Hello crazy tech orientated people.
Technology plays a big part of my daily live. I'm following news about smartphones, consoles, GPUs, CPUs, TVs, Headphones, and many kinds of other technology heavy products.
The big steps tech is making is still blowing my mind. I've seen the Internet come to life, voice assistance being established, and portable supercomputers become the norm.
But I'll spare you my boomer like nostalgia and fascination.
Last year my wife and me started looking into a completely different kind of tech, that we knew existed, but not much more about: Solar Energy
And boy-o-boy, a lot has changed there too in the last twenty years. It turned out to be a surprisingly reliable and well working technology, making similar steps as the rest of the tech industry.
Long story short: After a long planning, decision-making and building phase: we installed a photovoltaic system and a home battery to make the most of our own energy source.
I. LOVE. IT
The best tech acquisition I ever made.
The feeling of typing this, while not taking any kind of energy from the gird: Awesome
The feeling of playing a game at night, and powering everything from a big battery: Awesome
The feeling of not paying for energy: Awesome
The feeling of actively doing my part against climate change: A bit of an illusion, but still awesome.
I do not want to bore you with numbers, and a detailed cost-benefit analysis, especially as those numbers are different everywhere, depend on state funding and tax cuts, the pV system provided, your location, your energy costs etc.
But just some thoughts and details for the people interested.
Now excuse me I need to keep looking at my dashboard(s).
(stark bewölkt = very overcast)
Technology plays a big part of my daily live. I'm following news about smartphones, consoles, GPUs, CPUs, TVs, Headphones, and many kinds of other technology heavy products.
The big steps tech is making is still blowing my mind. I've seen the Internet come to life, voice assistance being established, and portable supercomputers become the norm.
But I'll spare you my boomer like nostalgia and fascination.
Last year my wife and me started looking into a completely different kind of tech, that we knew existed, but not much more about: Solar Energy
And boy-o-boy, a lot has changed there too in the last twenty years. It turned out to be a surprisingly reliable and well working technology, making similar steps as the rest of the tech industry.
Long story short: After a long planning, decision-making and building phase: we installed a photovoltaic system and a home battery to make the most of our own energy source.
I. LOVE. IT
The best tech acquisition I ever made.
The feeling of typing this, while not taking any kind of energy from the gird: Awesome
The feeling of playing a game at night, and powering everything from a big battery: Awesome
The feeling of not paying for energy: Awesome
The feeling of actively doing my part against climate change: A bit of an illusion, but still awesome.
I do not want to bore you with numbers, and a detailed cost-benefit analysis, especially as those numbers are different everywhere, depend on state funding and tax cuts, the pV system provided, your location, your energy costs etc.
But just some thoughts and details for the people interested.
-8kWp Solar roof grid (East: 3.2kWp / West: 4.8kWp). The roof is full, there is no more place for more panels, or there would be more panels.
-8kWh max inverter, a bit oversized for east-west panels.
-10kWh battery (DC, LiFePO4)
-On a good, sunny summer day we are producing ~34kWh per day
-On a dreadful summer day, with rain and clouds we are still producing about 16kWh/day. Still more than enough to load up the battery for the night and to be 99% self-sufficient over the day.
- Winter (December, January, February) are a problem for solar power over here and we will still need to buy most of our energy in that period. But for the rest: we should be 80-99% self-sufficient. Starting with march.
Overall, we should be able to recuperate the investment costs in about 8-9 years (with state funding, tax breaks, prognosed energy saving, prognosed energy sellings).
Sounds a lot but it is not: All we did is pay for our energy bill in advance, something that we must pay for anyway. kWh/€ prices are constantly increasing over here, so the pay-off time and long-time "winnings" only have the potential to be a benefit for the investment.
Solar panels installed twenty years ago are still going strong to this very day and are the reason we can make good prognoses. The tech and materials only improved since then and even our panel manufacturer is providing a 20-year warranty now and a 25-year performance guarantee (85% of power generation after 25 years). Lithium-Iron-phosphate batteries are also reliable, long living and recyclable. The pack should hold for 15 years+ and by the time we'll need a new one, cost should be dramatically lower. Only thing that will need to be exchanged sooner than later: The Inverter, but even that has a 7-year warranty and should hold for 10+years as it is a bit oversized. Hopefully longer.
Our region is producing energy from coal. Sounds stupid, but our government decided to close every single nuclear powerplant and energy must come from somewhere.
While I see the problems from nuclear waste, the decision was rushed and made switching to a better, greener grid more difficult.
But that's another topic, this decision means that my region is releasing ~750g CO2 per 1kWh energy produced. Our panels should produce ~8000kWh of energy per year and independent of our usage, the overflow energy is going into the public grid and will be used by (probably) our direct neighbours.
~6000kg of CO2 will be saved by this investment. Make it just 4000kg... I shouldn't, but I feel a tiny bit proud.
And yes, many people will point out that solar panels do cost CO2 to be made, batteries too etc. But factoring in the worst possible transportation routes and production conditions. Even the worst kind of panels will go "neutral" after ~3 years of usage. After that they will start go CO2 positive, which is not something you can say about Consoles, Smartphones, Computers, etc. They never give energy back or help to lower CO2 output. Still, buying them is accepted. Even farming bitcoins is accepted...
If you have the possibility and have or plan to buy a small house sometime in the future. At least consider doing some research into solar energy. Once you start doing it and realize the benefits, you'll be addicted too.
-8kWh max inverter, a bit oversized for east-west panels.
-10kWh battery (DC, LiFePO4)
-On a good, sunny summer day we are producing ~34kWh per day
-On a dreadful summer day, with rain and clouds we are still producing about 16kWh/day. Still more than enough to load up the battery for the night and to be 99% self-sufficient over the day.
- Winter (December, January, February) are a problem for solar power over here and we will still need to buy most of our energy in that period. But for the rest: we should be 80-99% self-sufficient. Starting with march.
Overall, we should be able to recuperate the investment costs in about 8-9 years (with state funding, tax breaks, prognosed energy saving, prognosed energy sellings).
Sounds a lot but it is not: All we did is pay for our energy bill in advance, something that we must pay for anyway. kWh/€ prices are constantly increasing over here, so the pay-off time and long-time "winnings" only have the potential to be a benefit for the investment.
Solar panels installed twenty years ago are still going strong to this very day and are the reason we can make good prognoses. The tech and materials only improved since then and even our panel manufacturer is providing a 20-year warranty now and a 25-year performance guarantee (85% of power generation after 25 years). Lithium-Iron-phosphate batteries are also reliable, long living and recyclable. The pack should hold for 15 years+ and by the time we'll need a new one, cost should be dramatically lower. Only thing that will need to be exchanged sooner than later: The Inverter, but even that has a 7-year warranty and should hold for 10+years as it is a bit oversized. Hopefully longer.
Our region is producing energy from coal. Sounds stupid, but our government decided to close every single nuclear powerplant and energy must come from somewhere.
While I see the problems from nuclear waste, the decision was rushed and made switching to a better, greener grid more difficult.
But that's another topic, this decision means that my region is releasing ~750g CO2 per 1kWh energy produced. Our panels should produce ~8000kWh of energy per year and independent of our usage, the overflow energy is going into the public grid and will be used by (probably) our direct neighbours.
~6000kg of CO2 will be saved by this investment. Make it just 4000kg... I shouldn't, but I feel a tiny bit proud.
And yes, many people will point out that solar panels do cost CO2 to be made, batteries too etc. But factoring in the worst possible transportation routes and production conditions. Even the worst kind of panels will go "neutral" after ~3 years of usage. After that they will start go CO2 positive, which is not something you can say about Consoles, Smartphones, Computers, etc. They never give energy back or help to lower CO2 output. Still, buying them is accepted. Even farming bitcoins is accepted...
If you have the possibility and have or plan to buy a small house sometime in the future. At least consider doing some research into solar energy. Once you start doing it and realize the benefits, you'll be addicted too.
Now excuse me I need to keep looking at my dashboard(s).
(stark bewölkt = very overcast)
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