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PowEp001 – Brief Intro into our Off Grid System
In the first of the PowerCut episodes of the podcast a brief introduction to our Off Grid System is given.
~~~ DISCLAIMER ~~~
Every Off Grid system and experience is going to be unique.
The components we have in our system were selected by us to suit our budget and purpose.
Our challenges partly relate to our system not being large enough to comfortably sustain a modern home of our size and the number of people that dwell there.
This is due to the fact that we have been building up our system over time since we went fully Off-Grid in 2011.
We decided to go off-grid because the cost to connect to the grid and get power to our site was too expensive.
We have a standard 3 bedroom home with a small office and attached garage, the entire house is fully insulated, we have double glazed windows, an open plan kitchen, dining and living area, a main bathroom, a separate W/C and the master bedroom features an en suite.
There are a multitude of alternative setups you could have, however this is what we are working with.
** We do not offer advice on setting up Off Grid Systems, or have an affiliation with any of the suppliers mentioned below. **
Additional Notes / Tech Specifications to the Podcast:
12 Solar Panels – 1 @ 190 watts, 11 @ 200 watts
16 x 225AH 6V Crown wet cell batteries wired in series for a 24V system – 4 batteries to each series.
Our house runs on the NZ Standard of 230/240V AC (50Hz) not on DC power.
The Outback components are the:
Regulator / Charge Controller – is the 80amp FLEXMax 80
A 3kW Inverter Charger – Vented GVFX3024E (50Hz)
*( If you follow the link you will notice that our model of inverter / charger has been discontinued and the new version can be found here : VFXR3024E )
We have the MATE for the FLEXMax80 in our main living/dining area for easy access to monitor the power and from there we can turn the generator on when required.
The Generator we have is a 6kVA Diesel Silent Generator.
Wagener Fairburn Woodrange – we have the model in the image featured at the top of the page: The ‘Wagener Fairburn on legs’
The hot water cylinder connected to the wetback has the 3kW element and I will need to confirm the total capacity.
The Fridge we have is the LG 450L bottom mount refrigerator which uses 299kWh / year.
As for other high energy consuming appliances, we do also have a microwave I forgot to menton which uses 1000kW – this is only used occasionally and like all our other appliances: If an appliance is not in use, they are switched off. No appliances are left on ‘standby mode’ (such as the t.v. – it is switched off at the wall).
If you have any questions or would like to share your experiences, please let me know via the links below.
Connect with Sunshine & PowerCuts on:
Facebook – @SunshineAndPowerCuts
Twitter – @SunPowerPod
Instagram – @SunPowerPod
Music: Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven from the https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music