Thursday, July 9, 2015

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 !



Thursday, July 2, 2015

Already One Year with the BMW C Evolution ! => 20/06/2014 - 20/06/2015

20/06/2014 - 20/06/2015 : 11,500 km of mostly commuting + few trips to Paris & nearby suburbs
Yes, already, it's been a full year of joy riding my BMW C Evolution, purchased from the BMW Motorrad dealer in Boulogne - 2nd unit -

I remember very well, test riding it, being amazed by its amazing torque & power, ordering it almost right after, waiting for almost two months and finally getting it on June 20, 2014 :)



Overall, it is an awesome machine, as I already wrote in this blog, dispite 2 software bugs, one fixed by BMW, the other one, more recent, never occured again



I experienced 0 mechanical problem, and the tires are still fine, even if the rear one is supporting heavy accelerations every day



For a first electric scooter, I think BMW did a pretty good job with a quality & good looking product which is the reference in this field now - maybe for a long time -



Yes, it is expensive at 15,400 EUR, but I can tell you that it is worth every cent, and once you turn the throttle and feel this kick, you forget about it right away ;) !!

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

EVTV Friday Show - May 8, 2015

- Tesla Drive Train analysis
- CHAdeMO progress in Ireland 
- Steve West's Kiwi Charging Network in New Zealand 
- Reading temperature from Eberspacher with Arduino A/D inputs. Second generation CANDue 
- Compressed air powered car

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