4 Years of DIY Energy Storage at home

This is it ! Today, on July 7, 2017, it has been exactly four years since my DIY ESS has been used with Solar on my roof :)

No battery problem, no fire, after all the warnings I got back then, and 1050 EUR saved, which is fine because of my rather small 1.2kW solar array

Here is the link of my post this day on 7/7/2013 

http://www.myelifenow.com/2013/07/uni-solar-pvl-sma-inverter-finished.html

And the next day 

http://www.myelifenow.com/2013/07/starting-first-full-day-of-solar.html

A lot happened since then in the Energy Storage field worldwide and it is great to see that more and more people are considering installing this at home

For more details check out my website dedicated to the built of my DIY ESS on http://www.diyesskit.com

DIY ESS Update : Open Energy Monitor can be used instead of Wattson as an Input

I am thrilled to announce that the famous Open Energy Monitor can used as an input in the build of my DIY Energy Storage System or ESS instead of the original (also famous) Wattson Energy Monitor

From the very beginning back in 2011, I purchased and installed Wattson at home and loved it: I could finally see in real time how much power my appliances use and modify my behaviour to reduce energy consumption at home

Later on I got Solar Panels installed on our building roof and used another feature of Wattson which is Solar Surplus detection: When Usage < Solar, Wattson simply lights up Green to indicate there is free Solar Power to used (and the Net Usage is Negative)

Wattson Solar Surplus (and other color codes): 


Based on these simple lights (Blue, Purple, Red and Green) I built my Energy Storage System back in 2013, had it running for over 2.5 years now with Solar (july 2013), and saved over 650 EUR on my Electricity bills

Last friday, inquiring on the Open Energy Monitor and their interesting open source work over the last years, I realized that their emonGLCD, the equivalent to Wattson Display, is actually using the same Color Codes, in a simplified version:
- Green: Solar Generation > Usage
- Red: Usage > Solar Generation

OpenEnergyMonitor emonGLCD Solar Surplus :


Simply wiring the pins of one of the bi-color LED pins to the input terminal block of my DIY ESS, it will get the color codes and perform exactly like if it was a Wattson display :)

OpenEnergyMonior solution is open source, meaning it will be improved over time (and you can participate too)

It is also now possible to get a ready to use emonPi, meaning there is nothing to solder and build, just clip your CT Sensors (or clamps) on usage and generation wires, plug them in the device, power it up, and you're good to go !




But there's one more thing ...

Connected to you home internet router, OpenEnergyMonitor will post data to Emoncms.org, allowing you to see great graphs of your usage, generation, temperature, etc ... All this for free, so I think it's just perfect :)

Links:

OpenEnergyMonitor : http://openenergymonitor.org
OEM Graphical Display emonGLCD : http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/emonglcd
Solar with the OEM : http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/applications/solarpv

DIY ESS Kit : http://www.diyesskit.com or http://www.StoreYourEnergy.com
Real Time DIY ESS Cam : http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chris75sf
DIY ESS Real Time Graphs on EnergyHive : 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

DIY ESS - Already 2 Years of 24/7 Service with Solar at Home !

Yes, it's been 2 years yesterday, since I started producing & storing my Solar surplus at home for re-use whenever necessary, during the day, or in the evening when the sun goes down
http://www.myelifenow.com/2013/07/starting-first-full-day-of-solar.html



My Energy Storage System was actually working several months before that, and my Solar Panels where installed on the roof almost 9 months before too, but I was waiting for my solar contractor to complete the install with his own special inverter, which was too delayed in the end, so I asked him to installa regular one, and we agreed on an 3kW SMA unit

Once installed, I could finally generate my own solar electricity, and my ESS being ready and tested, it worked right away seamlessly :)
http://www.myelifenow.com/2013/07/uni-solar-pvl-sma-inverter-finished.html



That was two years ago, and it has been doing great over time: No breakdown, no Battery problem (I read so many things about sceptick folks on this), it has been working like a charm



With less solar generation during winter, I used the Forced Charge function to charge from low cost electricity at night, to help push low cost energy back into my home grid to help heating, lighting and cooking



As we can see on the Wattson / EnergyHive portal where my generation & usage data are collected in real time, it is saving around 250 EUR per year (over the last year), and since the price per kWh goes up all the time, it will save evne more in the future
http://wattson.energyhive.com/dashboard/diyesskit



My ESS has been registered on the DOE - Department Of Energy - Global Energy Storage Database back in July 2013, few days after, under PRojet Reference 720
http://www.energystorageexchange.org/projects/720


But wait, there's more ...

A second unit, called Mini ESS, based on 3 Nissan LEAF battery modules, installed in october, has helped store and save even more, at night during winter, and now from 11AM to 4PM, harvesting during the peak production period of sunny days



Also I am in the process of building and testing a second version of this DIY ESS, called DIY ESS V2 with Enphase, because it will use the famous Enphase Micro Inverters - M215 or M250 - for more efficiency
It's design & build should be simpler, but it is not ready yet ...



With the new Tesla PowerWall, Enphase AC Battery coming, it really shows everyone that Energy Storage is a serious business and a perfect complement to solar and/or wind installs, at the residential level !

To Celebrate this 2 years milestone, I decided tho slash the DIY ESS Kit price and remove 100 EUR from it, dropping from 249 to 149 EUR ! (Kit #2 is also reduced by the same amount of course)

Also the Kit Building Documentations are now available to anyone FOR FREE on the DIY ESS Kit website ! "All our Patents are belong to you" ;)
http://www.diyesskit.com/p/documentation.html   (look for the "=> Get the PDF File" links)



To have more info about the Kit and why not build your own, go to:

http://www.diyesskit.com
or
http://www.storeyourenergy.com


Now, you can start building your own DIY Energy Storage System for your Home !

How to disassemble a 2013 Nissan LEAF Battery pack

Here's a great video on How to disassemble a 2013 Nissan LEAF Battery pack !



"I show how to open and take apart a 2013 Nissan Leaf battery pack to harvest the 48 battery modules (each containing 4 cells) inside."