SorryNotSorry Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 I spent part of MLKday weekend pulling out more old wiring from my house and replacing it with newer, heavier gauge wire, which I connected to my homemade bus boxes up inside the attic crawl space. Just about all of the house is running on solar now, except for 3 sockets which I still need to wire... the only things still running off the grid are the garage, and the 240V charger my buddy and I hardwired for charging our cars (that will be the holy grail of our solar conversion project). We've taught ourselves a lot about wiring and construction, and now we've got 2 different people interested in coaching them on which panels and other hardware to buy for their own home solar conversion projects, and how to install the stuff. It helps to have a big budget and sufficient real estate, but you can save thousands of dollars by buying the components and building your own system like we did. In fact, my buddy and I have plans to make testimonial YT vids expaining how we did it. The rest is all just simple math. Link to post Share on other sites
Prufrock, but like, worse Posted January 16, 2018 Share Posted January 16, 2018 Solar. Freaking. Roadways. Link to post Share on other sites
Skycaptain Posted January 17, 2018 Share Posted January 17, 2018 Good for you that it's working. Do you have some form of battery or similar for night or heavy usage? Link to post Share on other sites
SorryNotSorry Posted January 17, 2018 Author Share Posted January 17, 2018 7 hours ago, Skycaptain said: Good for you that it's working. Do you have some form of battery or similar for night or heavy usage? Yes, currently using 4 Group 27 boat batteries, with plans to add 2 more. It would require at least 12 batteries in all to be able to charge a Leaf overnight. Also am planning on building my own ham radio-based solar digipeater which will have an internet gateway and run on a backup of 5 motorcycle batteries and a separate panel... but that's a topic for a thread about net neutrality. Link to post Share on other sites
Skycaptain Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 Good news for EV drivers. Nissan for one are saying that they've underestimated battery life, there are Leafs (Leaves) with 150-200k miles still running on the original battery pack working well Link to post Share on other sites
SorryNotSorry Posted January 23, 2018 Author Share Posted January 23, 2018 7 hours ago, Skycaptain said: Good news for EV drivers. Nissan for one are saying that they've underestimated battery life, there are Leafs (Leaves) with 150-200k miles still running on the original battery pack working well EVs wear differently from gas & diesel vehicles. The battery pack can get fatigued over time and have to be replaced, but there are very few moving parts other that the motor's armature, reduction gear, and differential. Internal combustion engines wear out because they have so many moving parts subject to friction no matter how well they're lubricated. But EVs are rapidly approaching the point where it's becoming more economical to replace a fatigued battery pack than to rebuild an engine. Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.