The Straw House Blog

New Homepower

There’s a new issue of Homepower out. It has a big article on a house with a massive solar system and all kinds of monitoring software. Looks like the Maui stuff, but I haven’t had a chance to read the article yet.

We’ve been getting between 10 and 11 amps out of our panels on the sunny days but we’re only barely keeping ahead of our requirements - and that’s with no fridge. We need to get the wind generator up to give the batteries a boost. The tower was recalled though and isn’t back yet, and the wind generator was recalled and is now going back to the factory for a retro-fit. All of which is moot though since we haven’t got any cable run, and won’t be until things thaw a bit more. Obviously we’re going to have a problem in the shoulder months when we have the heat and the fridge going at the same time. Although once we turn the heat off we can put the inverter back into Search mode, that’ll save us a little.