler stove to another room and installed a boiler stove with an old school convection system linked to a hot water tank which would feed the existing one and a heat sink (?) radiator

 

any good ?

any idea what that would cost ?

 

 

No idea as I decided the cost outweighed the benefit as we have gas but did snag a domestic system that had a gasifier stove heating a 2 tonne thermal store.

 

if I were to do it I would remove a radiator, as they are redundant, and put the boiler into circuit there but the pipe to the feed and expansion tank would dictate where the boiler would sit with its own coil in the hot tank and ,probably, pump.

[Peasgood]

1 hour ago, david lawrence said:

Having been off grid for ten days due to the gales the only thing I really missed was hot water

if we swapped our old non boiler stove to another room and installed a boiler stove with an old school convection system linked to a hot water tank which would feed the existing one and a heat sink (?) radiator

 

any good ?

any idea what that would cost ?

 

also I once stay in a remote stalking lodge which had been refurbished to a high standard

they decide to minimise generator requirements so had gas lighting it was very 

Atmospheric also gas fridge

 

 

 

What heats your water now and what heats your house? ie are you trying to link into an oil fired system or do you just have an immersion heater and logburner?