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You should really do an energy audit to figure out why you are using so much power. There is likely a more optimal way of spending your money to optimize your e

by Ballas 4y ago

You should really do an energy audit to figure out why you are using so much power. There is likely a more optimal way of spending your money to optimize your energy requirements. I have 5kWp and that generates more than double my needs on average (albeit in an even more solar friendly location than you).

kkfx 4y ago
It's not that much power, it's simply the normal home needs: being a new home it's ALL electric, heating/cooling, cooking, hot water, ... if you have a classic home where for instance heating/cooling is not needed of course the story SEEMS different until you do a bit of conversion: - 1 standard m³ CH₄ is ~10.36kWh - LPG in standard m³ is ~12.80kWh in kg ~10.87kWh - 1kg of pellets ~4-5 kWh - 1 liter of heating oil (it's name vary from country to country, but it essentially diesel in the west) is ~11.1kWh - 1kg of reasonably dry coal is ~10 kWh Once you compute ALL your energy consumption you'll see similar data. Oh, of course, in mere math terms I can produce 110-130% of my overall consumption from the grid. BUT that's just math, it's not autonomy because it compute locally generated energy vs locally absorbed energy from the grid. Autonomy means you have to store or use ALL the energy you produce. Look at your self-consumed energy not the balance between what you give to the grid and what you get from it. To dig more: - try to measure how much energy you use for heating/cooling - how much for hot water - how much for cooking - how much for VMC if any - how much for the car You'll might be astonished about the result in mere kWh.
- lostmsu 4y ago
  But most of the heating is the space heating, and heat pumps have way over 100% efficiency while gas burning is <100%
  - kkfx 4y ago
    Sure, but we still need heating. For instance the last days (-8℃ to 6℃) from 17:30 to 10:00 in the morning I need from 1 to 1.8kW constant power for main home heat pump and VMC small one. When the Sun shine I do not need heating, large glass surfaces on the south side get enough heat directly from the Sun, but from p.v. I have around 3 hours with enough power for doing useful things, like dishwasher, washing machine, hot water heater etc not more now and Sunny days are still very few compared to cloudy/rainy/snowy ones. In the coldest part of the winter (-25℃ to -3℃) sometimes I need 3kW just for heating. And even if not much used I also have to recharge my car witch eat around 60-70kWh/week. If you go northern, for instance when I was in south Sweden the home ALONE, witch was not super-new but still relatively new and well insulated, eat around 60kWh/day... Sure, from late May to September from the grid I consume VERY little, but as I said I live all the year, being unable to hibernate like bears...

by Ballas 4y ago

kkfx 4y ago

It's not that much power, it's simply the normal home needs: being a new home it's ALL electric, heating/cooling, cooking, hot water, ... if you have a classic home where for instance heating/cooling is not needed of course the story SEEMS different until you do a bit of conversion: - 1 standard m³ CH₄ is ~10.36kWh - LPG in standard m³ is ~12.80kWh in kg ~10.87kWh - 1kg of pellets ~4-5 kWh - 1 liter of heating oil (it's name vary from country to country, but it essentially diesel in the west) is ~11.1kWh - 1kg of reasonably dry coal is ~10 kWh Once you compute ALL your energy consumption you'll see similar data. Oh, of course, in mere math terms I can produce 110-130% of my overall consumption from the grid. BUT that's just math, it's not autonomy because it compute locally generated energy vs locally absorbed energy from the grid. Autonomy means you have to store or use ALL the energy you produce. Look at your self-consumed energy not the balance between what you give to the grid and what you get from it. To dig more: - try to measure how much energy you use for heating/cooling - how much for hot water - how much for cooking - how much for VMC if any - how much for the car You'll might be astonished about the result in mere kWh.

lostmsu 4y ago
But most of the heating is the space heating, and heat pumps have way over 100% efficiency while gas burning is <100%
- kkfx 4y ago
  Sure, but we still need heating. For instance the last days (-8℃ to 6℃) from 17:30 to 10:00 in the morning I need from 1 to 1.8kW constant power for main home heat pump and VMC small one. When the Sun shine I do not need heating, large glass surfaces on the south side get enough heat directly from the Sun, but from p.v. I have around 3 hours with enough power for doing useful things, like dishwasher, washing machine, hot water heater etc not more now and Sunny days are still very few compared to cloudy/rainy/snowy ones. In the coldest part of the winter (-25℃ to -3℃) sometimes I need 3kW just for heating. And even if not much used I also have to recharge my car witch eat around 60-70kWh/week. If you go northern, for instance when I was in south Sweden the home ALONE, witch was not super-new but still relatively new and well insulated, eat around 60kWh/day... Sure, from late May to September from the grid I consume VERY little, but as I said I live all the year, being unable to hibernate like bears...