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>> should they as electricity rates at night are dirt cheap I dont know where you are but my electric rate is the same night or not... I pay the exact same ra

>> should they as electricity rates at night are dirt cheap I dont know where you are but my electric rate is the same night or not... I pay the exact same rate 24/7 I do not have demand based pricing which is reserved for business customers or persons consuming a crap load more power than I. >>At the end of the day the Power Companies are doing their level best to penalize home use Solar, they want to charge home owners through the nose if they "sell" power back to the grid eliminating any costs savings and in come cases making a roof top solar project more expensive than just buy power from the mafia err power companies. Distributed non-grid power should be the goal, Grid power needs to be phased out.

jstrom 12y ago
That's not necessary malicious on the part of the power company. At a previous job, we built a system for a company that prepared batteries through multiple charge/discharge phases. During a discharge, the power was pushed back onto the grid. The major challenge was matching the waveform of the grid power (occasional spikes confusing the zero-crossing, drift on the timer elements etc.). If you don't, it reduces the efficiency of the power company's transformer leading to replacement with a larger one, or damage due to the excess heat. You can imagine they're going to recover that expense from somewhere (and you and your dirty sine wave are pretty clearly at fault). I would expect the home systems to be less precise than our industrial client's equipment.
lotsofmangos 12y ago
A lot of UK homes have storage heaters that are powered at a cheaper rate at night on an off-peak circuit.
- laurencerowe 12y ago
  I never got the point of storage heaters. They're completely useless in the evening when you want heating. Much of the heat escapes when they're on overnight (while in bed so little need for it) and the rest during the day while you're at work.
  - Johnythree 12y ago
    The secret is good insulation and thermal design. If the house temperature doesn't fluctuate wildly day to night, your scenario doesn't apply. Plus you need a lot less heating.

jstrom 12y ago

That's not necessary malicious on the part of the power company. At a previous job, we built a system for a company that prepared batteries through multiple charge/discharge phases. During a discharge, the power was pushed back onto the grid. The major challenge was matching the waveform of the grid power (occasional spikes confusing the zero-crossing, drift on the timer elements etc.). If you don't, it reduces the efficiency of the power company's transformer leading to replacement with a larger one, or damage due to the excess heat. You can imagine they're going to recover that expense from somewhere (and you and your dirty sine wave are pretty clearly at fault). I would expect the home systems to be less precise than our industrial client's equipment.

lotsofmangos 12y ago

A lot of UK homes have storage heaters that are powered at a cheaper rate at night on an off-peak circuit.

laurencerowe 12y ago
I never got the point of storage heaters. They're completely useless in the evening when you want heating. Much of the heat escapes when they're on overnight (while in bed so little need for it) and the rest during the day while you're at work.
- Johnythree 12y ago
  The secret is good insulation and thermal design. If the house temperature doesn't fluctuate wildly day to night, your scenario doesn't apply. Plus you need a lot less heating.