Off the grid

[Norvic]

http://www.csenergy.com.au/content-(168)-wivenhoe.htm

Above is one such successful pumped hydro project, that illustrates it has been working for awhile.

Another just started up North................http://www.genexpower.com.au/

Suspect we will see more such projects if our political system can get around the obstacles.

 

[BigWave]

I was on a massive property out of Carnarvon where they used a combination of solar and wind with genny back-up.
They also had bore water with around a 5m head which they used through a waterwheel and alternator. Not sure how much power it produced, but was quite a volume of water flowing - output shared between homestead tanks, gardens and livestock.

 

[Gem in I]

Wow, more options.... mini hydro...I wish, some good thoughts surfacing though. What else is out there?
Perhaps wave and tide energy? Just got to build my dream home in a sunny spot, on a hill, by a river, near the windy coast and have a generator and bloody big battery!!
Better buy some lottery tickets lol. {)

A bicycle might work then ?

 

[OzzieAu]

Just finished watching Four Corners... a US military panels' perspective on climate change and the implications for global conflict etc.
Pretty thought provoking. Any climate change sceptics out there might want to check it out.

 

[Norvic]

Climate change has been going on since year one eg. up here where I live 250million years or so ago the climate was influenced by 7 massive active volcanoes, just a wee bit hot for life. But good for gold....... Climate change happened in the past is happening now and don`t matter whether we humans believe it or not, will happen in the future. To the earth we are simply another species here for a bit, nothing more nothing less. But and I stress this is just my view.

 

[dam it]

So me not being a tech head I will keep it short
I brought a 10kw off grid system for one of my houses yesterday $13500 plus instulation costs ( $1000-$1500)
Hopefully get instuled before Xmas
I will keep updates comeing :Y:

 

[Dignit]

If you have river flow frontage check out Kourispower.com.
I know the inventor.
It is a centrifugal turbine that works on flow of water. In short he drops water from one height in to a tank with outlet at a lower height. This creates a vortex and he puts an impeller connected to a generator in the center of the vortex. Vortex spins the impeller and generator creating electricity. He has patented it world wide.
Cheers

 

[Occasional_panner]

So me not being a tech head I will keep it short
I brought a 10kw off grid system for one of my houses yesterday $13500 plus instulation costs ( $1000-$1500)
Hopefully get instuled before Xmas
I will keep updates comeing :Y:

Ripper! that's a whopper system.

 

[Simmo]

If you have river flow frontage check out Kourispower.com.
I know the inventor.
It is a centrifugal turbine that works on flow of water. In short he drops water from one height in to a tank with outlet at a lower height. This creates a vortex and he puts an impeller connected to a generator in the center of the vortex. Vortex spins the impeller and generator creating electricity. He has patented it world wide.
Cheers

Hey Bud,
I met a dude in the Daintree up here years ago... he was a guitar maker I believe???
Anyway, he had the same sort of system... He diverted water from a tiny pond upstream, then sent it via pipe, down and through his turbine....
He had (I think) kettle elements hanging in the wind which were his load dump!!!

Anyway it turned out the department charged (or attempted to) him for the water that he was diverting from its natural course.......
Same water in, same water out....but charges incurred...

I dont know what happened in the end, but I could understand his anger at the time.

 

[minkawilson]

Throw an old washing machine or 2 in a fast moving creek.....

24hr charging, if you have the water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ieFZI4-6K8&t=8s

 

[Occasional_panner]

Been thinking of up dating our solar system, absolutly pissoff with $500 year Service Charge to have the meter on the wall; + the Kw useage cost. The theives increased the cost 50% from 2012 - 2015, and our govt approved this, bit above 3% inflation.
Was thinking wind, or a Solar tracking system. Have to get batterys too.

Can you clarify this mate?
So to be grid connected with solar it's an extra service charge of $500 to have the meter on the wall?
Is that $500 on top of normal line & supply charges?

 

[ken2m]

That's a grid tied system you have, when the mains go down, so will your system.
Off grid is totally different and costly.

I did not say we were off the grid, just mentioning our setup at the moment. If we did add batteries though we would still have power if the mains went down, but at the moment you are right we are still very grid dependant. One step at a time

You may be surprised when the power is down, all solar systems cannot feed back into the grid when no voltage is present. The solar regulator synchronizes with the mains before switching on. Functionally you could run a generator to provide a sync signal for the solar, BUT THIS IS ILLEGAL IF YOU ARE MAINS CONNECTED The reason is so that when a circuit is isolated the last thing that should happen is that a solar system keeps the grid power running normally when emergency services and power company employees are working on street wiring. Ken.

 

[Occasional_panner]

I picked up a 5 kw system from a demolition house recently, got a decent deal.
There is a grid connected Aurora 5kw inverter that I won't be using if anyone is interested.
Currently on the approved inverter list, so a new or upgraded install with this model is fine.
BTW beware if buying an inverter, as it has to be on the current approved list and it does change.
Decent brands have good specs that last well into the future.

 

[Occasional_panner]

That's a grid tied system you have, when the mains go down, so will your system.
Off grid is totally different and costly.

I did not say we were off the grid, just mentioning our setup at the moment. If we did add batteries though we would still have power if the mains went down, but at the moment you are right we are still very grid dependant. One step at a time

You may be surprised when the power is down, all solar systems cannot feed back into the grid when no voltage is present. The solar regulator synchronizes with the mains before switching on. Functionally you could run a generator to provide a sync signal for the solar, BUT THIS IS ILLEGAL IF YOU ARE MAINS CONNECTED The reason is so that when a circuit is isolated the last thing that should happen is that a solar system keeps the grid power running normally when emergency services and power company employees are working on street wiring. Ken.

Actually Ken, running a "reference mains supply" doesn't work with grid connected inverters as there is no voltage regulation in them.
They rely on the massive grid to suck up any over voltage, which is no problem whatsoever on a big grid system. That's why my grid connected inverter is useless to me if I want to go off grid, connecting it with the current inverter will over volt the system and make some nice magic smoke.
Edit, bloody pity, an extra 5kw sine wave sync'd supply would have been awesome.

 

[ken2m]

That's a grid tied system you have, when the mains go down, so will your system.
Off grid is totally different and costly.

I did not say we were off the grid, just mentioning our setup at the moment. If we did add batteries though we would still have power if the mains went down, but at the moment you are right we are still very grid dependant. One step at a time

You may be surprised when the power is down, all solar systems cannot feed back into the grid when no voltage is present. The solar regulator synchronizes with the mains before switching on. Functionally you could run a generator to provide a sync signal for the solar, BUT THIS IS ILLEGAL IF YOU ARE MAINS CONNECTED The reason is so that when a circuit is isolated the last thing that should happen is that a solar system keeps the grid power running normally when emergency services and power company employees are working on street wiring. Ken.

Actually Ken, running a "reference mains supply" doesn't work with grid connected inverters as there is no voltage regulation in them.
They rely on the massive grid to suck up any over voltage, which is no problem whatsoever on a big grid system. That's why my grid connected inverter is useless to me if I want to go off grid, connecting it with the current inverter will over volt the system and make some nice magic smoke.
Edit, bloody pity, an extra 5kw sine wave sync'd supply would have been awesome.

Bloody electricity companies misinforming customers. That was the info they were sprouting 8 years ago when we installed our system. Ken.

 

[BigWave]

Hi ken2m. Mate when you signed up in the burbs - no-one was off grid. It was just to save you power on-grid.
Going off-grid is a total sea-change in technology - well - it was then. The electricity companies weren't misinforming customers.
Your system has probably paid for itself nicely.

 

[Occasional_panner]

You can actually use a mains grid connected inverter to an off grid setup, BUT the reference inverter must be a low frequency type (which is not the norm) it would also have to be bloody big and also a form of regulation between the Grid connected inverter and the low frequency one, there are some boards available but really it all looks too much frigging around. If I already had a low freq inverter big enough I'd do it though.

 

[Occasional_panner]

If you did do that, the system would be running what the regulators call low voltage (240v) you need to be licensed sparky to work on this.
Grid connected inverters usually run on 300v.

Off grid inverters are available in different voltages, some are in the range of upto 600v but the ones you can wire up yourself have to be in systems of 120v or lower, which is classed as extra low voltage, meaning any dummy can wire them up.
But be very careful high amp dc at 12,24,48v can still kill, I fused a metal watch band once on a big batt bank and had a nice big burn exit path on my palm where the electricity exited, very lucky it left so close to the entry.