Renewables: "talking 'bout my generation"

Charlieford

Hi All,

Very new to both forums and off grid. We just moved into a house that is completely off grid and foolishly I never researched this first! So I have zero understanding of what we have technically but I will list below what I know and maybe someone can point us into a better direction to improve things!

We have a wind turbine which is great, but often we need to use the generator as our crappy old 6 solar panels do very little, and they are on a shaded west facing roof, which makes no sense as we have a massive S facing roof capable of holding 12 plus panels, so this is where I think things can be improved!

We have use around 300 watts ph, based on Fridge/freezer and our water is a pumped system and is quite energy greedy! We have moved to a gas kettle and have oil fired heating!

Wind turbine 2.5 kw (work really wells except in easterly wind as it’s blocked by a building)
1000 amp hour battery Deep Cycle batteries (I think these are L16) 2v x 24 units
2x Out back inverters with a mate2 setup
8 kw Stephill diesel generator
6 rather old solar panels

Please don’t bombard me with Tecno stuff, I am just learning, but any help would be greatly appreciated

1961Nick

Charlieford wrote: »

Hi All,

Very new to both forums and off grid. We just moved into a house that is completely off grid and foolishly I never researched this first! So I have zero understanding of what we have technically but I will list below what I know and maybe someone can point us into a better direction to improve things!

We have a wind turbine which is great, but often we need to use the generator as our crappy old 6 solar panels do very little, and they are on a shaded west facing roof, which makes no sense as we have a massive S facing roof capable of holding 12 plus panels, so this is where I think things can be improved!

We have use around 300 watts ph, based on Fridge/freezer and our water is a pumped system and is quite energy greedy! We have moved to a gas kettle and have oil fired heating!

Wind turbine 2.5 kw (work really wells except in easterly wind as it’s blocked by a building)
1000 amp hour battery Deep Cycle batteries (I think these are L16) 2v x 24 units
2x Out back inverters with a mate2 setup
8 kw Stephill diesel generator
6 rather old solar panels

Please don’t bombard me with Tecno stuff, I am just learning, but any help would be greatly appreciated

Firstly, this sounds like an really interesting set up you have there. As it's likely to be an ongoing discussion, it would be better if you started a new thread.

The lack of a decent solar contribution is something that really needs addressing over the next couple of months. An array of 12 x 360w panels would make a big difference Feb through to October & would consign the generator to back up duties for at least 6 months of the year.

I don't know anything about deep cycle batteries but there are some experts on here to guide you.

Good luck.:cool:

1961Nick

Best day of the month yesterday...

0.33 O's

onomatopoeia99

0.54 O yesterday. Today is already better thanks to an hour of sun this morning but the rain has looked set since noon,

Coastalwatch

Coastalwatch wrote: »

That's a whole 50% better than here, 0.24! Tomorrow looks better, though.:)

Well we trebled yesterdays output by recording 0.75 O's today. That makes us a whole O for the month so far!:D

legoman62

0.45 O's here today... and lots of rain:eek:

Oscargrouch

legoman62 wrote: »

0.45 O's here today... and lots of rain:eek:

Lots of rain here as well..:mad: Over the last 5 days an average of 1.688 O's per day; today just managed 0.76 O's.. no exciting times on the horizon either...

onomatopoeia99

1.12 O yesterday, there was actual sun for an hour! Rain for the rest of the day though..

Coastalwatch

Sunshine today and 2.1 O's this added to the single O from the first two days almost takes us on par with pvgis for November.:) Early days yet!

onomatopoeia99

1.6 O today.