Free Radio Forum: Re: More power or not?

I wasn't specifically talking about the proposed R Caroline setup, how you do it is your business. But in general most would use battery power banks to give them greater energy savings, in general 29% more. But at the expense of greater outlay. If you are happy that the installation will provide you with what you require, then that is all you need.

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Don't joust with me Dave.

No I have not heard that carburettor related term. In my carburettor business that I walked away from 25 years ago, a new carburettor was regarded as a ' distress purchase ' not a willing purchase. So as I set myself up as an expert I had to have a specific reason to make the customer spend his money. So I would be clear and say that not renewing would harm the fuel consumption or that the engine would not make full power or that the carburettor may overflow and set the car alight.
If I said ' you are asking for trouble ' the customer would assume that I did not know what I was talking about. Or was talking bollocks.

Simply, our panels will ( we hope ) create more power than we need in reasonable or ideal conditions. We will gift the surplus to our landlords in recognition of how good they have been to us. Anything left over we will back feed in to the grid. At night or in poor conditions we will import power from the grid.

If that in your mind is ' asking for trouble ' I won't try to change your view.

PM.

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Come come, I'm sure you have heard the phrase "if that carburetor isn't replaced soon, you are asking for trouble." In a solar array installation if you don't have some storage facility you could end up more reliant on the national grid than you estimated. It all depends on how long term this installation is going to be and whether the additional cost of the batteries could recouped in that period. If the aim is to self sufficient, then batteries would be needed. If that isn't the aim well then...

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Dave,
Please define ' asking for trouble ', it is not a technical term I have ever heard before.

PM.

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If you don't have a solar battery bank you will be asking for trouble. When the output of the cells is low you will have to switch to the NG instead of using some of your own stored power. They are not building a network generating station, they intend to run equipment (the TX) at source.
As I said if they don't install a battery bank, then in my opinion they are asking for trouble.
BTW you are confusing kVa with kW, 12kW + 13kW does not equal 25kVa.

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My understanding Dave, (Good morning) is yes - the Cells create DC power, fed to an inverter, the waveform from it, is synchronised to the national grid & any surplus power is fed to the grid - yes you can as an option, have a local battery bank, to store power for later use.

As an example at Orford - 25kva power generated by the solar cells, TX takes 12 kw, 13kw fed (or sold) to the grid.
I believe STX knows much more about this complicated subject, as there is one of these on his farm.

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You must have batteries or some form of storage for the power produced by the solar panels. They only produce D(irect) C(urrent) so need to be converted into A(lternating) C(urrent)to be used in the existing infrastructure. Solar power isn't a supply on demand system, it provides power when it can and stores it until needed.

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WW, for the reason you state, I don't think Batteries are being considered - (Cost & life) I think the way it will work, is if enough Solar power is being generated, the TX will be powered by it & the Surplus is sold to the Grid, at the point when it gets dark, the TX will only be powered from the Grid. The amount of course generated, will vary with the amount of sun.
Please correct me if I've got that wrong.

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I think it is amazing that Caroline comes to us at all. Well done to Ronan and now to Peter Moore. Peter is doing a great job. Also with regards solar panels, have Caroline looked into the cost of replacement batteries. People here are having solar panels installed under a government scheme and the batteries only last for 6 years and cost thousands to replace. Maybe the Caroline array does not need batteries to store the power?