[RE-wrenches] PV-direct electric water heating
I believe my PV-water-heating friend has an Outback in diversion mode, so the charge profile is stepped, as Conrad noted. He has a 4 kW PV system and a frugal household, so in the summer it takes care of about a third of his DHW needs. Hilton -- Hilton Dier III Renewable Energy Design Partner, Solar Gain LLC 453 East Hill Rd. Middlesex, VT 05602 ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org 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
[RE-wrenches] Envoy on ATT Hotspot
Hello Wrenches, We are attempting to connect an Envoy to an ATT wireless Internet system. Since the system provides no RJ 45 ports, we need some other device to bridge the wireless connection to the web. Enphase recommended a Cradle Point router, which might have some issues, as the site is limited access. It will be tuned on and off with a power strip switch. I called the 3G Store, and they recommended a Pepwave Surf Mini. http://3gstore.com/product/1813_pepwave-surf-mini-200.html From the description, it sounds like it would work. Has anyone connected a system like this to the Internet? What equipment would you recommend? Also, if for some reason this is not possible, please let me know that. Thank you, Drake Drake Chamberlin Athens Electric LLC OH License 44810 CO License 3773 NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer 740-448-7328 http://athens-electric.com/http://athens-electric.com/ ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org 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
Re: [RE-wrenches] Envoy on ATT Hotspot
Drake, We installed a similar system several years back. The client had a Verizon MiFi Internet connection device. We installed a wireless Ethernet bridge which was equipped with RJ-45 ports. Configured the ethernet bridge to connect to the MiFi unit. Plugged the envoy into the wireless ethernet Bridge and voilà. This client travels with the MiFi device at times and so the enlighten sends a message saying the envoy failed to report. Once the MiFi unit is back in the residence the envoy reconnect's and uploads data no problems. Similarly another client purchased a device from cricket mobile similar to the MiFi unit and the same connection strategy applied data plan for the cricket unit was approximately $15 a month. Cheers Carl On May 16, 2013, at 10:57 AM, Drake drake.chamber...@redwoodalliance.org wrote: Hello Wrenches, We are attempting to connect an Envoy to an ATT wireless Internet system. Since the system provides no RJ 45 ports, we need some other device to bridge the wireless connection to the web. Enphase recommended a Cradle Point router, which might have some issues, as the site is limited access. It will be tuned on and off with a power strip switch. I called the 3G Store, and they recommended a Pepwave Surf Mini. http://3gstore.com/product/1813_pepwave-surf-mini-200.html From the description, it sounds like it would work. Has anyone connected a system like this to the Internet? What equipment would you recommend? Also, if for some reason this is not possible, please let me know that. Thank you, Drake Drake Chamberlin Athens Electric LLC OH License 44810 CO License 3773 NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer 740-448-7328 http://athens-electric.com/ ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org 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: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org 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
Re: [RE-wrenches] Envoy on ATT Hotspot
Hi Drake, We generally don't recommend connecting through a cell modem because they aren't very reliable and some data charges may occur on large systems. How many microinverters are reporting to the Envoy? Sometimes, the cell modem will disconnect any device that has been connected to it for more than 4 hours, which requires re-setting the modem. You may be able to configure it in a way to prevent that. If you do need to connect the Envoy to a USB device, then a Cradle Point MBR-900 would be a good router to use. On Thu, May 16, 2013 at 7:57 AM, Drake drake.chamber...@redwoodalliance.org wrote: Hello Wrenches, We are attempting to connect an Envoy to an ATT wireless Internet system. Since the system provides no RJ 45 ports, we need some other device to bridge the wireless connection to the web. Enphase recommended a Cradle Point router, which might have some issues, as the site is limited access. It will be tuned on and off with a power strip switch. I called the 3G Store, and they recommended a Pepwave Surf Mini. http://3gstore.com/product/1813_pepwave-surf-mini-200.html From the description, it sounds like it would work. Has anyone connected a system like this to the Internet? What equipment would you recommend? Also, if for some reason this is not possible, please let me know that. Thank you, Drake Drake Chamberlin *Athens Electric LLC OH License 44810 CO License 3773 NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer 740-448-7328 *http://athens-electric.com/ ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org 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 -- Cordially, *Nick Soleil* *Field Applications Engineer * *Enphase Energy* Mobile: (707) 321-2937 ** *Enphase Commercial Solar.* *Limitless.*http://www.enphase.com/commercial?utm_source=emailutm_medium=sigutm_campaign=Comm2012 * *http://www.enphase.com/commercial?utm_source=emailutm_medium=sigutm_campaign=Comm2012 1420 North McDowell Petaluma, CA 94954 www.enphase.com http://www.enphaseenergy.com/ P: (707) 763-4784 x7267 F: (707) 763-0784 E: nsol...@enphaseenergy.com [image: nabcep logo] Certified Solar PV Installer #03262011-300 “Don’t get me wrong: I love nuclear energy! It’s just that I prefer fusion to fission. And it just so happens that there’s an enormous fusion reactor safely banked a few million miles from us. It delivers more than we could ever use in just about 8 minutes. And it’s wireless! .” - William McDonough This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not an intended recipient, you may not review, use, copy, disclose or distribute this message. If you received this message in error, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message. image002.jpg___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org 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
[RE-wrenches] PV-direct electric water heating
You mean like this? http://www.ngeus.com/SunBandit.aspx ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org 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
Re: [RE-wrenches] PV-direct electric water heating
Hi Wrenches, Thanks for your input. I agree that the PV water heating setup as I presented it has some obvious issues. However, as PV folks I think we all have a gut-level aversion to using PV energy for heating of any kind. As modules continue to get get cheaper I think some heating applications will emerge that make sense despite the collective instinct to gasp in horror. The Legionnaire's Disease point is an issue as the water in the tank will probably not be heated above 140 F very often with PV alone, (unless the homeowners are away for a few days). It seems like that could be dealt with by setting the tankless heater's delivery temp fairly high for disinfection purposes, say 140-145 F, then feeding the output to a thermostatic mixing valve to reduce it to a safer delivery temperature. There would be an efficiency penalty there, but it probably wouldn't be that significant. As Steven pointed out, tankless heaters do have a dead band where they won't add heat to preheated water, but in my experience with the right heater that band is only 10-15º F wide (below the delivery set point). On the other hand some of the PV-direct issues are hard to avoid, such as the array operating out of the MPPT range a lot of the time and the need for a 150VDC rated relay as David pointed out . If the idea turns into a project I may end up revisiting a diversion load arrangement with the existing battery-based system. Though I still think the PV-direct idea has potential. Thanks again. Luke Christy NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional™: Certification #031409-25 NABCEP Certified Solar Heating Installer™: Certification #ST032611-03 CoSEIA Certified PV Installer Solar Gain Services, LLC PO Box 531 Monte Vista, CO. 81144 sgsrenewab...@gmail.com 719.588.3044 www.sgsrenewables.com ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org 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
