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Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
Green Building Bible, fourth edition (both books)
These two books are the perfect starting place to help you get to grips with one of the most vitally important aspects of our society - our homes and living environment.

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    • CommentAuthorGBP-Keith
    • CommentTimeAug 11th 2008 edited
     
    Here is collected data for most of my offgrid system components for June 2008. Three things should be noted.

    1. Our consumption goes up and down with the amount of available energy. Some element of draconian rule is enforced during shortages and profligate uses goes on in times of high generation such as cook-ins washing and bathing.

    2. The monitoring of the wind turbines is approximate due to the lack of DC total generation meters and the absence of advance monitoring components in wind turbine installations at present. Not sure why this is. it may be that wind turbine manufacturers are shy of us knowing the true output of their kit.

    3. A small amount of generation from a micro hydro has to be worked in here soon but the contribution is tiny and the unit is only used in times of extreme energy shortage.
    • CommentAuthorTuna
    • CommentTimeAug 12th 2008 edited
     
    You couldn't convert your amp-hours graphs into kWh's so that they can be directly compared with your usage figures, could you?

    The data is fascinating - thank you for sharing the information.
    • CommentAuthordickster
    • CommentTimeAug 12th 2008
     
    Thank you Keith for your hard work and valuable information.

    Am I right in thinking that this year has been crap (in the UK) for solar energy?

    I've used your previous figures in my effort to see whether solar anything is worthwhile in our poorly located position (trees. not facing south). At the moment it is a no.
    • CommentAuthorGBP-Keith
    • CommentTimeAug 13th 2008 edited
     
    Thanks both. This summer has been disappointing for solar but the spring and a good deal of last winter was pretty good.

    I'll look into the kWh idea but most system readings are in amphours.
  1.  
    Just divide the ah/day by 40 and it will give a good approximation to kWh/day.
    • CommentAuthorGBP-Keith
    • CommentTimeOct 7th 2008 edited
     
    August consumption data. I am not currently measuring the energy sent to the dump loads.
    • CommentAuthorGBP-Keith
    • CommentTimeOct 7th 2008 edited
     
    • CommentAuthorGBP-Keith
    • CommentTimeDec 21st 2008
     
    This is really tricky. I'm now going to introduce the output from the water turbine to the charts to make things more accurate. The water turbine has not been included before because it's output was so fickle and intermittent. It now forms a small but core aspect of my 'winter' system.

    It is 'a fact' that without it I would have had to go on the grid in late October for occasional support.

    Therefore at this point, I conclude that the combined efforts of:
    a 2.5kW wind turbine
    a 400w wind turbine
    a 750w solar tracker
    a 480w solat static array
    a 440w solar static array
    and a 1680ah 24volt battery bank (granted it is almost 30 years old)

    are NOT enough combined to keep and average family off the electricity grid from October to probably March but let's see.
    • CommentAuthorGBP-Keith
    • CommentTimeDec 21st 2008 edited
     
    When you look at the next charts, remember that my consumption is wholly predicted by the available energy. Our October consumption is lower than June. It is the 'making hay when the sun shines' phenomenon and is part and parcel of living by monitors and restrictions. In June we cook every day on an electric cooker. In October we cook most days with a woodburning cooker (not by choice I might add).
    • CommentAuthorGBP-Keith
    • CommentTimeDec 21st 2008 edited
     
    October offgrid data.
      consumption-October08.jpg
      battery-con-October.jpg
      daily-wind-october08.jpg
      tracker-ahday_Oct08.jpg
      water-turbine_october08.jpg
    • CommentAuthorGBP-Keith
    • CommentTimeDec 21st 2008 edited
     
    Windless November data.
      consump-November08(new).jpg
      battery-con-November.jpg
      daily-wind-November08.jpg
      tracker-ahday_Nov082.jpg
      water-turbine_November08.jpg
    • CommentAuthorGBP-Keith
    • CommentTimeDec 21st 2008
     
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