Grid-tied solar

[BobRip]

I have excellent location for such thing. Systems like that are used on large scale all over the world. Many in the USA. But systems alike that are relatively complex, expensive and require maintenance.

I have another idea. We AC and heat our house with geothermal heat pump. It would be quite easy to install large tank that could be heated or cooled when the sun is shining and the used the accumulated energy to heat the house. Similarly when the tank is cold I could sink energy in when AC is in operation. Only problem is that the heat pump uses only 4.5kW but my peak excess might be even three times as large. Right now I am working the numbers before I put the effort in building it.

You could over heat/cool your home by a few degrees when you have solar. You could heat your hot water a little more when you have solar. You could charge up your well when you have solar. Same with clothes dryer. Just some thoughts. Edit you could run a dehumidifier in the summer also.

 

[Redneck in training]

You could over heat/cool your home by a few degrees when you have solar. You could heat your hot water a little more when you have solar. You could charge up your well when you have solar. Same with clothes dryer. Just some thoughts. Edit you could run a dehumidifier in the summer also.

That is exactly what I am doing. The problem is that I can sink only 4.5 kW of energy by the heat pump while I have 10kW or more excess.

 

[dave1949]

That is exactly what I am doing. The problem is that I can sink only 4.5 kW of energy by the heat pump while I have 10kW or more excess.

I think the electric vehicle is a good solution. There are ideas about dynamically integrating an electric vehicle's stored power into a home's electrical system.

With modern, low-cost programmable electronics it would be possible to have a home energy management system capable of scenarios such as that.

For example, if a cloud interrupts your solar output and the e-car is present with some minimal charge on board, take power from the e-car battery, not the grid. Smart appliances could also react to the amount of power available by delaying or reducing operation.

There is a whole world of technology out there that we have yet to apply to energy conservation.

 

[houstonscott]

It is stated the electric vehicle is a solution. Solution to what?


HS

 

[Redneck in training]

I think the electric vehicle is a good solution. There are ideas about dynamically integrating an electric vehicle's stored power into a home's electrical system.

With modern, low-cost programmable electronics it would be possible to have a home energy management system capable of scenarios such as that.

For example, if a cloud interrupts your solar output and the e-car is present with some minimal charge on board, take power from the e-car battery, not the grid. Smart appliances could also react to the amount of power available by delaying or reducing operation.

There is a whole world of technology out there that we have yet to apply to energy conservation.

I think systems like that are in development already. Following the development in general it looks like reliable long lasting storage energy is only few years away. Several developers of Ultra capacitors claim they have storage devices close to moving from the lab to production.
Ultra capacitors can sink full charge in seconds (if such source could be available) and can be discharged million times to zero. In other words hey should last forever.

 

[BobRip]

That is exactly what I am doing. The problem is that I can sink only 4.5 kW of energy by the heat pump while I have 10kW or more excess.

You could run electric heaters. Just some portable heaters that run about 1500 watts. Three of those would use 4500 watts. These are terribly inefficient compared to your heat pump, but the energy is wasted otherwise. You could also install some permanent base board heaters. There are also energy storage heaters that I have seen in Germany. They are insulated with a heat storage medium inside. A fan is turned on to circulate the heat into the house when needed. When the fan does not run the heat pretty much stays inside.

 

[BobRip]

I think systems like that are in development already. Following the development in general it looks like reliable long lasting storage energy is only few years away. Several developers of Ultra capacitors claim they have storage devices close to moving from the lab to production.
Ultra capacitors can sink full charge in seconds (if such source could be available) and can be discharged million times to zero. In other words hey should last forever.

Present ultra capacitors have very low energy density. Much lower than batteries, which are much lower than gasoline. Do you have information that the new ones will be much much better.

 

[Redneck in training]

You could run electric heaters. Just some portable heaters that run about 1500 watts. Three of those would use 4500 watts. These are terribly inefficient compared to your heat pump, but the energy is wasted otherwise. You could also install some permanent base board heaters. There are also energy storage heaters that I have seen in Germany. They are insulated with a heat storage medium inside. A fan is turned on to circulate the heat into the house when needed. When the fan does not run the heat pretty much stays inside.

We have floor heating. Also our AC uses liquid to circulate in the fan coil. I can use liquid as energy storage in heating season or heat sink in AC season. I just need to develop some device (PLC based I suppose) that would match the load to the excess in the heating season. I am retiring in about 6-8 months. It will be one of my early retirement projects.

I am very familiar with the storage heaters from Europe. There are bricks inside arranged so there air passages. It is charged at night at low rate and could supply heat for about 6 hours when needed. There were also some with some kind of salt that was melted. Those would supply more or less constant heat until the salt solidified.

 

[BobRip]

We have floor heating. Also our AC uses liquid to circulate in the fan coil. I can use liquid as energy storage in heating season or heat sink in AC season. I just need to develop some device (PLC based I suppose) that would match the load to the excess in the heating season. I am retiring in about 6-8 months. It will be one of my early retirement projects.

I am very familiar with the storage heaters from Europe. There are bricks inside arranged so there air passages. It is charged at night at low rate and could supply heat for about 6 hours when needed. There were also some with some kind of salt that was melted. Those would supply more or less constant heat until the salt solidified.

Yes, that's it. I had a friend in Germany who had those. It sounds like you have a good understanding of all of this.

 

[Scooby074]

Electrical Thermal Storage heaters are real common here. We have both peak and off peak rates . People "charge" them up off-peak then use the heat during peak hours.

Save on Heating With Electric Thermal storage heating (ETS) Systems