How to Manage Solar During Storm Season

[Bandersnatch]

Having solar and batteries I am am very reluctant to use grid power if i can avoid it at all. I tend to set my inverter priorities as Solar first, then Batteries and finally and very reluctantly Grid power.  However during storm season like we are currently experiencing in Thailand my thinking changes. I have made a short video to explain my plan.

 

 

 

 

[MJCM]

How much solar power have you been producing today if I may ask?

 

You (and we also) had rains and cloudy sky all day long today!

[Crossy]

Yeah, smart move. 

 

That's pretty much what we are doing** although we don't have nearly as much battery or inverter.

 

** Or would be doing if we could get our replacement hybrid inverter out of Thai customs ???? 

[Bandersnatch]

6 minutes ago, MJCM said:

How much solar power have you been producing today if I may ask?

 

You (and we also) had rains and cloudy sky all day long today!

I discharged my batteries to 50% last night and they are now at 39%

 

Solar production today looks like this across my three inverters

 

 

 

 

[KhunLA]

Krap weather down here in Prachuap KK also, and pretty much the same the past 7 weeks, overcast & rain, almost daily.

 

Only produced 10.70kW today, and 5 of that went to top up the battery.  Once battery is topped up, only produce what we need, since not exporting.

 

ESS (10Kw) is usually 50-35% when we wake up at sunrise.  Starts producing about 0730 hr to match usage.

 

Afternoon usage is me baking a nice Peach Crumb ... ????

 

[Crossy]

You crumble looks like it could do with a bit more butter in the topping ???? 

[BritManToo]

55 minutes ago, MJCM said:

How much solar power have you been producing today if I may ask?

 

You (and we also) had rains and cloudy sky all day long today!

My last months bill was huge due to constant rain/clouds/storms.

Up from my normal 66 units to a massive 114 units, costing me 439bht.

Full batteries now after a mostly sunny day.

 

Can't tell you how much I produce as my cheap hybrid inverter doesn't tell me that information (and I don't really care), before solar I was using 300-400 units/month.

[gamb00ler]

Easy, peasy!

 

Get an AI system which will use the weather forecast to teach itself the best strategy for charging/discharging your batteries given your particular priorities, PEA tariffs, etc.  ???? 

[Bandersnatch]

8pm, the storm hasn’t even ramped up yet and the grid is down!

 

I have switched over to my backup solar batteries, looking to delay the possibility of power-cut as long as possible.

[TronxII]

7 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Can't tell you how much I produce as my cheap hybrid inverter doesn't tell me that information

Maybe a cheap kWh counter would make your day? These are around 10$  which is nowadays 10 pounds on Aliexpress.

I assure you that it's really cool to see the kWh going up.

The funny thing with these counter is: You can put them in any way, they will always count forward.

Some guys claimed this also for the digital PEA counters when feeding into the grid.

 

[Bandersnatch]

19 hours ago, Bandersnatch said:

8pm, the storm hasn’t even ramped up yet and the grid is down!

PEA was down from 8pm to 4am. 
 

I have a lot of tech in the house such as servers and managed switches which I tend to leave on powered by solar

 

 

I switched most of it off and managed to reduce the house load to 360 Watts

 

 

I managed to run the house for 2 nights on batteries without charging in between 

 

 

Has been raining all day sometimes quite hard, but I have switched off PEA now and see how we do tomorrow.

[KhunLA]

8  1/2 hours to go before start producing enough to match consumption.

 

[KhunLA]

Sun appeared, so producing a bit earlier than expected.

 

[KhunLA]

Almost topped up again, and ready for another night.  Last night started at 97% (9.7kW) at 1730 hrs, using 2kw till 2300, w/2 frigs, TV & fan on.    

 

Using 2.6kW the next 8 hrs (TV off), till getting out of bed.  Sun actually shining, though still partly cloudy, as seen by peeks & valleys.  Red spike being morning coffee time ☕

EDIT: pissing down raining now ????

 

 

 

[Bandersnatch]

Today in Surin back to normal raining season: Light Rain; Cloudy; Partial sunny periods  - House and Car Batteries fully charged and servers switched back on.

 

฿50 spent on PEA this month 

 

[MJCM]

14 hours ago, Bandersnatch said:

฿50 spent on PEA this month 

So this month the PEA won't exchange your meter because they think it's faulty