[Robotgroup] An interesting time

[Tami]

On 2008 June 8 brooksdesign wrote:
> Way cool Tami,
>   how much did the battery pack cost you? 

     The invoice says my 4 Deka 8A27 120 AH (sealed) batteries cost $480 & the
     four 2G battery cables cost $75 in 2006 (of course that includes the
     contractor's markup).  They were installed with the PV system I got
     through Austin Energy's solar rebate program.  The batteries weren't
     rebated, but the ($5k) inverter was.  After the rebate, my cost was less
     than $9,500 for the entire system (before the economy went into the
     toilet).

     Now the rebates are less and materials co$t more dollar$; I looked at
     adding on to the system thru the rebate program last fall, but I couldn't
     afford it.

>   Do you want to try adding wind power to your system? If I had mine up and
>   running I could be making a fortune selling the power with the wind being
>   unrelenting of late.

     Wind is awesome.  It works even when the sun goes down!  Unfortunately,
     here in the creekbed, there's not enough to generate significant power,
     although the southern breeze does help cool the solar panels, so they can
     work better.

     I'm looking into a DC-only off-grid solar system that we can install
     ourselves.  We also have most of the materials for a (passive) solar hot
     water system.  DIY over time is affordable - contractors aren't.

.Tami
 .signature: syntax error at line 1: `(' unexpected

I'm not a robot, but I played one on TV.


> -----Original Message-----
> >From: Tami <kd5rju at wb5aoh.dyndns.org>
> >Sent: Jun 8, 2008 6:08 PM
> >To: robotgroup at puremagic.com
> >Subject: [Robotgroup] An interesting time

> >Last Sunday, (1 Jun 2008) in the late afternoon we lost grid power in parts
> >of the neighborhood.  It took AE about 3 hours to get around to fixing it.
> >Meanwhile I got to evaluate my backup power - which continued seamlessly on
> >all the emergency circuits.

> >Styx, the IBM thinkpad Jacob Brown loaned to me over 6 years ago was still
> >running fine on its (own LiON) battery power when I shut it down about an
> >hour into the outage!  I'm impressed!

> >I ran on sunlight for most of the time.  I took a movie of the the
> >oscilloscope displaying the nice, smooth sine wave of the backup power.

> >The refrigerator, freezer and ham radios worked continuously without so
> >much as a hiccup when the grid died and when it came back on-line.  Full
> >power was restored shortly after 7:30 PM.  My 2.5 year old batteries did
> >well, (we ran mostly on solar, but the batteries started taking over before
> >the line was fixed).  They were all still almost fully charged at the end
> >of the event.

> >It was pleasently quiet outside in the nice south breeze without the buzz
> >of AC compressors.  Not a bad experience at all.

> >Getting a battery backed up system was one of the best decisions I ever
> >made.  Had this been a days- or weeks-long event, my (Outback) system has
> >the option of plugging in a generator to supplement the solar power.  If
> >that happens, I'll RTFM.

> >.Tami
> > .signature: syntax error at line 1: `(' unexpected
> >
> >I'm not a robot, but I played one on TV.

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