It says OT right at the beginning. That said, I believe this might be of
interest to many Elecraft owners, particularly considering the QRP DNA of the
founders and many of the faithful.
Personally, I'm in favor of more nuclear power and I live in Arizona, where it
is alleged that solar is the answer (to what question I'm not sure.)
Don't get me started on government/utility subsidies that transfer the cost of
light bulbs from one customer to another.
On 9/25/2015 11:14 AM, Oliver Dröse wrote:
Please don't start another off-topic thread, guys! Wayne requested responses
off-list ...
Thanks,
Olli
Contest, DX & radio projects: http://www.dh8bqa.de
Am 25.09.2015 um 19:01 schrieb Jim McDonald:
60W equivalent LEDs are $3 for a pack of three at Costco in the Chicago area
due to an instant rebate from ComEd, the area power company. I really like
them, so I need to find a home for my inventory of CFLs.
Jim N7US
Sent from my iPad
On Sep 25, 2015, at 10:33 AM, Wayne Burdick <n...@elecraft.com> wrote:
Hi all,
Some of our friends are putting in large solar arrays that feed power back
into the electrical grid. I'm looking for something smaller and simpler since
our electricity use is very low overall.
The reason it's so low is that we've converted all of our lighting to LED.
(LED bulbs that consume 10 W yet have 60 W equivalent light output relative
to incandescents are getting remarkably cheap -- 3 for $10 at Home Depot.)
Consumption goes up when we use the electric range, etc., but that's
infrequent, and I don't mind paying the city at such times. As for the
radios, I run 10 W more often than 100 W, and the computers don't use much,
either.
So I figure we could run the house from a 500- to 600-W array most of the
time. Other requirements:
- I'd like to forego feed-in to the power grid. We don't need to watch our
meter turn backwards, and with a small array it would turn pretty slowly
anyway. But I do want city power in parallel when we exceed solar array
capability.
- I want a backup battery that's sufficient to hold us for a couple of days
during a blackout. Every once in awhile on a really hot day, city power
consumption exceeds what's available, and a transformer blows somewhere. Very
entertaining until you have to go buy ice for the fridge.
Systems that meet the above requirements seem to cost a lot more than the sum
of the parts. So what I'm looking for is a good source of roll-your-own-solar
info. I'll hire an electrician to wire up the solar system in parallel with
the city supply, but I could purchase the components and do most of the
installation myself.
Any suggestions? Please contact me off-list.
tnx
Wayne
N6KR
______________________________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
