Does anyone have experience of using power, off-grid? For example, solar- or wind-generated power, stored in batteries and used as a source of power away from housing?
I am building a garden room at the moment. One of the tasks is to trench power from the house the length of the garden, into a field and on to the new building. That's straightforward (if expensive). An alternative might be to supply power to the building via solar panels and/or wind turbines, feeding power into batteries which could be used to power the building. Expensive to install, no doubt, but much more economical to run and ticking the "green" box.
Does anyone have experience in doing this? Perhaps powering a garden room, a caravan or RV? It would be useful to have some pointers as to where I could get further advice and information. I think this requirement is only likely to become more common in future.
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My in laws have solar on their house and made the same call to wait on battery tech.
I've not done it but if I was you I'd want the security of tapping in to the grid.
Even with the cost of electricity then, it was marginal as to if you'd ever even break even, batteries have a lifespan and due to our climate and the minimal amount you get for selling back to the grid it was likely to only ever cost me money.
So the big thing is what you will be using the room for and if you will be using any equipment that draws a lot of power such as how you will be heating it. If you are thinking of electric heating or cooking then the solar system required increases massively in terms of size and cost.
You then have to decide on battery technology- lead acid is cheaper but has less capacity and recharge cycles than lithium but lithium is more expensive.
starting point is a honest assessment of what the power required will be in terms of maximum spike (kettle for example) and constant use (fridge) especially if the usage is at night when you will be running of batteries 100%.
hope this helps
We get up to 80kw produced in the best sunny days.
I enquired about being off grid and the govt don't like it, so won't give any subsidy for those installations. Apparently they want control of the energy produced. Sadly even in a power outage (which we've had), the grid shuts off power to the house, even though it's producing 10kw p/h on solar.
As for the profit. It's almost nothing. For the 60kw+ excess sold to the grid in summer we don't even get a £1, that said we can run the whole house, cooking, washing, dryer and central heating all at no cost (when the sun is shining).
What I found out which I didn't realise, is that buying or selling electric etc is massively different throughout the day. The cost difference between 14:00 and 18:00 is about 15x more expensive, as lunchtime is when everyone is producing energy, but it's not got many users wanting it.
My feeling is it's not about the money, it's about saving something of the environmental impact of usage.
I can't see a comment stating the distance you need to cover.
https://uk.growattpower.com/pages/solar-generators