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New House Electricity Pre Planning


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In saying that too, good audio equipment, well designed and though out power supplies within the gear will be good at rejecting noise, to a point.

 

Enter, low Impedance Supply, to the parts of the gear that need lots of Juice.

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Ok, for the solar component.

 

Mr Screamer needs to answer some questions first.

 

What is the Contract Worth for your KWh Export, in $ and Cents ?

Is there some sort of TAX on a Solar Connection and how much is that exactly ?

What are the Local Laws with regard to multi phase and is it compulsory to export on all phases ?

What is the cost of the Export Metering as compared to a normal meter ?

 

We can then measure and weigh this additional cost for viability.

 

A profile of consumption then needs to be partially developed.

Question

Is everyone out at work when the sun is shining ? 

 

With this information and all above questions answered, we can then go on to, to off grid/on grid and its viability.

 

Solar done and dusted, now onto the juicy stuff, supplying the home, shed and stereo.

 

Ok most of those I won't know until I do some serious investigation into purchasing solar...

 

Current electricity bill is $289 previous $321, and before that $308 and before that $320

Gas bills were $168 ,$160, $178, $156. We have gas stove, gas hot water and gas oven.

 

Due to space limitations I am currently only powering 2 active speakers and no subs. Once in the house I plan to have a minimum of a 7.1 system with few more amps being used. Currently don't have my projector set up either.

 

For the last 2.5 years while the sun has been out my lazy butt has been in bed, but the new house will force me back to work. So I guess 9-5 Mon to Fri probably not at home.

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Must be coffee/smoke break time.

 

Re convene tomorrow evening, moving on into the house. This is the bit where it is really quite interesting and actually really simple.

 

Will also explain exactly what a solar inverter does for a distorted wave form, it isn't sinister square wave stuff or noise making, it is actually to the contrary, with good quality gear.

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Interestingly, have you put a CRO on the supply to measure and observe any waveform distortion ?

 

If you have a reasonable supply, there may be no need to get into regeration

 

That's the hope. The more I can clean up the supply the less equipment I need to buy to clean it up.

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Ok most of those I won't know until I do some serious investigation into purchasing solar...

 

Current electricity bill is $289 previous $321, and before that $308 and before that $320

Gas bills were $168 ,$160, $178, $156. We have gas stove, gas hot water and gas oven.

 

Due to space limitations I am currently only powering 2 active speakers and no subs. Once in the house I plan to have a minimum of a 7.1 system with few more amps being used. Currently don't have my projector set up either.

 

For the last 2.5 years while the sun has been out my lazy butt has been in bed, but the new house will force me back to work. So I guess 9-5 Mon to Fri probably not at home.

Sure, will worry about the Solar later. Your bill is not excessive, well done.

\Off Grid for Stereo is seriously hard core on the wallet and you need an Engineer (or insanely experienced Audiophile Sparky to set it up properly)

 

Tomorrow will explain a proven method of making the best out of 2 circuits to the stereo system.

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Fact

The Stereo Power Supply, in the photo uses a grid tie Inverter as a charger for the battery in a round about way  :) it is inaudible on the supply, the Inverter supply that is. (Was a hell of a relief too as I was not 100% convinced until  put into service)

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Ok I have heard about people discussing earth loops and hum problems, assuming this comes from the house not being grounded in enough points that equipment start interfering with other equipment like fridges. 

Earth loops are caused by incorrectly setting up a stereo, particularly single ended unbalanced, generally local to the stereo, may need an isolation transformer connected to the supply side of the front end or optical.

Deteriorating filtering arrangements on older appliances are prime candidates for clicks, pops and other buzzing presented, imposed as distortion on the supply.

It's easier to isolate/repair the problem rather than band aid it with an expensive re gen system

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Have seen the results in real life, normally a good strike will blow the cable off the stake, if the dick is wound there. Young Player stuff up and a fundamental misunderstanding of the laws of Electricity

 

Yes, well.........I just recall being taught to leave a 2 inch loop down and back up to allow for future termination.

We must ask ourselves......................what would Tesla do?

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Yes, well.........I just recall being taught to leave a 2 inch loop down and back up to allow for future termination.

We must ask ourselves......................what would Tesla do?

Telstra  :D. I was too, but at a point was liberated from the shackles of ignorance.

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Guest rmpfyf

Ease up kids... some solid power engineers at Telstra. Don't blame what you see in homes on the Big T. Most exchange power systems are a thing of beauty.
 

No point putting a CRO against your mains... it'll change, and as you're on a three-phase mains you're not at the grid fringe, and you're about as good as you'll get. If as a member of the public you can put a CRO against your relatively-unloaded mains and spot a problem, call your DNSP, because it'll likely be that bad. 

 

An issue with the system in @@125dBmonster's pic is that the inverter/charger in that system is awesome, German, and carries an awesome/German price tag, at which point a regenerator is cost-competitive. The other issue is that it's a single-phase inverter/charger, and you'll need three. I've played with a few systems to this end and the best I've seen aren't yet on market, but point is your options are few at the moment unless, as mentioned, you've got an installer/electrician that's particularly talented and happy to design it for you (don't anyone say Fronius). This said, if you like @@125dBmonster's help... see about enlisting it (even by distance). Good resi battery knowledge is scarce, and his work appears solid. 

 

For a house in QLD with excess PV and not much FIT you may want to look at putting your excess PV into thermal storage. Cheap, pays back quickly. 

 

Your audio equipment's sensitivities to mains quality really depends on the design/power topology of what you've got for an audio rig. To which end regenerators don't band-aid, they just regenerate. Used poorly it's a band-aid, no question, and it can also be a high-end solution where audiophile needs and wants justify as much. Horses for courses: here on SNA we've got people sticking $1k+ of transformers on power supplies for computers and battery-based home systems using car amps quite happily... there's no doubt (and much agreement) that all sound awesome. 

 
@@125dBmonster - you'd posted some good GPO's previously from your experience... good stuff that wouldn't break the bank (or is my brain playing tricks on me?)
 
@@Silent Screamer Whilst you're at it, have your nephew do your data cabling!
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At this point I am leaning towards possible a hybrid system. It doesn't seem to make an awful lot of sense to go completely off the grid unless you access to cheap batteries. Hanging around the EV community for a number of years I have seen the development in battery cycle life, but we are still not at a price point on any chemistry where it would seem economically viable to go complete off grid.

 

I do however think that having a system that can power the house throughout the day and enough storage for over night might be far more feasible. At least that way you can put any excess back into the grid and not have to panic if you have a few cloudy days.

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Guest rmpfyf

At this point I am leaning towards possible a hybrid system. It doesn't seem to make an awful lot of sense to go completely off the grid unless you access to cheap batteries. Hanging around the EV community for a number of years I have seen the development in battery cycle life, but we are still not at a price point on any chemistry where it would seem economically viable to go complete off grid.

 

I do however think that having a system that can power the house throughout the day and enough storage for over night might be far more feasible. At least that way you can put any excess back into the grid and not have to panic if you have a few cloudy days.

 

Been in this community for some time.

 

Nothing beats electric hot water for smart storage :)

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At this point I am leaning towards possible a hybrid system. It doesn't seem to make an awful lot of sense to go completely off the grid unless you access to cheap batteries. Hanging around the EV community for a number of years I have seen the development in battery cycle life, but we are still not at a price point on any chemistry where it would seem economically viable to go complete off grid.

 

I do however think that having a system that can power the house throughout the day and enough storage for over night might be far more feasible. At least that way you can put any excess back into the grid and not have to panic if you have a few cloudy days.

 

Following with great interest as this above may be me next year.

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I don't know to what degree it is going to factor into the equation but the block I am in the middle of purchasing is surrounded by quite a number of schools and colleges, guessing these would all be heavily relying on 3 phase for air conditioners.

 

Figure having them so close by will either be a blessing or a burden since I would imagine they would need a fairly decent infrastructure to supply the electricity they need.

post-132474-0-73838300-1469611299_thumb.

Edited by Silent Screamer
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Guest rmpfyf

No issue unless there's something wrong with them. Get a duff chiller in a decent HVAC system and watch your power factor go out the window :) Still... they have have their own mains trans. There's some isolation/resilience. 

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Getting OT but so much wrong with that article.

Off topic?

OP contained the following:

"Also I am looking to put a considerable solar system on the roof (~5-8kW) again thinking from an audio perspective am I better of trying to put that power back into the grid and draw it back, or should I opt for a battery storage system and go that way."

As to the article from Choice's  accuracy I guess its up to the reader to weigh it up.

Edited by ummagumma
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Looking at multiple documents and various costs. At this point in time it really doesn't make a great deal of economic sense to even go hybrid (unless I can use the hybrid inverter with a straight grid connected system). I think it will be several years before batteries are really cheap enough to warrant a battery based storage system.

 

I have a lot of other things to spend money on with the house, so for now I think I will keep the solar simple.

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Guest rmpfyf

@@ummagumma it'd be OT for me to go into the flaws in that article - not what you wrote (not intended as a slight against you). 

 

Depending on your consumption and depending on the install, batteries can pay back in under 10 years with ease. But it's not for everyone. 

 

Options are a bit limited for a good hybrid system on three phases, but there's stuff coming to market... not ridiculous expensive... had some good experiences with new kit lately. 

 

I still reckon that storage kicks ass if you're putting PV down, and that thermal water storage is awesome... cheap to implement, means you effectively *need* a smaller battery, makes a lot of sense where you're not wedded to gas hot water. Hell... if I was doing a new home I'd go mega thermal with PV. 

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I tried looking up thermal storage but don't really get it... You take excess energy and turn it into hot water, I get that bit. How exactly do I turn hot water back into energy?

 

With a simple steam turbine of course

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