Never saw the benefit of electic cars

Oh wow… I would love to know more about an automatic disconnect from the grid.

Does your friend have a series inverter? Or does he have micro inverters, as we are getting… (one micro inverter behind each panel)?

If your friend can share any hardware advice, we have not yet installed our system, so if we have missed something important, we would appreciate any info that you and your friend may share!

:^)

jan

Mike,

We are not getting a powerwall at this time.

But if you know of the hardware that might allow a disconnect, other than pulling the meter… (joking).

Please share. Would love to be able to do what you suggest is possible.

We have not gotten our system installed yet.

Would love to learn what you know.

:^)

jan

iirc, automatic disconnects are required by the electrical code. Otherwise, your genny could light up a utility company worker who is trying to repair the lines.

Steve

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I’ve seen how an oil field can be returned to nature, and a very good job has been made of it. I don’t think that Nigeria is a good example. Any mess left there is due to bribery, corruption and a lack of political will by the Nigerian government.

The Nottingham oil field now:

A very nice area that I have visited - it can be done.

Try restoring this:

You should visit Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela where they have been drilling for oil for decades

The Captain

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Hi captainccs

The point that I’m making is that oil fields can be restored if people want them to be - I’ve given an example of this. I appreciate that in a lot of areas this is not done but it’s not because they can’t, just a case of they don’t want to:

Dukes Wood is an example of co-operation between the oil industry and the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust. It combines an area of ancient and secondary woodland with what was the site of the UK’s first oil field. Some of the ‘nodding donkey’ pumps have been restored and can be seen on the trail. On the nature trial you’ll find the bronze statue of The Oil Patch Warrior, commemorating the American ‘Roughnecks of Sherwood Forest’.

https://www.communityarchives.org.uk/content/organisation/dukes-wood-oil-museum

I don’t see any way you can restore a lithium pit which must be visible from space!

While I don’t have an example at hand I have seen open pit mines designed to be restored after the ore is extracted. In oil and in mining it’s a question of willingness to preserve nature.

The Sudbury nickel mines created a horrible moonscape and lots of acid rain as they burned the ore in the open to drive out the sulphur.

Decades later they have been recovering the landscape.

No need to demonize lithium mining.

The Captain

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I forgot the before - after pictures

010615_Copper_Cliff.jpg;w=960

https://www.google.com/search?q=before+and+after+sudbury+moonscape&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjhvI3PwPv7AhUQRhoKHeRfCNsQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=sudbury+moonscape&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQARgBMgQIIxAnMgYIABAHEB4yBggAEAgQHlAAWABgwxRoAHAAeACAAVmIAVmSAQExmAEAqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=9QKbY6HuEZCMaeS_odgN&bih=645&biw=1147&client=safari

The Captain

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Ok, looks really nice doesn’t it?

image

Andy

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I don’t know the specific details of any brands or anything.
A google search found this

Mike

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It’s called a transfer switch. They can be automatic or manual. If you were to get a Powerwall (or similar) some kind of a transfer switch would be part of the set up.

–Peter

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I don’t know for sure how this works.

Let’s say you were to get a manual transfer switch and then the grid goes down you would then switch to supply your breaker box from your solar instead of the grid. Sounds simple enough.

But, the way my solar is setup there is a switch already between the inverter and a breaker in my panel. This switch opens when the grid goes down, I guess via snooping on input from the grid because it also has to sync to the 60Hz grid frequency. You would need another switch that disconnects the grid from the main breaker panel but keeps the inverter to panel switch closed. Sort of complicated.

The simpler way I’ve seen some backup systems work is that they install a new sub panel with your critical loads on it and only this is powered from your solar/generator/battery/whatever and your main panel is unpowered when the grid goes down. So there is just one switch between your main panel and sub panel that disconnects from the grid but keeps power going to the sub panel.

Mike

Let’s see if we can figure this out. Keep in mind I’m just a lay person, but I’ve done a bit of digging into this for my own house. I’d like to think I’ve learned something in the process, but there’s no guarantee I have.

Indeed, it is pretty simple. A manual switch is one you have to operate manually. An automatic one operates automatically.

My understanding is the switch itself switches the power source from the grid to your backup source (batteries, generator, solar, whatever). It cuts off one and goes to the other at the same time. Hence, it transfers the source of your power. So you are using only one at a time.

Right. That is an isolation switch. When the grid goes down, you need to keep the solar power from going into the grid so that linemen are safe while working to restore power. Your home remains connected to the non-working grid. It is the solar power that is cut off. So you have neither solar nor grid. For some reason, this seems to be the standard installation. Probably so because it is simple. The switching mechanism can be built into the inverter. Basically the inverter stops working when the grid goes down. And all your potential solar production goes to waste, powering nothing.

That is my understanding as well. Its not unusual to have a backup power source that is only big enough to run critical loads. So you break those loads out into a separate panel, connect that panel to your backup power on one side and your main panel on the other. Then you put an isolation switch between the two panels. When power goes out, the circuits on the main panel lose power, but those on the sub-panel can use the backup power source. With solar panels, you need special inverters that will sync with the grid when the grid is running, and that can also operate separately from the grid when the grid is down. Conceptually, you could have separate inverters that are designed solely for off-grid use. When the grid goes down, you have to switch from one inverter to the other. That’s the transfer switch. You would transfer from the grid-tied inverters to the off-grid inverters.

–Peter

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If you exclude all human caused environmental issues, then there are no problems anywhere in the first place.

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I am grateful for all who educated us on how solar panels can work…

Happy Holidays​:christmas_tree::heavy_heart_exclamation::heavy_heart_exclamation:

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Tesla owners have blasted car charging chaos across the UK during the Christmas holiday with dozens of electric vehicles forced to wait in three hour queues.

Cars were logjammed up and down the country, with snaking queues spotted in Hertfordshire, Cumbria, Westmorland and Telford.

A video showing a massive line of Tesla electric cars waiting their turn at a charging station in Louisiana is making the rounds on the internet this week.

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EVs are the future, the infrastructure will catch up!

The Captain

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Hi Captainccs

I tend to agree with you, but until then I’m sticking with petrol

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At least 38 deaths have now been linked to a severe Arctic freeze that continues to pummel the US and Canada.

Cold temperatures do affect electric vehicles and steal some of their range. The amount of range lost depends on many factors such as the car itself, its potential range in normal weather, and whether the heat is on. According to AAA’s “Cold Weather Can Cut Electric Car Range by Over 40%”, EVs often lose 12% of their range in cold weather, but the loss leaps to 41% with the heater on full blast.

So, when it’s very cold don’t turn the heater on :slightly_smiling_face:

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Turn on the heated seats/stearing wherl and turn down the air temp if you need more range when it is cold. The heated surfaces are much more efficient.

Cannot wait for Dave’s Cybertruck​:rocket::rocket::rocket:

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