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Author Topic: Almost there, for now !!  (Read 1246 times)
russ_fae_fyvie
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« on: March 28, 2011, 01:00:54 PM »

You may well know the trials and tribulations we've had over the last 10 months since moving into our new Eco Friendly House, well after the addition of the 1kW Future Enegry Turbine and SMDO Generator we are 'almost' there with the full system !

We now have the Turbine though a Charge Controller to the batteries and the PV, although still through the Sunny Boy, is pumping a good load into the batteries as well.

The SDMO Generator is nice and quiet and at the moment we are building a shed around it to keep it out of the weather. We've had it on Autostart and along with the Sunny Island, it seems to be working a treat when needed.

The final thing is to get a 13A supply in that shed to power the LCD on the Genny and then we can leave it on Auto all the time and forget about our daily trips to check on the batteries !

After the problems we had with the Pellet Boiler, it appears that the reason it was burning the variable speed fan was because the Sunny Island allows frequencies up to 52 and down to 47, unfortunately the fan needed 'Grid' type power, so no more then 2% above 50, which is where the problem was. So we now have a UPS directly connected to the Boiler and that is set to +/- 0.1Hz so we've had no problems since that was installed. The boiler also has a relay so that if, for whatever reason, the frequency was outside the 2%, it cuts out to save more damage to the fan.

It will be interesting to see how the Turbine contributes to the power supply, we are not expecting miracles as we only got it to trickle charge the batteries and with the wind we get here, we are  hoping, over the day, it will help.

So after 10 months in the house we are almost there, just a few issues with the actual house design but we will sort that out over the summer.

www.russquinlan.co.uk







 extrahappy
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Sunny Island 3324, Sunny Boy 1700, Rolls Battery Bank, SDMO Backup Genny, 1.44kW PV Array, 1kW Futurenergy Turbine, now more grey hair !
Stuart
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« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2011, 01:22:32 PM »

nice pics of the build, an Inspiration  Smiley
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8kw woodburner, Big piles of wood, 20 tube solar panel, custom tanks, back up gas boiler, North walls internally insulated
1968 landy that runs on anything and a currently wild meadow garden.

Nr. Tow Law
Justme
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« Reply #2 on: March 28, 2011, 04:25:45 PM »



The final thing is to get a 13A supply in that shed to power the LCD on the Genny and then we can leave it on Auto all the time and forget about our daily trips to check on the batteries !



Well done with getting this far. It has been a long ride hasn't it?

Dont fall at the last hurdle. You will still need those daily trips to check on the bat for a while yet till the system has proved beyond doubt that its fool proof. Even then you still need to check on the bats say weekly for charge & monthly for water level (if wet ones). Will you have a display in the house that shows the bats condition?

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Navitron solar thermal system
30 x 58mm panel 259L TS
1200watts solar 120vdc
FX80 Solar controller
Victron 12v 3000w 120a
200w (250w peak) 12v turbine as a tester
6kva genny
6 x 2v cells 1550amp/h 5C
24 x 2v cells 700amp/h 5C
Total bank 4350 amp/h @12v
camillitech
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« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2011, 06:13:25 PM »

Well done Russ and good luck, hope our new build goes as smoothly as yours  whistlie

Cheers, Paul
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http://lifeattheendoftheroad.wordpress.com/

12kw Lister
11m turbine tower
10 hundred ah 48v battery bank
900' pennstock
8kw woodburner
7kw Lister
6 bladed Rutland
50w of solar
4 and a half Kw inverter
3kw Lister
2 hydro turbines
and a Proven in a pear tree :-)

Raasay, 57 27 537 N 06
biff
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« Reply #4 on: March 28, 2011, 08:24:54 PM »

exellent russ,
           you deserve the sucess for hanging in there and getting things done.justme has a good point,keep a handy 5 gallon of distilled water handy or collect the nice fresh rainwater in a metal free container(plastic) to top up your cells, you would be surprised how quickly the liquid evaporates especially with the equalising charge,,i will be watching with intrest ,to see how your futurenergy turbine is doing, good luck,
                                                                                                        biff
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russ_fae_fyvie
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« Reply #5 on: March 28, 2011, 08:59:48 PM »

Hi guys,

Yeah it will be an old habit to break anyway, the daily trip to the battery shack !

Got the distilled water, funnel, goggles and fluid checker all in there and like you say, we will need to keep a physical check on everything and I assume set it to run an equalisation charge every now and again.

We won't have a meter in the house as yet but thats a good idea, the guy who installed the Turbine has to come back to fit in a Ammeter so we can see the HUGE amount we'll be getting from the Turbine ! But it would be a good idea to fit something to transmit to the house whats going on with the batteries.

We feel like we are just starting to emerge from that long dark tunnel but with still a lot to learn !!!

 extrahappy
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Sunny Island 3324, Sunny Boy 1700, Rolls Battery Bank, SDMO Backup Genny, 1.44kW PV Array, 1kW Futurenergy Turbine, now more grey hair !
Fintray
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« Reply #6 on: March 28, 2011, 09:06:40 PM »

Russ

The house looks great and it will be interesting to hear how the pv and wind turbine cope with your house loads and how often the genny has to be run.
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russ_fae_fyvie
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« Reply #7 on: March 28, 2011, 09:20:42 PM »

Yeah, now everything is just about as it should be (although once things have settled we are still looking at ditching the Sunny Boy and feeding the PV directly into the batteries) and we have given it all a chance to settle down, we should finally get an idea of the cost of everything because with all the hassle so far its not been worth checking up.

Watch this space !
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Sunny Island 3324, Sunny Boy 1700, Rolls Battery Bank, SDMO Backup Genny, 1.44kW PV Array, 1kW Futurenergy Turbine, now more grey hair !
Alan
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« Reply #8 on: March 28, 2011, 11:10:43 PM »

Hope things go well Russ

Don't mind if you keep the white stuff up there.

The mechanical mounting of the flue pipe looks
a bit basic. Are all the sections held together
with stainless self tapping screws.
I would have expected more brackets lower down.

Regards

Alan
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