Uh…… anyone got a video explaining how this works so I can learn about it recent solar technology and how to utilize it?
plug-in solar systems
Damn, I didn’t know they made solar systems that can be plugged in, whatever that means! 🙃🪐
I believe the tech is called a grid tie inverter (GTI). Basically your panels or battery system can wire up to a GTI and some GTIs can have pugs that can plug into a standard wall outlet. The GTI can sense the frequency that is in your homes wiring ie “the grid”. Then the GTI matches that frequency and “pumps” your renewable energy into the home and sometimes the grid depending on the utility. If the GTI senses a dramatic frequency change, for example a grid side power outage. The GTI will also fault out or shut down to prevent “islanding”.
People are answering a question I didn’t ask (although I do appreciate that kindness! 🥰).
I was just making a joke about solar systems, as in the space “object”. 😁
It actually provides power to the house though a regular power socket. (But only if the utility power is also present so it won’t zap workers trying to fix a blackout)
Now do personal wind and/or wind/solar combos, and we got ourselves some stew!
https://www.amazon.com/home-wind-turbine/s?k=home+wind+turbine
From what I’ve read, wind doesn’t really scale down to home use the way solar does.
And those cheap Amazon generators (whether they are attached to wind turbines or sold as standalone units) never come even remotely close to the advertised output.
Dude, all you need to do is spend $13k for one of these,
And then mount it 30 feet above the tallest tree or building near you.
How hard can it be?
I thought it would be nice to get a wind turbine since that could produce some useful electricity in months that contain the letter ‘r’.
11k EUR
2 kW
Price of electricity is like 10 cents a kWh average throughout the year
11000/2/0.1 = 55000 hours
Will pay off if it produces 2 kW for 6 years straight. I don’t think I’m getting one.
i mean, if you’re in flat open farmland with a steady breeze why the hell not run up a pole?
Most of us aren’t on farms. But yeah, if you are I’d definitely look into it. Especially if you’re running large refrigerators and/or freezers.
The top one says it’s 10000W!
Then the same looking unit below it is 3000W, then the only realistic looking turbine is 1,500W.
I suspect if your knock a 0 off the end you might be in the ballpark for the modest rated ones.
Regardless, you can run it at night when the sun isn’t out. If you have enough back up battery storage, slow and steady is fine.
From what I’ve read, wind doesn’t really scale down to home use the way solar does.
Where did you read that?
I’ve looked into it for exactly this reason. 1 kW at night would go a long, long way for me. It doesn’t work.
If you’re lucky, a small turbine might be able to charge your phone. Maybe. Intermittently.
The turbines scale exponentially with blade size, not linearly. And none of it works well at suburb/city height. You need this things 100ft in the air with large blades.
At that point you might as well get a real one and power your neighborhood. Those things really don’t scale down effectively.
Here is a handy guide: https://ecowised.com/best-home-wind-turbines-for-residential-use-top-models-costs-what-to-look-for/
Edit: Here’s one from Europe: https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/advice/wind-turbines/
The main issue is the small size tends to increase the required wind speed required to initially overcome friction, and those higher windspeeds are rarely sustained at ground level. Large turbines work efficiently because they are up above the turbulence caused by houses, trees, buildings, etc.
I don’t save links to everything I ever read, so you’ll have to search it up if you’re curious for more details.
Really depends on where you live. If you’re in suburbs they’re completely fucking useless. If you’re in the country with over a mile of relatively flat fields upwind it’ll work, especially if you already have an old antenna tower or can put one up.
Also, the larger commercial tirbines are trying to generate commercial levels of power, not residential. And for a given wind speed the power generation scales by blade length, and a lot of that height is also needed as clearance for the blades
Where did you read that?
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2008/09/urban-windmills-harm-the-environment
Physics are quite simply not on the side of small-scale wind power. Which is fine, it doesn’t have to - solar works really well for small-scale applications.
Wind is too variable. Sun comes up every day, and getting laminar wind is difficult in suburban areas. Expensive and turbines wear and get iced in winter. They can work in rural settings which is why they have been using turbines on farms for over 200 years.
Sun comes up every day
Sure, technically
Expensive and turbines wear and get iced in winter
Where I come from, solar energy doesn’t work in the winter, but wind (large scale) usually does. Output difference of a solar system between winter lowest vs summer highest is ~30x, as we get an average of around 20 hours of sunshine in the entire month of December and it’s not exactly at a great angle for those few hours. Wind would be pretty much the only way one could really stop relying on fossil based energy here. Kinda sucks if they’re not a real option.
Depends on geography and climate. Some places in my area are 24/7 windtunnels.
But you need laminar wind. It suburban areas there is too much turbulence from objects.
Im not going to make a bunch of links. Just search why home wind sucks.
Those are not realistic for home use. Usually have to have up about 11 mph of wind for it to even start working
Let’s see if Newsom signs it. With the way he tried to push through liability limits for electric companies (who seem to be too good at creating wildfire disasters) I have my doubts. His presidential ambitions have led him down the dark path of caring more about corporate sponsorship than voters.
I am kind of curious how over-current protection is achieved with these systems.
Don’t get me wrong; I think the concept is good.
But the circuit breaker is sized to protect the wiring between it and the outlets/devices it supplies. If you’re already close to the max current the breaker can supppy, then you add on a second current source (the panels inverter), you could feasibly supply+draw more current through that circuit than it was originally designed to carry.
For example: a regular 15a circuit + 5a worth of panels (600w); you could now draw 20a through wiring that’s only designed/sized for 15a, before the breaker trips. More current creates more heat, this is a potential fire hazard.
On top of that; switching the breaker off/locking it out doesn’t necessarily switch off all power being supplied to that circuit. If you’re not aware of the solar system that’s also supplying that circuit from another point (very unexpected under current norms) This could cause you to work on wiring that you expect to be unpowered when it’s actually live (you should always check with a volt meter anyway, but still, unexpected hazards).
I would imagine much of this has been thought about; but I’m curious about the solutions (or about the reasoning why it’s not considered an issue)
The back feed is taken care of by the solar inverter already. If it doesn’t detect the proper waveforms from the grid it turns off.
As for the overcurrent, there are sensors (PCS) that can detect current load on a circuit. Alternatively, a dedicated circuit or oversized circuit can be set up to handle it (but would require electrical changes).
About the second point: it appears they will need the same grid intertie circuitry that inverters need …
“…and include equipment that prevents power from flowing back to the grid during an outage”
Yeah, the idea is nice, but it smells an awful lot of wall socket generators and suicide cords
so are these the mythical balcony systems i’ve been hearing about? because i want one to take camping to charge my ebike, and to run my blowdryer on my prosthesis after i shower so i don’t mold.
Yes they are, but they are specifically not what you want or need when going camping. These only work when plugged into an active grid connection, to offset your power bill at home on sunny days.
For camping, you want a battery box that solar panels will plug in to. Often sold as “solar generator” from brands like Bluetti and Jackery.
thank you for the advice! we’re about a year, at worst three away from purchase but keeping up on things is important
Is california on a streak? Thats the 3rd good thing I have heard about them.
I’d like this too, maybe someday. Technical and safety issues can be resolved somehow.
