Solar power at nigh after sunny day

nigelpm

EricMears wrote: »

I guess it all depends on what you mean by "a decent amount" but a smallish UPS that would (say) keep a few lights working overnight would be in the 'hundreds of pounds' category rather than 'tens of thousands'.

Yes, but still utterly pointless from an economic perspective.

EricMears

nigelpm wrote: »

Yes, but still utterly pointless from an economic perspective.

Yes - if you're trying to justify it on saving a few overnight kWh of usage. But I felt it well worthwhile to keep my computer running through power cuts, a log burner exploding if the pump stopped suddenly and of course having a few emergency lights.

System

You are all ignoring the benefits of owning a battery on wheels which is well capable of absorbing all the solar energy that you can throw at it: it's called an EV. Every kWh saved has a return of 4 miles!!

jimjames

Hengus wrote: »

You are all ignoring the benefits of owning a battery on wheels which is well capable of absorbing all the solar energy that you can throw at it: it's called an EV. Every kWh saved has a return of 4 miles!!

I noticed that some rapid EV chargers use DC, I wonder if there is any device available to allow direct feed from solar to EV so you're not losing any efficiency in the DC/AC conversion.

gazapc

jimjames wrote: »

I noticed that some rapid EV chargers use DC, I wonder if there is any device available to allow direct feed from solar to EV so you're not losing any efficiency in the DC/AC conversion.

Unlikely as the voltage probably won't be the same. Sure you could fix that but then you are back to square one of having conversion losses!

EricMears

gazapc wrote: »

Unlikely as the voltage probably won't be the same. Sure you could fix that but then you are back to square one of having conversion losses!

And of course the FIT scheme only applies if you can convert it to 230V AC and measure it before doing anything else with it.