Anyone surviving the power cuts on battery?

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AE-NMidlands
Posts: 2089
Joined: Wed Jun 02, 2021 6:10 pm

Anyone surviving the power cuts on battery?

#1

Post by AE-NMidlands »

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-59457045 Storm Arwen: Thousands facing fourth day without power
I use about 5 or 6 kWhr a day year round, and a Tesla powerwall has 13.5. It could be a good investment for keepinhg the GCH going, if nothing else!
A
2.0 kW/4.62 MWh pa in Ripples, 4.5 kWp W-facing pv, 9.5 kWh batt
30 solar thermal tubes, 2MWh pa in Stockport, plus Congleton and Kinlochbervie Hydros,
Most travel by bike, walking or bus/train. Veg, fruit - and Bees!
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Stinsy
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Joined: Wed Jun 02, 2021 1:09 pm

Re: Anyone surviving the power cuts on battery?

#2

Post by Stinsy »

I use 20-30kWh a day and can store 11kWh. In summer and sunny shoulder-month days I can get through on solar/batteries with modest energy savings as appropriate. Winter? I’d struggle bigtime, particularly as power cuts tend to occur in the evening when my batteries are depleted this time of year.

Another complication is “changeover”. I’d have to go outside, flip the DP isolator, come in and go upstairs to the room below the inverter, connect my phone to the inverter’s own wifi, set the inverter to “off grid” mode. I’d then have to notice the power was back on and reverse the process. Hardly seems worth it for most outages.

I could connect a 2nd CU to the “UPS” terminals of my inverter and connect that to smaller, essential, loads. I could also reserve battery capacity for use only when power is out. However this seems like a lot of effort to go to for a situation that just doesn’t happen where I live (10 years and counting since the last outage).
Last edited by Stinsy on Tue Nov 30, 2021 3:35 pm, edited 2 times in total.
12x 340W JA Solar panels (4.08kWp)
3x 380W JA Solar panels (1.14kWp)
5x 2.4kWh Pylontech batteries (12kWh)
LuxPower inverter/charger

(Artist formally known as ******, well it should be obvious enough to those for whom such things are important.)
Oliver90owner
Posts: 405
Joined: Wed Jun 16, 2021 3:48 pm

Re: Anyone surviving the power cuts on battery?

#3

Post by Oliver90owner »

Those with ‘vehicle-to-load’ could be laughing (Ioniq-5 or Kia EV-6), if the battery was sufficiently charged before the power cuts. Just pop out to the nearest working fast charger and maybe back at home before the ‘living cocoon’ had cooled off. 3kW should be more than adequate in those situations. I would have to make do with my 3kW diesel generator)
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Fintray
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Joined: Mon May 31, 2021 6:37 pm
Location: Aberdeenshire

Re: Anyone surviving the power cuts on battery?

#4

Post by Fintray »

I've got a battery but got it before the back-up gateway unit was available and its just sat there doing nothing for the past nearly 4 days (Friday 3pm till today at 1:30pm) :cry:
Glad for having the wood stove, Tilly lamp, little portable gas ring and some other battery lights.
Got fed up and managed to hire a diesel generator yesterday to get power and get back normality (you don't realise how much you'd miss it till it's not there).
Feel sorry for those still waiting to be reconnected.
3.87kWp PV
10.24kWp PV SolarEdge system
Tesla Powerwall 2
100 x 47mm Navitron tubes (still being installed!) Now likely to be removed for more PV.
MK2 PV router DHW diverter
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Vaillant AroTherm 10kW ASHP
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Andy
Posts: 565
Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2021 12:16 pm

Re: Anyone surviving the power cuts on battery?

#5

Post by Andy »

I finally got connected an hour ago. My battery grand plan would have saved some heart ache but unfortunately I'm waiting for the mortgage money to land so its not actioned yet. Turns out freezer cover in the insurance policy is worth **** all. The excess more than wipes it out. Almost pointless having it in the paperwork.

I hope the remaining ones without power get it soon. Thankfully its a bit warmer right now. Its been a stirling job being done by the the power teams. Its been horrible working conditions.
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