My Energy Storage System - DIY ESS - has been running with Solar for 3 Years now and saved me 800 EUR

On July 7, 2016, my home made Energy Storage System, named DIY ESS, has been running fine for 3 full years :)



Link from July 7, 2013 : http://www.myelifenow.com/2013/07/uni-solar-pvl-sma-inverter-finished.html



After several months of building and testing it back in 2012 & 2013, I finally had my Solar panels connected to a working SMA inverter and I have been storing my Surplus Solar Enegry ever since ...
(Solar panels install had been done several before that http://www.myelifenow.com/2012/10/solar-panels-installation-13-uni-solar.html)

During these last 3 years I had no breakdown what so ever, and absolutely no LiFePO4 Battery pack problem using it 24/7 (8 CALB CA180FI prismatic cells)



Today, few days after, it shows that I saved 577 EUR but you have to add 220 EUR approx. that were not taken into account during the first months (Wattson Anywhere portal data gathering came later)
For more details on my last 500 EUR update in April : http://www.myelifenow.com/2016/04/diy-ess-update-500-eur-of-savings.html
So the total savings as of today is 577 + 220 = 797 EUR, almost 800 EUR :)



I also sold few kits online to people around the world during the same period and it is still available here : http://www.diyesskit.com

I will continue using it until I have a Tesla Energy Powerwall installed later .... and the beauty of it is that all the of the shelf components used in it will be sold and bring me a good part of my money back ;)


Links:
http://wattson.energyhive.com/dashboard/diyesskit
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chris75sf

DIY ESS Update : 500 EUR of SAVINGS logged but 720 EUR since the beginning

Goods News for my DIY ESS - Energy Storage Sytem : Another step reached with 500 EUR of Savings logged by the online portal as of this weekend :)

Since I started logging usage + generation data with the EnergyHive hub in June 2014, it says 502 EUR has been saved on Imported Electricity

But my DIY ESS has been running with Solar Panels since July 9, 2013, and the additional savings figure for the first period should be close to 11 x 20 EUR/month = 220 EUR

So the total amount of Energy Saved on my Utility bill is today around 720 EUR ! after 2 years and 9 mobths of service
And since the price per kWh of Electricity is always going up, the savings will continue to increase faster with time !

Even if I do not care about ROI really, I can now say that 1/4 of the money spent to build my DIY ESS (3,000 EUR) has been payed back in Energy Bill Savings (720 EUR) over the 2 years and 9 months : 720 / 3,000 = 24%


Using cheaper Electricity rates to Charge at night (TOU) during winter, and Solar Surplus during the day, my Energy Storage System automatically tries to match the Power Consumption at home, in conjonction with Solar Generation when available, to have a Net Usage (Home Usage - Generated Power) close to 0W : No Import & No Export = Self Consumption of Solar Production

EnergyHive Free Online Portal enables instructive and user friendly graphs for real time and historical data display

I often checks that my ESS is working fine during the day, using my iPhone, Mac, PC on http://wattson.energyhive.com/dashboard/diyesskit

Power Graph


Energy Graph


Energy Generation Chart : Imported vs Generated Energy


Another real time way of checking what's going on is through a Logitech Broadcaster Webcam displaying Live on Ustream 2 Wattson units : one with Generation (Solar + ESS), the other with Net Usage (Usage - Generation) : http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chris75sf

More info on my DIY Energy Storage System here : http://www.diyesskit.com or http://www.storeyourenergy.com

DIY ESS Switched Off during my summer vacation for 15 days

For the 3rd summer in a row, during my vacation, I switched Off my home Energy Storage System, this year for 2 weeks only

Since it is On all the time, day and night, with people at home or not, this year I wondered if I should have left in On for once, but since everything at home is Off, including the high energy consuming water heater, I figured for safety reasons I should turn it off as ususal

Here is the Energy graph the month of August showing this 15 days period where I dumped some surplus solar energy ...



Still over this month half of the Energy used at home comes from Solar & Storage ...

Back last saturday night, I immediatly switched it back On, and it has been performing as usual since

All these graphs are from here: http://wattson.energyhive.com/dashboard/diyesskit

DIY ESS - Savings = 320 EUR / 80+% of Usage covered by Solar + both Energy Storage Systems

DIY ESS Update:

- Savings went past 320 EUR (over a year and 2 months)

- 80+% of my Home Usage is covered by Solar  + both Energy Storage Systems these days :)

Screenshots from http://wattson.energyhive.com/dashboard/diyesskit :

More on my DIY ESS Kit here: http://www.diyesskit.com

Back to Winter Mode for my DIY ESS - Energy Storage System at Home making the best out of TOU rate

We are slowly entering winter here with pretty low temperatures in Paris, also the sun is lower and lower, allowing less and less solar production during the day, especially with grey clouds covering it sometimes all day long ....



So since last night, my DIY ESS goes back to its "Winter Mode", meaning it charges the battery pack at night, using half priced grid electricity - TOU plan -, and re-uses it through out the day



On the Power graph above, you can see that after the water heater has stopped at 00:30AM, the chargers continue to use 350W (limited to 4 chargers on purpose) until the electricity goes back to day rateat 6:24AM - and it started at 10:24PM the day before -

Follow my Live Power Usage and Generation with Solar and the DIY ESS



This is possible thanks to the Forced Charge Mode implemented in the Arduino program running my Home Energy Storage System




More on Forced Charge Mode on the DIY ESS Kit Website

DIY ESS - Mentioned in Tesla Motors Club

Few days ago I saw that my DIY ESS Kit had been mentioned in a Tesla Motors Club Blog :-)

DIY ESS - Follow its activity with 3 Wattson units

See my ESS in action at home with 3 Wattson units, displaying Home Usage, Generation (from Solar + ESS) and Net Usage

Mostly shot during the evening diner cooking with a rice cooker on (400W),  a stove (1500W on and off), some lights, etc

A good example of peak shaving & smoothing, done at home :-)

and the Power graph shows this activity in the evening (peak)

and the Energy graph

Close up / Focus on this period: The Usage is almost completely covered by the Generation (Solar & ESS mostly), and Energy required from the Grid pretty small 

DIY ESS Kit Blog reaches 5000+ visitors

Another 1000 visits to my DIY ESS Kit blog in one month or so

Thank you all :-)

DIY ESS Kit blog reaches 4,000+ visits

I am happy to see that the blog dedicated to my DIY ESS Kit has reached more than 4,000 visits from all over the world and its activity is picking up over the last month

Energy Storage is a Major Topic right now and all the incentives in Germany, California, Japan are the proof that things are starting to move

Just a reminder: the first version of the DIY ESS Kits, Kit #1, is available right now

DIY ESS - First 5 Arduino Leonardo boards received - First one flashed & ready to ship

5 Arduino Leonardo boards have arrived from Evola.fr website faster than I thought and one of them is already flashed with the DIY ESS program, from the Mac this time

Communication between the Mac and the Arduino Board set up

Choose the first USBModem Port

Program loaded on the board


Now testing the program :

Program log displayed in the Series Monitor of the Arduino IDE:

Working well,

It is now ready to ship !

DIY ESS Kit Building Documentation is finished, now working on the User Manual and the Components List

As mentioned two days ago, the DIY ESS Kit Building Documentation has been in the works for more than a week now, reviewed it many times, and, last night, I finally added the last part on the IKEA PS Metal Cabinet to make the ESS safer & nicer looking.

The Documentation is now finished and today I should be working on the User Manual and the Components List with links and addresses to get them.

Once these last, smaller, documents are done, I will start buying Arduino boards to flash them with my program and the first version on my Kit, DIY ESS Kit #1 will be ready to ship :-)

Just added the List of major Components to the LiFePO4 DIY ESS Blog and why I chose them

More about my LiFePO4 DIY ESS here

I chose the BEST components to create this ESS:

- Energy Monitor: Created in 2006, Wattson is for me the best: it displays clearly in real time your home Usage, Production & Net usage with large visible digits and colors; Using RF, it can travel in your home since it is also battery powered; Easy to install and it looks like a design object 

- LiFePO4 Batteries : CALB CA Series Cells are simply the best Li-ion Cells avaibale today: safety, stability, cycle life, power, and energy density at a reasonable price; Read Jack Rickard's article about these new amazing new cells

- DC Switch & Breaker : Blue Sea 187-Series Circuit Breaker - Surface Mount 150A; A reliable marine quality high current Switch and Circuit Breaker placed in the middle of the battery pack to be able to switch off completely the whole system, and a protection in case of short circuit; Product link

- Grid Tie Inverters : the SUN250G has been a very good GTI for years, is more efficient than a Power Jack (similar product); they can be used in parallel, their DC input accepts 10.8V to 30V, which is perfect for my 24V battery bank; They have a one year warranty; They are very affordable, 110-230VAC 

- Chargers : LiFePO4 24V Simple Charger, Light, Low power, Low price, used in parallel, 110-230VAC 

- Contactors : 2 Tyco Kilovac EV200AAANA : Simply a world reference for years, Made in the Santa Barbara, USA : Carries high current (500A) and provide a Very Reliable cut off

- Mother Board : Very famous widespread programming board, the Arduino is made in Italy, with a French micro-controller chip on board, small power consumption, and has been working for the last year now with no failure

- Relays : Small standalone design, with red led to indicate that it is closed/active, standard connector, low cost, have been working for the last year now with no failure; If any, each relay can be changed in 1 or 2 minutes with a small screwdriver

- Controller : The ESC (Electronic Speed Controller) used is probably the best in the world, Made in the UK, micro-controller based, does not heat and can carry high current up to 40A at 26.6V which is more than we need here;Product Link

- Voltmeter : This programmable dual relay digital voltmeter is  the key to monitoring the Battery pack charge and discharge limits, and keeps it in the safe range; It is available only in the USA, is easy to program manually, is precise enough and does the job !

----------------------------------------------------------


More about my LiFePO4 DIY ESS here