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Post by graynomad on Sept 21, 2014 10:34:35 GMT 10
Umm, my 20-year-old inverter will do that, not that I've tried because I'm off grid...well actually I have tried because I use a gennie, when the gennie is running 240v comes from that and any left over is used to charge the batteries. When the gennie is off the inverter takes over. All 100% seemless as it syncs the waveforms before switching over.
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Post by StepfordRenegade on Sept 21, 2014 12:52:08 GMT 10
Umm, my 20-year-old inverter will do that, not that I've tried because I'm off grid...well actually I have tried because I use a gennie, when the gennie is running 240v comes from that and any left over is used to charge the batteries. When the gennie is off the inverter takes over. All 100% seemless as it syncs the waveforms before switching over. So what you're saying is you've known about this for 20 years and you HAVEN'T TOLD US ABOUT IT?! Haha Oh the betrayal! Sounds perfect for us. Any idea what would be involved in switching inverters? Also, does anyone know how much a battery bank will set us back? I was under the impression they also need to be replaced every 10yrs or so.
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Post by graynomad on Sept 21, 2014 13:17:38 GMT 10
In my defence I've only owned the inverter for 15 years I would imaging you just buy a different inverter and have a sparky swap it over, but I've never dealt with on-grid stuff. Lead-acid(LA)/AGM batteries can last for a long time if properly maintained, 10 years would be achievable I think. In fact I have a mate who (I think) still has the same batteries after maybe 20, but he is anal about maintenance and a few years ago drained and refurbished them. LA style batteries do not like being discharged, so one trick is to have a bank that's much larger than you need so on a daily basis you say only get down to 80%, they will last a lot longer than if you get down to 50%. If you are on grid then they will be at 100% all the time unless there is a power failure, in this case they should last a heck of a long time. When I do my next system I think I will go either LiFePo4 or Nickel Iron (NI). LiFePo4 is a new chemistry that is a lot better than LA, but it's more expensive and requires some high-tech to keep under control. NI is the reverse, 100-year-old tech and could hardly care less about how you charge it. Also expensive but AFAIK some of Edison's original batteries are still working 80 years later, so not so bad if you consider that you should never have to replace them. Battery bank size depends on what size system you want of course, but as an idea we have 14 x 105AH 12v LA batteries, last I looked they were about $350 each. This is a pretty large system for a motorhome due to the weight but probably about standard for a house. Once again though my experience is with mobile off-grid.
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Paco
New member
Posts: 5
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Post by Paco on Oct 25, 2014 20:12:51 GMT 10
Some updates for everyone. My friends have a solar instillation company where I live, and new tech is coming on the market. you can get a battery system that is hooked up to the mains. If a blackout happens, apparently it switches to internal only, then when the power comes back on, it reconnects to the grid. This type of system has only been available for a few weeks, so time will tell if it is any good or work needs to be done to iron out the kinks. If it does what it says, it should be absolutely fantastic, store your own power for night time use and still make some money off the power companies. Any more info on this? Are there different size/storage amounts?
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