jon_d wrote:Terry,
Have you gone off grid for the house?
jd
If we were going to stay here I would for sure, but as we plan to get on the road when we can, I think the house would be very difficult to rent or put house sitters in or sell, if I took it off the grid. I still need to finish removing the top of the big gum tree as well, it shades the solar for half the day from late autumn, winter and early spring. Still enough to power the 3 fridges, solar hot water controller and pumps, battery charger for the bus lights and the back patio lights, the internet modem, my computer.... but it might be a squeeze for the rest of the house. The griller and fan for the oven and after cooling is electric, the 2500w heater lights in the bathroom, the 1000w microwave, the 3.5Kw water heater booster, the electric jug, toaster, coffee percolator, rice cooker...... without the shade from the tree I could put the rest of the solar panels I have up and we could do it with the big inverter, but for the moment we are using the grid to power the heavy stuff. Power bills are about 1/4 of what they were, but a teenage son moving out helped that a lot as well
The rain got into the PL20 a few days ago and sent it a bit crazy, but I pulled it apart today, a quick clean with Wurth contact cleaner and a toothbrush and all is well again, back to around 100 amps coming in from the solar between the rain and the tree shade periods so I'm happy with that.