Solar power

[Mike J]

4 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

While this may be the case, replacing batteries in the Philippines is likely cheaper than Canada.

vs 

12,500 Pesos is about 1/3 the cost of 900 Canadian dollars and a person would likely be able to get that cost down.  I spent 20,000 pesos on 2 12V 200AH batteries a few years back so, with inflation, the 12.5K sounds right. Those 2 batteries would back up my 3000 amp inverter for 8 to 12 hours.  I suspect about 6 of those batteries would keep the essentials running for 24 hours quite nicely. 

One is a deep cycle gel battery, the other is LIFePo4.  Very different and like like comparing a Multicab pickup to a Ford Raptor.    Also at least two posters say on grid systems will not work during a brown out.  True at night, but they work fine during the day which is when scheduled brown outs occur.  Many folks begin with a system either on/off grid, then add batteries as they can afford them.

[Clermont]

18 hours ago, fillipino_wannabe said:

On grid solar is much better in terms of saving money but won't work during a brownout. Better to just get a generator if its just for brownouts, mine lasts about 12 hours+ even with 2hp of aircon on, would probably be 24 hours+ without.

Inverter is the modern way to go, cheap easy to use and puts out more power than you think.

[Onemore52]

I would also like to install solar and the associated equipment to take advantage of the sunlight but my biggest fear is finding an honest person to do the sales and service, this phobia I have is more than warranted after being ripped off by everyone that I have had dealings with in the province, and I mean every swinging dick.

So I will just have to keep paying 8k a month rather than make some mongrel rich.

[hk blues]

17 hours ago, Huggybearman said:

We used to have regular brownouts lasting anything up to 4 to 8 hours, sometimes longer. About 8 years ago I assembled a decent sized UPS with a good quality 1000w pure sine wave inverter, a decent multi stage ‘intelligent’ battery charger and 2 x 110ah 12v deep cycle gel batteries wired to give 220ah. That worked well, I could run a large flat screen led tv, internet, two fans, several lights and it would last about five hours or so without running the batteries down to below about 50% capacity. The problem was that the batteries only lasted about 12 to 18 months before needing replacement. Even though they were quite expensive they were cheap Chinese construction and didn’t last. Having got through three sets of batteries I decided to purchase a little Honda eu10i 900 watt gasoline suitcase inverter generator. It is extremely quiet and in eco mode, running everything I ran before with the UPS, gives me over 8 hours running on a 2 liter tank of fuel. I can even run the fridge freezer as well during prolonged brownouts.
It always starts first pull and is extremely reliable. I had one many years on my boat in the UK and used it regularly over 10 years. It never missed a beat! They aren’t cheap, but you certainly get what you pay for!

With fewer and fewer brownouts, and shorter and shorter ones as well, I think the trend is positive so have decided not to invest in either a generator or even a solar set-up.  I have a UPS which is only used for our modem as I do online classes and cannot have any interruption when teaching, even for as little time as it would take to fire up a generator - it's good for as many hours as I need given my laptop will give up the ghost long before the UPS does.   If we were to go back 7 or 8 years to when we 1st arrived I would be thinking of a generator rather than a solar set-up.

[Snowy79]

I helped my friend instal solar, 15kwh with 300A back up LiFePo4 batteries, more than enough for a large house overnight and no electric bills, during the day it barely uses the power available from the solar so technically he could power a couple of houses or boarding rooms which is a plan. Everything was bought and imported direct from the supplier in China saving a fortune. We think it will pay for itself in a couple of years and no noisy generator or queuing up to buy fuel when the typhoons pass by.  So far they've been saved from a couple of all day brown outs as the power company carried out upgrades and a few smaller ones.

[Possum]

6 hours ago, Snowy79 said:

I helped my friend instal solar, 15kwh with 300A back up LiFePo4 batteries, more than enough for a large house overnight and no electric bills, during the day it barely uses the power available from the solar so technically he could power a couple of houses or boarding rooms which is a plan.

That is a big system for a  residence but a wise investment. I didn't choose to go the battery route for two reasons. 1. We have normally reliable expensive electricity here. 2. The battery system were expensive. I figured I could but a cheap diesel generator or two and a lot of diesel fuel for the price of batteries. However, when battery technology improves and the price of them goes down I'll likely switch. The primary reason I installed the PV system was to lower monthly costs and be comfortable without a 8000/month bill. When people ask me when it will pay for itself I tell them it will be long before their meter pays for itself but roughly at current rates about 5 years. If I used electricity like I used to before the PV panels? About 3 years.

[hk blues]

11 hours ago, Possum said:

That is a big system for a  residence but a wise investment. I didn't choose to go the battery route for two reasons. 1. We have normally reliable expensive electricity here. 2. The battery system were expensive. I figured I could but a cheap diesel generator or two and a lot of diesel fuel for the price of batteries. However, when battery technology improves and the price of them goes down I'll likely switch. The primary reason I installed the PV system was to lower monthly costs and be comfortable without a 8000/month bill. When people ask me when it will pay for itself I tell them it will be long before their meter pays for itself but roughly at current rates about 5 years. If I used electricity like I used to before the PV panels? About 3 years.

Your figures look just about right based on the rough calculation I did a couple of years ago - the big difference is we are around 3.5kphp a month for electricity so the payback period doubles to around 10 years.  And that was without batteries so no advantage in a brownout either.  I decided it didn't make economic sense for us.

[BLM]

Thanks for all the input.  We decided to hold off on a backup power system. The cost, plus the maintenance were the main factors. We don't have frequent brownouts so we can get by using LP gas. 

[jimeve]

On 7/31/2023 at 10:33 AM, hk blues said:

With fewer and fewer brownouts, and shorter and shorter ones as well, I think the trend is positive so have decided not to invest in either a generator or even a solar set-up.  I have a UPS which is only used for our modem as I do online classes and cannot have any interruption when teaching, even for as little time as it would take to fire up a generator - it's good for as many hours as I need given my laptop will give up the ghost long before the UPS does.   If we were to go back 7 or 8 years to when we 1st arrived I would be thinking of a generator rather than a solar set-up.

probably is in your neck of the woods but We had a 16 hour brownout last week and no explanation from the power provider. Good job I had my two lead acid batteries wired up in series to give me 24v. or my beer would have got warm.

[hk blues]

Just now, jimeve said:

probably is in your neck of the woods but We had a 16 hour brownout last week and no explanation from the power provider. Good job I had my two lead acid batteries wired up in series to give me 24v. or my beer would have got warm.

Yep, I understand it is location-dependant.  We had a 12-hour brownout on Sunday but it was a planned one and we were able to plan around it.  We haven't had an unplanned outage longer than 2-3 hours for as long as I can remember.