Welch Island Power

[ishoot308]

I think the power may be out on Welch again… lost all communications with my cameras, thermostats and weather station around 9:00 AM this morning….

Dan

[tis]

Originally Posted by ishoot308

I think the power may be out on Welch again… lost all communications with my cameras, thermostats and weather station around 9:00 AM this morning….

Dan

Thermostats? Do you leave your heat on all winter out there? I assume you drain everything so if the power does go out you are ok?

[ishoot308]

Originally Posted by tis

Thermostats? Do you leave your heat on all winter out there? I assume you drain everything so if the power does go out you are ok?

I have WiFi thermostats so I can remotely control heat or AC temp. Sometimes I use the camp in the winter (no water) so it’s nice to be able to remotely warm things up before I get out there.

Yup, everything gets drained and blown out for the winter…

Dan

[tis]

Originally Posted by ishoot308

I have WiFi thermostats so I can remotely control heat or AC temp. Sometimes I use the camp in the winter (no water) so it’s nice to be able to remotely warm things up before I get out there.

Yup, everything gets drained and blown out for the winter…

Dan

Oh good, you almost gave me a heart attack.

[Descant]

Thanks for posting. Any word from the south loop?
I'd guess it's a little dicey ice wise for Eversource to get out there for awhile.

[NH.Solar]

OK, obviously I am alittle biased here, but why don't more of you island dwellers have solar with battery backup? I'm sitting in my New Hampton home rightnow during an ice storm and the Co-op grid has been down for over 6 hours now ...but I am typing this while my stereo is Panorama tunes, the floor heat circulators are on and right now being fed by my electric water heater (35', too warm to fire up the woodstove), and I just finished a lunch that was microwaved. My roof array is relatively small (8.2 kW) and faces SE rather than South, but still I have enogh power to live normally and comfortably. To be sure my battery reserve was low this morning when the grid went down, but that wassolved by clearing my lowest row of modules so I could gain whatever irradiation was available on such a gloomy day. Its 1:30 as I type this and some of the other panels have cleared as the day has warmed, but my monitoring shows that half of my array is covered in snow and ice and I'm harvesting enough energy to run my home modestly and to put aslight charge back in my battery. There is no doubt that I could kill my reserve by takinga l-o-n-g hot shower or by recharging my EV, but overall life is normal and very comfortable.
But what if this outage had occurred this past February when it seemed to snow every three days or so and my solar array would have been covered? There is no doubt that at some point the battery would have been drawn down to the point where it would have shut down my electrical system ...for at leasta couple of days or maybe even a week, but as soon as the sun was strong enough to cause the roof (or better yet titlting ground mount) snow cover to slide, the inverter would again automatically "wake up" and begin to power my home and recharge my battery. Isn't this the ideal solution to make sure that circulators are working when they are needed the most?

[Descant]

No offense but, you're so busy bragging, you miss the obvious. You drove a car to your solar heated home not a boat. Only a few homes on any island face south. All the islands are subject to Shoreland Water Quality Protection laws, so we can't cut down all the trees, even if we have a southern exposure, or a lot large enough to support the open space needed. The expense of retrofitting an uninsulated camp that was built 40-50 years ago so it can be heated a few days a year when the ice is suitable for access just isn't worth it. Could we keep the boat in the water longer? Not when the marina sets a deadline in mid-October and doesn't want to launch until May 1....

[codeman671]

Originally Posted by NH.Solar

OK, obviously I am alittle biased here, but why don't more of you island dwellers have solar with battery backup? I'm sitting in my New Hampton home rightnow during an ice storm and the Co-op grid has been down for over 6 hours now ...but I am typing this while my stereo is Panorama tunes, the floor heat circulators are on and right now being fed by my electric water heater (35', too warm to fire up the woodstove), and I just finished a lunch that was microwaved. My roof array is relatively small (8.2 kW) and faces SE rather than South, but still I have enogh power to live normally and comfortably. To be sure my battery reserve was low this morning when the grid went down, but that wassolved by clearing my lowest row of modules so I could gain whatever irradiation was available on such a gloomy day. Its 1:30 as I type this and some of the other panels have cleared as the day has warmed, but my monitoring shows that half of my array is covered in snow and ice and I'm harvesting enough energy to run my home modestly and to put aslight charge back in my battery. There is no doubt that I could kill my reserve by takinga l-o-n-g hot shower or by recharging my EV, but overall life is normal and very comfortable.
But what if this outage had occurred this past February when it seemed to snow every three days or so and my solar array would have been covered? There is no doubt that at some point the battery would have been drawn down to the point where it would have shut down my electrical system ...for at leasta couple of days or maybe even a week, but as soon as the sun was strong enough to cause the roof (or better yet titlting ground mount) snow cover to slide, the inverter would again automatically "wake up" and begin to power my home and recharge my battery. Isn't this the ideal solution to make sure that circulators are working when they are needed the most?

Those batteries also cannot be kept at freezing temps all winter long, so unless you plan on insulating a camp and running heat all winter long, during a time period when its typically not safe for one to venture out anyhow, it makes no sense to have solar on an island.

Plus, not to mention you sell solar....Of course you have a bias towards it.

[NH.Solar]

It doesn't take a very large array to generously power both some if not all of a camp's summer consumption through net metering and a good sized battery to store the power for the darker, stormier hours. A 12 module tilting array on a single 8" upright should be more than enough for most.
Many of the recent batteries released not only feature self heated cabinets, they are also fully NEMA rated.
If you wish to be a renewable naysayer, fine, everyone is entitled to their opinions ,,,but at least be sure that you knowledge on the subject is up to date. I have a half a dozen fully off-grid installations on Winni, and in spite of today's ice event I can tell you form thier monitoring that all are powered up. Grid connected with battery backup is not much different, for most a half a dozen modules or so on a roof and a small battery would be plenty enough to keep circulators running when the grid is down like now and the foreseeable future on any lake island that has lost grid power.
Lastly a perfect solar south orientation (194') will produce the greatest amount of harvest, but any roof with 3-4 hours will produce enough for the emergency needs originally addressed in this string. For a true off-grid situation where the solar harvest is critical a perfect south orientation is usually actually to two planes facing east and west. The perfect south orientation will provide the greatest harvest, but mainly between 10 and 2 pm. The E/W array of the other hand will provide a much longer harvest day and this is more valuable when a battery is involved ...and the circulators need to be kept running 24/7.
I have a very small off grid inverter (1500 watts AC) on my waterfront powered by three 100 watt panels mounted on tree trunks, one module south, one SE, and one SW. It is plenty enough to run lights and a small stereo year round, and even brew a pot of coffee in the summer. Would it run a dock circulator pump? Probably not, but this should give you an idea of what even a small system is capable of. I have less than 3K invested in the whole system, two 100 amp hour carbonized AGM batteries included and it all sits in a 7' unheated Rubbermade shed unattended all winter long without issue becuase I leave the inverter alive and a charged battery doesn't freeze.

[codeman671]

Originally Posted by NH.Solar

It doesn't take a very large array to generously powerboth summer consumption and a good sized battery, a 12 module tilting array on asingle 8" pole should be more than enough for most.
Many of the recent batteries released not only feature self heated cabinets, they are also fully NEMA rated.
If you wish to be a renewable naysayer, fine, everyone is entitled to their opinions ,,,but at least be sure that you knowledge on the subject is up to date. I have a half a dozen fully off-grid installations on Winni, and in spite of today's ice event I can tell you form thier monitoring that all are powered up. Grid connected with battery backup is not much different

I am not a solar naysayer. Actually, planning on putting up a 30kw system on my roof this season. I am not shooting for off grid though; my house uses that much electricity (and then some!). The batteries I'd need would not be worth the money, that will come later when pricing hopefully comes down and technology improves.

I think for a seasonal camp on an island it doesn't make much sense.

[Descant]

NH Solar: "I have a half a dozen fully off-grid installations on Winni,"
Which islands? Do they also have batteries and/or generators?

[Winilyme]

Would be interesting to hear the experience from an islander that DOES have a solar array.

[NH.Solar]

Islands include Gansy, Timber, Dolly? or was that Birchdale? That was a LFP battery update andit was a while ago...
This post was only intended to be helpful to those that were interested, not fodder for naysayers. I'm 71 and all but fully retired, but still find it difficult to refuse the request or referral from a former client or retired installer, and I still really enjoy educating and working with new clients. My years in the business have provided me with a credible depth of knowledge that most of them feel quite secure with. I am still passionate about solar and am always seeking info on the latest and greatest in this rapidly changing field, not because I need to stay competitive, but simply because the very rapid rate in advancements still absolutely fascinates me. If you don't like renewable energy fine, please do ignore this post, but I am and probably always will.
Yes, its true that my former years in designing solar provided me with a nice income, but my main motivations has always been and will continue to be the legacy of good I felt with each completed installation. Mother Earth is suffering and even though I might have only done a little to reduce the carbon footprint of humanity but still, it was a contribution. If you have a worthy question or comment please do post it here and I'll gladly answer it as best I can for both you and anyone else that might be interested.
As an FYI here is an new link https://www.mtsolar.us/solar-pole-mounts/ to a small ground mount that could provide a significant amount of power for your camp and alos provide enough power to recharge a large enough battery to carry a dock circulator during the punky ice months. The small six module mount shown on that page were equipped with bifacial modules it should generate a bit over 4 mWh per year and most importantly it would have very good winter production when you might not be able to get there. Everything is light enough that it shouldn't take much more than a 16 foot or so boat to transport the supplies and if you built it yourself the total project would probably come in at around $10K gross (and just $7K after applying the ITC). MT Solar also recently bought another smaller frame company (Tamarack) and now have a small as 2 module mounts in their catalog. Would this fit in a sunny corner of the back yard? or do you have a sunny roof plane?

[WinterHarborGuy]

Peter - link does not work.

[TomC]

Originally Posted by WinterHarborGuy

Peter - link does not work.

just had to cut the first "http://" from it...

https://www.mtsolar.us/solar-pole-mounts/