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iPlug said:
Over the last 12 months we have used about 14 MWh of electricity for our family of 4 in our 2550 ft^2 house. That includes all heat pump heating and cooling of air, heat pump heated water, both electric vehicles, induction stove, standard electric appliances including resistance heat clothes dryer, and pool pump. We might run the spa a bunch in the next 1.5 months before our annual true-up to use a bit of our ~2 MWh net excess generated electricity.
Brilliant !!

Did you consider a heat exchanger ?
 
SageBrush said:
Zythryn said:
We calculated we needed 19kW of solar to cover our annual energy needs (house and two cars). Turns out we needed about 11kW.
.
This is a part of your story I am not familiar with. Please tell more !

Thanks for asking!
When we were designing the system, we used calculations based on a well used model for a 2450 sq ft residential home, with two adult occupants. We added to that a calculation for our cars based on what we expected our annual mileage to be.
It turns out we use less energy for the house than the model calculated. However, the biggest difference was that we drive much less than we expected to.
As I recall, our combined mileage at our old place was about 30,000 miles/year. We estimated we would be driving 24,000 miles/year. Over three years we are averaging about 13,000 miles/year for both cars combined.
Then, to add to that, we traded in our cars for a pair of cars that are 20% and 30% more efficient.

No regrets though. The way I look at it we provide all the solar energy our cars, house, and neighbor’s house uses on an annual basis :D
 
SageBrush said:
Did you consider a heat exchanger ?
No heat exchangers. Would be a nice upgrade. You?

Our house is pretty air tight and would probably require ERV if we sealed up everything like our chimney (we don’t use it and NG is turned off to house) and/or if we upgraded to a ventless heat pump clothes dryer and sealed up the dryer vent. Fortunately we live in a dry climate so indoor humidity is not a problem with the current level of air tightness.

Would be cool to have ERV for the bath fans to recover the heat or cold air before it is expelled. When no windows are open the bath fans do next to nothing. On a summer day or winter night open windows bring in the wrong temp air...

We do have a whole house fan and I seal that up in the winter.
 
iPlug said:
SageBrush said:
Did you consider a heat exchanger ?
No heat exchangers. Would be a nice upgrade. You?
Heat exchangers of the ERV type can indeed control humidity but they do so much more ! They replace inside with fresh outside air and lose only 1/5 - 1/6 the energy embedded in the heating/cooling already done compared to 'A/C.' This is only needed if the home envelope is tight.

A TMC friend has generously offered to help me DIY heat pump installation so I am going to put one or two in this autumn. My issue with heat pumps (or any 'A/C' for that matter) though is that they do not maintain interior air quality so my plan is to look into using the whole home ducting already present for a heat exchange system. It will have the added benefit of reducing the heat pump load.
 
Reinsulate the house which is already above code and install a ground source geo thermal then thousands of dollars worth of batteries for when the power goes out?
Nope I'm good with burning wood like a cave man.
Even if I ever did ground source geo thermal I would still use the coal furnace in winter since my free UPS can power it.
 
There is a wide spectrum of affordability when it comes to green home electrification/efficiency improvements. Not everything costs an arm and a leg and there is plenty of low hanging fruit that is not just good for the individual but also his neighbor and the world at large.
 
Oilpan4 said:
Reinsulate the house which is already above code and install a ground source geo thermal then thousands of dollars worth of batteries for when the power goes out?
Nope I'm good with burning wood like a cave man.
Even if I ever did ground source geo thermal I would still use the coal furnace in winter since my free UPS can power it.

That is reasonable.
For me, I refuse to use coal if I have an option. For me, that is important, and as I believe in ‘walking the walk’, I put my money where my mouth is.
 
Yeah you don't want to be one of those people who says they care so much about the environment and goes on about how bad everyone else is but uses natural gas for home heating.
I don't like burning coal its expensive compared to free lumber scraps.
Going closed loop on the coal furnace may eliminate the need for coal. It all comes down to burn time.
The ultimate unexpected result was the high grade anthracite coal burns way cleaner than any wood.
 
Oilpan4 said:
Yeah you don't want to be one of those people who says they care so much about the environment and goes on about how bad everyone else is but uses natural gas for home heating.
.
You excuse yourself because others are not perfect. You are so pathetic.

As for my family, my PV generation is more than my home, cars and NG use. Yet I plan to put up *more* PV and conserve even more.

What is your excuse now ?
 
SageBrush said:
Oilpan4 said:
Yeah you don't want to be one of those people who says they care so much about the environment and goes on about how bad everyone else is but uses natural gas for home heating.
.
You excuse yourself because others are not perfect. You are so pathetic.

As for my family, my PV generation is more than my home, cars and NG use. Yet I plan to put up *more* PV and conserve even more.

What is your excuse now ?

I'm not making excuses but it sounds like you are.
What's pathetic is someone who says they care soon much about the environment and global warming and uses natural gas for home heating. That's the most hypocrisy I have witnessed in a long time.
You should be a politician.
 
Oilpan4 said:
SageBrush said:
Oilpan4 said:
Yeah you don't want to be one of those people who says they care so much about the environment and goes on about how bad everyone else is but uses natural gas for home heating.
.
You excuse yourself because others are not perfect. You are so pathetic.

As for my family, my PV generation is more than my home, cars and NG use. Yet I plan to put up *more* PV and conserve even more.

What is your excuse now ?

I'm not making excuses but it sounds like you are.
What's pathetic is someone who says they care soon much about the environment and global warming and uses natural gas for home heating. That's the most hypocrisy I have witnessed in a long time.
You should be a politician.

I suggest you not waste any electrons on trying to engage the poster id "sagebrush". Check this forum for some of his or her other postings and you'll see what I mean.

Paul Gipe
 
Well my at least 10 year old r410a 18,000btu/hr 120v mini split heat pump died.
Its not a contactor, not a capacitor, charge is good, purged non condensables.
It sounds like hell and the pressures are not right.
This one is probably about a 16 seer unit on account of it having a fixed speed compressor.
It probably wore out from being oversized and from lots of restarts. I didn't install it. If was going to install a fixed speed unit in this application I would have probably only went with a 10k or 12k btu.

The new one is 23 seer, 240v powered variable speed compressor that tries to heat pump down to -5F.
The old one gave up trying to be a heatpump at +5F. Both old and new start using electric heat around freezing.

I like to go big with inverter splits since I can leave them off all day, come home, start them up, cool the room down quickly then they throttle way back and give maximum efficiency.
But ultimately the off setting gives the best efficiency.

The old one is going to the local hvac shop to attempt a somewhat economical repair. Because reusing is better than recycling.
 
Oilpan4 said:
I like to go big with inverter splits since I can leave them off all day, come home, start them up, cool the room down quickly then they throttle way back and give maximum efficiency.
:roll:
 
SageBrush said:
Oilpan4 said:
I like to go big with inverter splits since I can leave them off all day, come home, start them up, cool the room down quickly then they throttle way back and give maximum efficiency.
:roll:


You can't decide, based on the above, that he's wasting energy. You would need more information. Best would be to test that approach against running the mini split all day on a power saving setting.
 
LeftieBiker said:
SageBrush said:
Oilpan4 said:
I like to go big with inverter splits since I can leave them off all day, come home, start them up, cool the room down quickly then they throttle way back and give maximum efficiency.
:roll:


You can't decide, based on the above, that he's wasting energy. You would need more information. Best would be to test that approach against running the mini split all day on a power saving setting.
:roll:
 
A consideration:

I pay Griddy, my energy provider $10/month to buy energy at cost via the ERCOT regulated energy system in Texas. We had 3 days a short time ago, that every kWh, for relatively short periods, cost around $13 - including the "ancillary" add on that ERCOT legally receives (yes, $13 - not a typo). I was able to minimize my costs by precooling the entire home late at night/early morning (about 1.5 cents/kWH) to about 70 degrees and then letting it float up to 79 degrees during the "peak" of the ERCOT systems power levels. It was still costly, but not nearly as most others that use such a contract. I'd doubt that this minimized the overall energy consumption, but certainly helps the overall operation of the ERCOT grid (and my wallet). I have saved 20-30% on the first year with Griddy compared to any other contract at the time I had to decide.

Eventually, as more users realize that maximizing late night/early morning usage actually helps the "grid" and as a result, they are able to save usage during the peak afternoons, that less "peaker" energy (think very expensive) is required - at least here in the ERCOT system which is likely similar to most grid systems.

V2X along with EV proliferation (talking millions) has the "potential" to actually help stabilize the grid - however is quite a ways off for many reasons. If I knew anything about twitter - #microgridforhomes :mrgreen:
 
^^ Well done !!

Demand shifting like you did works great with a good home envelope of insulation and air tightness along with an HRV/ERV for humidity control and air quality.
 
Eventually, as more users realize that maximizing late night/early morning usage actually helps the "grid" and as a result, they are able to save usage during the peak afternoons, that less "peaker" energy (think very expensive) is required - at least here in the ERCOT system which is likely similar to most grid systems.


We've been doing this for 20 years: greatly reducing our grid consumption during peak loads (hot weather here) and doing more cooling in the morning and late at night. I remember poring through the regional ISO logs about 20 years ago, to get a feel for when local demand was highest and lowest, because they never made (or make) any effort to inform consumers about this issue.
 
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