Emergency Power/Storms/Prepping etc
- Thread starter IReallyLikePizza2
- Start date
You might be right on that specific point, but I don't think that's the right way to look at it. I went with a grid tie + battery system about 15 years ago with the main reason being emergency power when the grid is down. In the summer it will provide us with full power, sans air conditioner (not nearly as critical as in Houston). In the winter the solar production here up north is pitiful. We'd make it though a full sun day along with propane heat, but there are stretches of little or no production because of clouds or snow on the panels. That's where the portable generator becomes necessary. Compared to a built-in generator it's obviously a pain, but there's motivation that helps deal with it. Looking back, the absolute biggest advantage of the battery system has been its function as an almost-whole-house UPS. About 10 times a year we have an outage lasting from one second to a few hours. The computers, TVs and pretty much everything else don't glitch at all. We usually don't know the power was out until a neighbor asks us if our power is out.
15 years ago the price of solar panels and inverters was sky-high compared to now, the original lead-acid batteries are long gone, and I had to replace a charge controller. This system will never recover it's cost, especially on a time vs. value of money basis. Yet I have no regrets at all because of the convenience and security factors.
With the price of the solar equipment having come down and rates heading up, I can see how a newer no-battery system might recover its cost before it requires new maintenance expenses. Even so, I don't see any point in getting a system without a battery that shuts itself off when you need it the most. Plus at this point in time, I think every new grid-tie-only system messes up the grid even more, and after adding enough such systems, the whole grid will become unusable.
IMO you're worse off than my vision of tropical (small island, lying on the beach under a shade tree next to bikini-clad hottie). I lived for a year in Houston. The worst was downtown on a summer day. It felt like the hot moist polluted air was dripping down on me.
Well, wholesale cost of the components is not quite the same as getting a turnkey install from a name brand, that was my point about the only way it makes sense is DIY
For me, this point has zero value for a few reason
- Most big battery systems do not take the place of a UPS, and the switchover only sometimes is fast enough, meaning I'd still need a UPS on critical systems
- Does not protect against tripped breakers, accidents etc, so I'd still need a UPS
- Does not protect against the battery itself tripping out during an outage, so I'd still need a UPS
If yours really does work for you as a UPS though, thats awesome. I'm interested in what components they are, as most do not work well for that
For me, and my usage, I'd need a generator regardless of battery size because of the unknowns of solar production, and I would of course want that to be automatic, and because of that, it really made me question why I wouldn't just run everything on generator in that case. I now have zero need to even look how much power I'm using over the course of a day, the generator will run regardless
If I were to build out a net new home I would possibly think of it differently, however in my current situation, climate and power usage, you just have to have the generator anyway
Honestly, the whole thing is a scam. Because you can buy a car with the same amount of battery as some of these larger whole home systems, for cheaper than the home system. But, the car has a free car!
The switchover has worked flawlessly for me. The transfer relay spec is 16 ms., or about 1 AC cycle, but my system is programmed for a 6 cycle power fault before switching, or about 100 ms. None of our computers or the NVR have ever glitched on the switchover. It's an Outback inverter, a low-frequency, big-iron inverter. that costs more than the commonly used newer hardware.