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Sure! It's amazing work, but with the electric needs of the cabin I just think it might have been almost too high a quality of power (assuming the source isn't

by 3am 13y ago

Sure! It's amazing work, but with the electric needs of the cabin I just think it might have been almost too high a quality of power (assuming the source isn't subject to drought and deep freezes aren't a problem). The cabin looked like it was in a clearing, so I think he could have put in something like http://www.wholesalesolar.com/solarpowersystems/workshop-3-off-grid-solar-power-system.html http://www.wholesalesolar.com/solarpowersystems/workshop-3-o... (9kW) for a similar price. edit: please take this in the context of my first comment. I think he should be taking care of more of his thermal needs with non-electric sources, neither solar nor hydro. Also, nobody's load is continuous, and real life load correlates with daylight hours. Anyway, I'll stop, it's a really cool project and don't want to take anything away from it.

maxerickson 13y ago
That's only 1700 Watts continuous, assuming the sun matches whatever they used for the spec (and it sounds like he is getting at least 4 KW even during the winter).
jaggederest 13y ago
Yeah the effective power at the cabin is 7kW, you'd need 3 of those to mimic it, and I guarantee you that the microhydro was significantly less expensive than a single one of those. His whole system probably ran $10k or less considering he's winding his own transformers and doing his own electrical work.
Tuna-Fish 13y ago
That panel is advertised by it's manufacturer to produce up to 1222kWh/month. That's just 1.7kW continous. To match the 4 nozzles, you'd need 5 of them, and that's assuming no clouds. The nominal power values for wind and solar are peak values. When comparing with other ways of making power, you can in general divide them by 5. On top of that, he'd need a ~100kWh battery (cost >$10k) just for the day-night variation, more if he wanted to deal with days when the sun doesn't shine. Solar power is awesome, but it's actually a really bad way to produce power small-scale when off-grid. It's used because often it's the only way, but if hydro is an option, it's always much better. To use solar properly, you really want to either use it to run industry that can be adjusted to fit the output, or you want to spread it over a large geographical area to smooth out the peaks and back that up with something adjustable.
Tuna-Fish 13y ago
> real life load correlates with daylight hours This is only true reasonably near the equator. Where I'm now, the sun won't be up before I leave for work and it will be down again before I return. There is basically no load when the sun is up, except on weekends.
userulluipeste 13y ago
The hydroelectric system may also serve as a energy storage. The surplus of day-time energy from a solar power system may be used to pomp water upward for later use in the electro-hydraulic system. So those systems can therefore work combined, not in mutual exclusion.

by 3am 13y ago

maxerickson 13y ago

That's only 1700 Watts continuous, assuming the sun matches whatever they used for the spec (and it sounds like he is getting at least 4 KW even during the winter).

jaggederest 13y ago

Yeah the effective power at the cabin is 7kW, you'd need 3 of those to mimic it, and I guarantee you that the microhydro was significantly less expensive than a single one of those. His whole system probably ran $10k or less considering he's winding his own transformers and doing his own electrical work.

Tuna-Fish 13y ago

That panel is advertised by it's manufacturer to produce up to 1222kWh/month. That's just 1.7kW continous. To match the 4 nozzles, you'd need 5 of them, and that's assuming no clouds. The nominal power values for wind and solar are peak values. When comparing with other ways of making power, you can in general divide them by 5. On top of that, he'd need a ~100kWh battery (cost >$10k) just for the day-night variation, more if he wanted to deal with days when the sun doesn't shine. Solar power is awesome, but it's actually a really bad way to produce power small-scale when off-grid. It's used because often it's the only way, but if hydro is an option, it's always much better. To use solar properly, you really want to either use it to run industry that can be adjusted to fit the output, or you want to spread it over a large geographical area to smooth out the peaks and back that up with something adjustable.

Tuna-Fish 13y ago

> real life load correlates with daylight hours This is only true reasonably near the equator. Where I'm now, the sun won't be up before I leave for work and it will be down again before I return. There is basically no load when the sun is up, except on weekends.

userulluipeste 13y ago

The hydroelectric system may also serve as a energy storage. The surplus of day-time energy from a solar power system may be used to pomp water upward for later use in the electro-hydraulic system. So those systems can therefore work combined, not in mutual exclusion.