360C
Member
Bravo on that home setup. Very nice.
This is half of my dream for a future home. Home grown veggies, zero waste, minimal active energy input, electric everything!! I am gradually introducing and trialling sustainable products in my property developments and will go nutso with them when we can build our own home....ahmmm Grand Designs. Totally off topic, but good on you for taking yourself off grid (I'm sure this system will have you at net zero). Now to convince the wife to give up cheese, probably easier to go shopping for a new wife in the vegan shops...and we're too good a match, perhaps I'll just purchase carbon offsets for the cheese!!
Thanks, it is a pretty over the top installation for a residential application which isn't going to be economically viable (yet) for most people. We have a payback period of about 6-7yrs because of site specific factors and the $4k to $6k annual fuel savings on top of the power savings from being "off grid". You also need a lot of suitable roof space for an 80 panel installation and we have the panels in 2 different sections. The visible area uses totally black solar panels with black glass cosmetic infill panels that follow the shape of the roof area. From a distance it looks like a solid pane of black glass end to end and you don't notice it on the dark grey tiles. The 2nd area of panels is on the flat garage section of the house which can't be seen from the street.
We also have a dedicated plant room for the battaries and equipment as you can see in the first 2 pictures.
Last picture is a sample readout from the software post upgrade. The peak in consumption at 11am is charging a Tesla on single phase.
We have 3 chargers on site, 2 triple phase for fast charging and the single phase which will charge the car most days purely from direct power generation. You can also charge overnight on the single phase and it will draw from the batteries for the daily top up Tesla charge.
Charging on the triple phase will exceed the capacity of the system and will draw energy from the grid for the balance of power required.
Essentially the system is sufficient to run 2 daily driver Tesla's and a big house "off grid" for all but a couple of winter months in Melbourne.
Our area has had a few power outages over the last 12mths and I must admit it is pretty cool to keep on trucking as normal when everyone else is using candles. If we don't charge the cars or use the A/C we can run the house purely on direct solar/battery storage for a week or more.
I also run a 60kw solar system with 48kw/h of battery storage at work. That one really pays for itself as I can keep trading in blackouts and at current energy prices saves me about $35k a year.
Forgot to mention both home and work have complete LED and energy efficient equipment upgrades. The bang for your buck with doing that actually exceeds the return on solar so that is always the first step.
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SOLAR PLANT ROOM - Post 20kw:48kw:h upgrade, BATTERY RACKS TWO DEEP.jpg589.1 KB · Views: 139
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SOLAR PLANT ROOM - POST 20KW:48kw:h UPGRADE DEC 2016 copy.jpg432.6 KB · Views: 112
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SOLAR SYSTEM HOME- 40 PANELS INSTALLED ROOF SECTION 2 PRE UPGRADE PIC 1.jpg307.3 KB · Views: 120
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HOME SOLAR ROOF SECTION 2 POST UPGRADE WITH BLACK PANELS AND GLASS COSMETIC INFILLS.jpg491.3 KB · Views: 113
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SUNNYPORTAL READOUT POST UPGRADE.jpg486.1 KB · Views: 109