Electricity needs when the grids down.

[earthman]

(28 February 2024, 22:23)Pete Grey Wrote: If I had a large solar power bank I would reduce some of the needs, say lights all LED powered by batteries at night, and the central heating pump, when the panels aren’t charging.

In day time when the panels are working (21 panels should give a fare old wack), I would use timers to stager the times for the freezer and washing machine and probably also an immersion heater if possible. When NOT using 240volts I would charge the battery bank.

With 21 panels, most likely 180W = 3.8kW, If only 75% efficient 2.8kW - 11.5amps at 240volts.
If just 50% efficiency 1.9kW - 8amps, (240v), still very useful, but would need to schedule use.

Going by own real world experience, all such calculations fall short in real life, just like with the claimed range of these electric cars for examples.

I researched solar set ups for months before I bought mine, watched videos of two different homes running domestic appliances in the States for example, they disconnected their expensive Tesla wall system from the grid, just to see how long they could run for whilst living normally shall we say, the longest run for 29 days if I remember correctly.

Unless you have land to put a farmers size solar array of panels and enough battery storage, forget it, it's just not possible to run a 'normal' domestic home 24/7 off a solar set up, especially here in the not so sunny UK.

My system is currently set up in 'eco mode' so my consumption switches between grid, solar panels or battery, which ever is the cheapest/best to draw from at what time of day and conditions basically. The excess can be sent back to the grid, we get money back for that which is nice, during the Summer months we get close to £1000 compared to the Autumn and Winter, it's around £300 or £400 if I remember correctly.