Getting started

BB.

Re: Getting started

It really depends on how much power you plan on using... I know that this is a new home, and you may not have all of the appliances you need...

But, I would suggest that you look at your current power usage and try to cut back to the minimum that you think you will need (you can always add a fudge factors for the central heating, electric hot water, old 3rd freezer, etc. to obtain your "new home" power usage).

If you can get 200-300 kWhrs per month from your solar PV system (except during the dead of winter--but that is what you have the wind turbine for), you probably can live pretty comfortably even with a TV, microwave, and toaster oven...

I would assume a final system derating of 10-20% to allow for dust on panels, deratings, poor weather, and such... And if those numbers meet or exceed your average house-hold power requirements, you should be happy...

Personally, I would like to see you have about 3 days of battery storage (assuming no charging, not using optional items like toaster oven, washer/drier, etc.)... The batteries should be more efficient (basically I^2*R losses will be much less at lower loads), last longer with fewer deep discharge and charging cycles... And I would suggest that you look at your normal load + how many days to recharge your batteries (you would probably want some "extra" solar watts available to run your normal loads + recharge your batteries in, say, 3-10 days after 3 days of no sun).

Some times, you will need the generator, but, of course, you will want to reduce that as much as possible.

-Bill