Turnover
Well-known member
Is anybody using community solar?
I believe the latest addition of 2880Wp of grid-connected PV has brought our annual PV production to above our annual consumption. Unfortunately, the new addition was not completed until the end of June and we did not bank enough additional energy to get us through this wintertime without a bill. I guess year-round payments of only the basic fee ($11.60) will not begin until around April. We *may* manage to avoid a bill in January, but will almost certainly have to pay one in February.dgpcolorado said:My calculations suggest that my 3217 kWh of solar energy last year was 104% of my usage to fuel my car and run my house. My household use increased somewhat but the introduction of the first ever L2 public charge stations for EVs in this area last summer allowed me to decrease the home charging of my LEAF somewhat. Needless to say, it has been a couple of years since I last paid anything other than the basic service charge ($16/month plus a small county sales tax) to my local power co-op.
So, for two years now I have been entirely "sunpowered" for house and LEAF. As others have noted before: EV + PV = "bliss"
Wow! That's a big difference!downeykp said:I generated 6000kwh more than I used last year.
With the high cost of combustion fuels, we have moved as many loads as we could to electricity. The propane oven and dryer have been replaced by all-electric units. While we still have our wood-pellet stove, we now almost completely avoid using it while ten years ago we used it almost exclusively for heat. The only holdouts around here are our gasoline-powered vehicles (the youngest of which is over 10 years old), our diesel-powered tractor and my wife's propane cooktop (she hates using an electric cooktop).downeykp said:We are going out of our way to use as much energy as possible.
Agreed. At 7500 miles/year, our LEAF uses only about 2 MWh of electricity each year.downeykp said:The Leaf will not be a part of this mix until we ship it to Hawaii in June. Even with the Leaf we will still be giving a lot more energy back to power co. than we use.
I've never actually looked at that number before; my mileage is similar and I have a wall meter to get accurate numbers:RegGuheert said:Agreed. At 7500 miles/year, our LEAF uses only about 2 MWh of electricity each year.
miles MWh
2012 7329 1.816
2013 7543 1.784
2014 8530 1.713 [significant charging away from home for the first time allowed a longer (paved) route despite a degraded battery]
Our research suggests that approximately one in three EV owners has a home grid-tied PV system.
RegGuheert said:my wife's propane cooktop (she hates using an electric cooktop).
Thanks for the suggestion!keydiver said:Has she tried an inductive cooktop? I put one in my guest house where my parents live, and my mom loves it. She can precisely control the temperature, and things heat up must faster.RegGuheert said:my wife's propane cooktop (she hates using an electric cooktop).
I use an inductive cooktop. Your Cuisinart pans might work - check with a magnet as there are different grades of stainless. My stainless pans work perfectly. The iron skillet and steel water-bath canner will work by themselves, though the ridged base might not be a good match for any glass top.RegGuheert said:Thanks for the suggestion!
We're in the process of trying to find a 36" cooktop for a kitchen overhaul we are doing and we looked seriously into this option this morning. We were close to pulling the trigger until we realized that *literally* none of our existing cookware would work with the cooktop, including:
- Large set of Cuisinart Everyday Stainless cookware (up to 16 quart size)
- Iron skillet
- Aluminum pressure canner
- Anodized aluminum griddle
- Steel water-bath canner (with a ridged base)
I still like this as an option, but the result is the switch to induction will more than double the cost of the already-pricey cooktop.
Thanks, Andy! I did that test and it was inconclusive. The magnet stuck to the *sides* of the pots, but not to the bottom. The difference is that the sides of the pan are just stainless while the bottoms have a sandwich of stainless with thick copper in between. Cuisinart has since discontinued this line and released some which are labeled "induction ready" or some such.AndyH said:I use an inductive cooktop. Your Cuisinart pans might work - check with a magnet as there are different grades of stainless. My stainless pans work perfectly.
Those are both fairly cheap items, so I'm not opposed to purchasing an iron skillet with a coating on the bottom to replace the one we have.AndyH said:The iron skillet and steel water-bath canner will work by themselves, though the ridged base might not be a good match for any glass top.
I think that would be fine for canning, since it is not an everyday event.AndyH said:A plate like this would likely tame the canner's ridge, and also allow use of the Al pressure canner.
http://www.amazon.com/Max-Burton-6010-Induction-Heat-Proof/dp/B00213L3PK" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Month PVW42 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 PVW54 Units
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January 916 669 869 822 857 1006 1229 kWh
February 702 158 1085 866 1054 915 kWh
March 965 0 1350 1152 1113 1240 kWh
April 1465 0 1465 1495 1338 1899 kWh
May 1583 0 1477 1491 1457 2074 kWh
June 1268 0 1478 1368 1521 1666 kWh
July 1448 595 1395 1406 1880 1902 kWh
August 1442 1347 1447 1333 1794 1875 kWh
September 1209 910 1295 1414 1577 1555 kWh
October 1304 931 981 1034 1258 1713 kWh
November 864 949 1041 1018 1227 1154 kWh
December 820 803 612 669 812 1108 kWh
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Totals 13986 6362 14495 14068 15888 1006 18330 kWh
AndyH said:A plate like this would likely tame the canner's ridge, and also allow use of the Al pressure canner.
http://www.amazon.com/Max-Burton-6010-Induction-Heat-Proof/dp/B00213L3PK" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Yes, I have one like it - that's why I said it would allow use of the canner. It's essentially just a steel plate that activates the induction loop and heats up.WisJim said:AndyH said:A plate like this would likely tame the canner's ridge, and also allow use of the Al pressure canner.
http://www.amazon.com/Max-Burton-6010-Induction-Heat-Proof/dp/B00213L3PK" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Anyone actually use one of these plates with an aluminum pressure canner? We are thinking of an induction cooktop, too, but some of our cookware, like the pressure canner aren't available in any kind of magnetic material.
Jim
Very nice! Congratulations! That's about what our system ran at when it was ~10kW. Look at the 2012 and 2013 columns in my table above. With the extra 2880Wp running now, I hope to see 18MWh or more now. We'll see.JasonA said:Today is 1 year from PTO!! (officially ) and this system is just knocking it out of the park so far. As my "All USA" system thread was shown.. it was rated for.
Estimated Annual Energy Production 12,349 kWh/yr.. So far we just broke 14.0kWh yesterday!
I'll edit later once today is over and official!
Are you sure that's right? That seems low for a 10 kW system unless it was fairly cloudy. (I made 12 kWh yesterday with just 2.17 kW of panels.) Just wondering.JasonA said:... So far we just broke 14.0kWh yesterday! ...
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