On-grid domestic battery storage

Solarchaser

I do believe you are correct sir, at the time I thought the poster was new to forums and unaware that posting the same thing multiple times could be considered annoying.

I see since then that it is infact deliberate.
Thank you for the advice, I may well do the same.

Martyn1981

Solarchaser wrote: »

I do believe you are correct sir, at the time I thought the poster was new to forums and unaware that posting the same thing multiple times could be considered annoying.

I see since then that it is infact deliberate.
Thank you for the advice, I may well do the same.

New to forums? You might be interested then in this thread and the poster 'cells'.

[URL="https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5332949Great Solar Shift (warm places edition)[/URL]

It goes through the same ole same ole, but what's interesting is that it finally cleared up an argument we'd been having for months across multiple threads. He claimed that the cost of getting electricity to our homes was 10p for 100kW, I explained it was about 30p for 20-25kW. Importantly he was using the 10p/day to explain how Australians wouldn't go off grid as the savings were too small, despite my pointing out that their costs went past Aus$1/day (55p) years before, not 10p.

Despite providing newspaper breakdowns and even OFGEM figures, he stood firm pointing to the National Grid (company) figures, I dropped hints every time that transmission costs were dwarfed by distribution charges (approx 2x).

After a month or so he posted that he'd just discovered these things called DNO's (distribution network operators) and that that raised the cost to about 27p/day.

I joked about getting an apology, but he denied ever arguing the issue. I assumed that was a bad loser joke, but then others (Z included I think) pointed out the thread count had changed, and that he'd deleted about 100 posts ..... but of course that was silly as most of his claims had been preserved in our posts as quotes.

Sometimes the only option is the ignore list and GA makes up 50% of mine.

zeupater

Martyn1981 wrote: »

New to forums? You might be interested then in this thread and the poster 'cells'.

[URL="https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5332949Great Solar Shift (warm places edition)[/URL]

It goes through the same ole same ole, but what's interesting is that it finally cleared up an argument we'd been having for months across multiple threads. He claimed that the cost of getting electricity to our homes was 10p for 100kW, I explained it was about 30p for 20-25kW. Importantly he was using the 10p/day to explain how Australians wouldn't go off grid as the savings were too small, despite my pointing out that their costs went past Aus$1/day (55p) years before, not 10p.

Despite providing newspaper breakdowns and even OFGEM figures, he stood firm pointing to the National Grid (company) figures, I dropped hints every time that transmission costs were dwarfed by distribution charges (approx 2x).

After a month or so he posted that he'd just discovered these things called DNO's (distribution network operators) and that that raised the cost to about 27p/day.

I joked about getting an apology, but he denied ever arguing the issue. I assumed that was a bad loser joke, but then others (Z included I think) pointed out the thread count had changed, and that he'd deleted about 100 posts ..... but of course that was silly as most of his claims had been preserved in our posts as quotes.

Sometimes the only option is the ignore list and GA makes up 50% of mine.

Hi

... Just 100 posts?! ... I seem to recall that it was well over 200, maybe even as high as 250 ...

HTH
Z

Solarchaser

I confess I only read about 2 pages, but yes I see its exactly the same posting style.
Grab one set of "facts" that suit your agenda, and plough on through, discarding all evidence put to you.

I'll give him/her their due though, manages to bluster very impressively, and produce an image of unwavering absolutes.

If you knew nothing about the subject, I can see how you would be easily fooled.

BS filter will now be applied, thanks Mart:money:

joefizz

Update to usage when I was away as above 11 weeks prior to going away import was 20 units.
Whilst away for 32 days import was 15 units.

So definitely more electricity imported per day when away from home. Also the base load changed when I was away as the circuit breaker on two of the freezers decided to trip all by itself and remain off for a period.... the smell when I opened them will probably live with me forever ;-)


Some other random thoughts....



I mentioned the talks on battery tech I had with the guys in Oak Ridge but I also went to the autonomous vehicle conference in Orlando last weekend. Anyone who thinks AI cars are the future outside of US cities and long highways is definitely living in cloud cuckoo land.... ...at least for the forseeable.
Traffic behaves differently out there, as do most pedestrians ;-) AI is suited to grid city patterns and defined crossings where people actually go and stop and wait at.
I was driving from Chicago to Indianapolis and the inside line was wall to wall freight, if only they had considered building a train line... would have saved all that hassle. Can see why Tesla are building a truck, driving them nose to tail down interstates is a no brainer really. Again talk of dedicated semi truck lanes, well why not put a train line in instead...
Then again I was driving a nissan versa (about ford focus sized) and to fill it was about 18 quid.... cheap oil, thats why a lot of the EV stuff isnt taking off there outside the cities (that and distance covered).
Speaking of Tesla, got a go in a model 3. Ive changed my mind about them, if they can get through January they will do well. The Model X dance is enough to take my money there and then (although its used ferrari money and I know what Id rather have).

Similar for reducing battery tech in the short term. The guys I spoke to cant see it, as I mentioned earlier there are lots and lots of 'on the horizon' type stuff and 'this could reduce or improve by x if...' but most if not all are breaking down on the longevity issues. By that I mean eventual breakdown of the battery, not just decreasing performance. Liquid filled lithium ion is where its at currently and probably will be for a while.



Bringing it back On topic I did chat with them about my home system and they were interested but said there wasnt really much interest in the US. I deliberately bookes some Airbnbs in areas I hadnt travelled before (Indianapolis, Louisville, Athens, Savannah, Jacksonville, Orlando, Palm Coast). Most talked a good eco game but not one had considered solar panels. One did mention the tesla tiles for the roof and every single place had Aircon running and big fridge freezers and cable and when I got home I realised how dim my LED lights were compared to most of the houses Id been in. One house about the same as mine paid roughly 180 dollars a month for electricity and this was in a place the sun shines almost all the time, certainly would be worth more for them to install than for me! But not even on the radar.
Even in Orlando, stayed in a gated community of about 100 houses and only one had solar panels. If ever there was a place that could do with them... aircon, pool heaters, big electric ovens etc etc but no.
In one of the properties the aircon went down as far as my heating system goes up ;-)



Thats probably what we are up against with economies of scale, outside of the liberal cities pretty much nobody seemed to care. The waste is horrendous everywhere I went in 'red' states. Gas was about 2.35-2.65 dollars a us gallon on my fills. Even at todays crippling exchange rates thats about 50-60p a litre.
Absolutely every part of everyday life is based around petrol being that cheap. One of the guys told me how crippling it was when gas prices doubled a couple of years ago. He ended up buying a bike but far too hot in late spring/summer/early autumn to cycle anywhere.
I noticed for a lot of made in china stuff the notices were up for the price rises due to import tariffs, some things were noticeably dearer than here.


Going back to the pylontech, I got home late afternoon when the solar panel output was about 100 W or so and battery hadnt kicked in yet. Stuck the immersion on and watched the out feed climb slowly from 0 to the 3KW. It took less than a minute for the import to drop from 3KW down to where the pylontech was supplying all the juice for the immersion. Im happy enough with that.


Just got notification of my rocs payment for the year and submitted my export values as well. Electricity bill for the last quarter was 5.94 yes five pounds and ninety four pence.. Even at 4p a unit export the export of 936 units should cover well over half the year.

Martyn1981

Finally found a suitable battery pack with good energy and power. Just have to persuade the wife now.

Coastalwatch

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Finally found a suitable battery pack with good energy and power. Just have to persuade the wife now.

That's great Mart and just what we need to see us right through winter.

Where's the catch!;)

Martyn1981

Coastalwatch wrote: »

That's great Mart and just what we need to see us right through winter.

Where's the catch!;)

No catch, and at one charge/discharge cycle pa, should last me around 5,000yrs.

Slightly more serious, I was pondering away at the idea of community storage, and recall articles on Aussie households at the end of long supply lines. In some cases the leccy suppliers have actually installed PV and batts, as that's cheaper than maintaining the long supply lines.

One of these big batts, plus a wind turbine and perhaps a small PV farm, could supply a large community (also having their own PV), with a 'simple' import / export billing system, and avoiding the need for small individual batts.

It's bound to happen eventually, especially with the enormous rises in standing charges that Aussie households have experienced (over A$1/day now).

bloke.in.a.fix

I've just bought a 3-bed flat, which doesn't have a gas supply. It's 20 years old and currently heated by the original electric storage heaters, which are ugly and according to the EPC are woefully inefficient. I'm thinking of replacing these heaters with electric underfloor hearing. To make this more cost effective I was thinking of getting a battery that charges overnight on a cheap rate and uses the stored energy to heat during the day. Do this makes any sense to those of you who've been researching such things?

mmmmikey

bloke.in.a.fix wrote: »

I've just bought a 3-bed flat, which doesn't have a gas supply. It's 20 years old and currently heated by the original electric storage heaters, which are ugly and according to the EPC are woefully inefficient. I'm thinking of replacing these heaters with electric underfloor hearing. To make this more cost effective I was thinking of getting a battery that charges overnight on a cheap rate and uses the stored energy to heat during the day. Do this makes any sense to those of you who've been researching such things?

To be honest, not really, as the battery won't store anything like enough energy to run the heating for a decent amount of time. In my experience, modern storage heaters are much more efficient than older ones and something like Dimplex Quantum HHR would probably be a better option for you.