[Greenbuilding] Solar electric configuration details

[Corwyn]

On Nov 09, 2006, at 17:46, Lawrence Lile wrote:

> Sorry, here is a clarification.
>
> My total load on the house might be 700-1000KWhr/month or maybe 34
> KWHR/Dy.  This is all on grid power right now. This would cost $40 
> grand
> to take off the grid, which is prohibitive.

Ah.  That being the case, why don't you set up the system to top off 
the charge in the batteries and then just offset the grid power.  When 
you lose power, switch over to batteries only for the essential systems 
(I am not sure but this may require a manual switch).  This would keep 
your batteries in their preferred state at all times other than when 
you need them.

Some other thoughts:  I lost power for 2 days, last week.  The freezer, 
which is jammed packed, came up a few degrees in that time.  It is a 
large chest freezer of not spectacular efficiency, in the basement, set 
to 0ºF, and filled (when not filled with the raspberry harvest :-) with 
jugs of water to increase the thermal mass.  It should be fine for a 
week or more by my calculations.

Is there nothing you can do to reduce that 34 kWh a day?  The return on 
investment (to say nothing of payback) on CFL bulbs is 300% (before 
taxes).

Thank You Kindly,

Corwyn