Soaring Energy Costs

A relatively simple thing folks could do to ease the pain, if they were a little more open minded, is run server batteries or the like on peak hours, and simply charge them off the grid on off peak hours.

Even more, just put the freezers and whatnot on timers, they really only need to run a few times a day.

I've said it many times before and will likely say it many times again, people need to be thinking about how to be self sufficient and making what moves they can to do so.

1x1_Speed_Craig said:

Good idea! It's one I have been looking at myself. There are a lot of battery option; the EG4 has gotten pretty good reviews from solar guru Will Prowse, even though they can be charged via the grid and not just with a solar array.

Shop All - Batteries - Page 1 - Signature Solar

EDIT: I'm looking at this from a preparedness standpoint moreso than a peak energy avoidance standpoint.

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I've always looked at it from a preparedness standpoint as well, until about a month ago, then it dawned on me I could load up and dump my banks to my advantage at much lower cost lol.

aber61 said:

I like the idea of putting my two freezers on timers. Do you have an idea of the off for x amount of time before it turns on for X amount of time?

BTW, I wake up this morning and my wife had a load of laundry in the dryer and the dishwasher going...off peak consumption.

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Kind of varies, but I have 3 freezers in the basement that are for our bulk meat purchases. So 1 full of beef, 1 full of pork, and 1 that we actually pull from.

The 2 that are just storage, are on a 4 on, 4 off timer, we make sure they never run from 4 to 8 pm. The one we pull from, is generally not full, so it doesn't stay cold quite as long, but we still leave it on a 4 on 4 off cycle. If you have one people get in and out of often, or isn't full of frozen things, it won't stay as cold as long.

And same, we do our laundry off peak, have the water softener programmed off peak, and run the living room and kitchen on the battery bank from 4-8pm.

Our combined gas/electric bill for February was 117 in a 1800 sq ft home.

Ain't gonna be no transgendered woke panels in my town!

My 14 kw system was, at the absolute outside high end range, 10k. But really more like 8.

And I didn't have to ask permission, so that's nice lol.

aber61 said:

Quick question on the type of timers for my freezers. Which ones to avoid and which ones are better?

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Mine are simple mechanical dials from Amazon, you can also get them at Menards.

1x1_Speed_Craig said:

When did you buy/build your system, and is it capable of handling 240v? How many days of autonomy do you have?

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I finished it last year.

The battery bank is 48v, it feeds the house, the house has as much 240v as it ever did. The battery pack is what provides days of autonomy, and the size of it as usage dictates it. To run my freezers and fridge I can unhook the panels and not have sun for 3 days. To party like it's 1999 with the AC on and everything else I wouldn't make it one.