I'm well aware of load creep. After installing a 6kW off-grid system I went out to a site to diagnose performance issues. The owner had purchased a six-seat electric golf cart and was charging it off the inverter. I had to bite my lip to avoid hysterical laughter over this "small" unmentioned load.
The golf cart had eight T-105's and the house battery was sixteen S-530's. The owner didn't believe that the golf cart battery had over 25% of the house battery capacity. That was an expensive mistake (for him). I like the idea of listing estimated consumption somewhere, but I don't want to become contractually bound to supply or store a certain amount of energy. Performance guarantees are tough, especially when you are not the operator. Jason Szumlanski Fafco Solar On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 12:26 PM, Dan Fink <[email protected]> wrote: > I also see lots of "load creep" Ray...."oh, forgot to tell you....we need > to add some all-night LED area lighting to the system. It won't use much > power......" > > Dan Fink > > > > > On Tue, Jan 21, 2014 at 10:22 AM, Ray Walters <[email protected]> wrote: > >> On these small projects, its very important to nail down the exact >> load, to keep the pricing sane. I list on the estimate what the system is >> designed to do; for instance 18 w load 24 hrs/ day. Then if something goes >> wrong and they are running more than they should you just gently point out >> that that was not what the system was designed to do. >> I learned a long time ago, that you can't take name plate power draw >> numbers, or count on the manufacturer to provide those numbers; you've got >> to confirm it with your own monitoring equipment. >> >> R.Ray Walter >> CTO, Solarray, Inc >> Nabcep Certified PV Installer, >> Licensed Master Electrician >> Solar Design Engineer303 505-8760 >> >> >> List-Archive: >> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org >> >> List rules & etiquette: >> www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm >> >> Check out participant bios: >> www.members.re-wrenches.org >> >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Home Power magazine > > List Address: [email protected] > > Change email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List rules & etiquette: > www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out participant bios: > www.members.re-wrenches.org > > >
_______________________________________________ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: [email protected] Change email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
