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 - First Full Night of Forced Charge Mode and the next day

After moving the ESS, now in the living room, we were ready to use the Forced Charge Mode all night long for the first time

Right after a good movie with the kids



Nikita: Always good to watch a good Luc Besson movie

At 10:30PM, when the low rate period starts, I just pushed the Control Board pushbutton for 4 seconds and the ESS went into Forced Charge Mode, switching all the Chargers on 

As you can see on the graph, after the water heater is done, only the ESS is on and using around 500W and was shut down at 6:30AM, end of the low rate period, using a regular AC timer, as the battery pack was almost full, its voltage showing 26.7V

Sunday morning, with a full pack the ESS helped a lot with the heating (Daikin heat pump),  breakfast, etc all along the morning and some lunch

This is the overview at the end of the day: We covered quite a bit of our Usage with the ESS and the Solar (sunny day for once)

And tonight, I will switch the ESS to Forced Charge Mode again ... in one hour exactly, before going to bed 

DIY ESS - New Linked in Group created today : DIY ESS - Energy Storage System

I just created my first Group on Linked in about my DIY ESS - Energy Storage System

" This group is about the DIY ESS - Energy Storage System - I built over the last two years. It is now working well along with my Solar system at home, storing Surplus Energy from the Sun into LiFePO4 Batteries for re-use whenever necessary - in the evening or even during the day when cloudy or when the home Usage is higher than the Solar Generation - "

Logo

DIY ESS - Looking for a metal cabinet for the whole system

After a discussion on a forum somebody mentionned that all the ESS components should be enclosed in a metal cabinet for safety, and he is right. Actually I had been thinking about this because it is a bit messy in my bedroom ! But this is because I am still experimenting and testing a lot. Also the chargers and grid tie inverters need to breath well :-)

I found these interesting metal cabinet from Ikea at home that could of interest: for a 5kWh system

For a 10kWh or 15 kWh ESS, that would be good

I am getting helped here :-)

USA New Energy Storage Bill : Home owners can install their own ESS and get 30% off in tax credit !

US senators introduce energy storage bill

U.S. Senators have introduced a Storage Technology for Renewable and Green Energy Act for 2013. This Act, also known as the STORAGE Act, will promote the deployment of energy storage technologies in the U.S. All storage technologies are supported by the bill.

I read in this article that Home Owners could get a 30% tax credit building their own DIY ESS, which I think is great :-)

"Home owners can also install their own storage solutions. The Act will provide for 30% tax credit for homeowners for on-site energy storage to store off-peak electricity from solar panels for use when needed during peak hours."

Maybe some americans could be interested in my DIY ESS since they could pay only 70% of its cost ... which should be close to 3,000 USD after incentive (maybe less since many components can be found in the US). Pretty cool, things are starting to move...


My DIY ESS is doing exactly this, automatically: http://diyesskit.blogspot.com




Source: PV Magazine

RTE iPhone App improved

RTE (Reseau de Transport d'Electricite) just released a new version of their nice iPhone App 

It has been improved graphically with this new layout

Now it shows France power usage over several days

2 days graphs showned here

More info on their website Rte-France.com

U.S. Energy Department's Apps for Energy is offering $100,000 in prizes to software developers

The U.S. Energy Department's Apps for Energy http://appsforenergy.challenge.gov  competition is offering $100,000 in prizes to software developers for the best new apps that help utility customers make the most out of their Green Button http://collaborate.nist.gov/twiki-sggrid/bin/view/SmartGrid/GreenButtonInitia...  electricity usage data.



Green Button is an open standard for sharing electricity data that is available to millions of utility customers, so mash it up with other public data sources to help homeowners and businesses take action, understand their usage, and make better-informed decisions.

ELVIIS Smartgrid V2G System

You probably heard about this suedish system called ELVIIS; I think it is pretty nice and I have been thinking about this for the last wears: Going to work, Plugging in, Charging, Giving back some power to the grid when demand is high to avoid pics (lunch hour), charging again if necessary in the afternoon for the trip back home ...
ELVIIS is doing all this and is also taking into account the production of electricity available in the grid from wind & solar
It's all gonna work like this one day I was thinking, and these people took a big step forward
Take a look at what they did

Pictures:
Volvo ELVIIS smartgrid v2G system

Video:

All time high record for a liter of gas in Paris today : 2 Euros !!

I just saw this in the news during lunch:

The price for a Liter of gasoline has reached 2.02 EUR this morning in Paris

With this kind of prices, I guess people are going to look at EVs in a different way, considering that the price of electricity is really going to make them save a lot of money ...

LEAF Ride : My first video

Here is my first video from inside the LEAF while driving
You can see & hear what it's like from the inside thi s time: no music, no talking (not much) to be able to hear the ambiant sounds and have a feeling of what it like
Also you will see the Energy Menu on the console display and will see the motor consumption go up and down while accelerating and braking

Nissan LEAF : what does it sound like ? how about acceleration ? => Video

First video of me driving the LEAF, next to Renault electric vehicle show room and test track on their former factory on Ile Seguin in Boulogne (bridge over La Seine)


Before buying or test driving a LEAF I never could see or hear what it was like; with this video you can hear all the sounds it makes; Turn your volume up to hear every sound & whistle in detail
Did you know this sound comes from the Japanese high speed train Shinkansen ?

(Thanks to my son for filming this)

Nissan LEAF free charging in Paris

Every saturday, I usually go have lunch in Paris
With the LEAF, I can park easily on the street, for free (I use to pay be 3,6 Euros per hour in this Saint Germain neighborhood), and I can charge also for free :-) thanks to Paris Cityhall
They installed these charging stations back in the mid 90's when the first wave of electric cars arrived in France; To be able to use them, you just need to show the car or scooter registration, showing it is using only electricity to run, and you get a free RFiD card that allows you to use any of the 4 outlets to charge, and there are usually 2 spots reserved for electric cars and 4 or 5 for electric scooters
I can use these charging spots even if I am not a real parisian but living in Boulogne, a city next to Paris