I must get around to looking at doing something with those 24 old rooftop solar panels I got got for £102 (total) last year. Got a bit wedged researching batteries, chargers, inverters, etc...
[ As inspired by this amusing & informative thread I've seen cross my timeline over recent months: https://retro.social/@ifixcoinops/116371043987387118 ]
I am somewhat attracted to the "just drop £2799 on something that just works off-the-shelf" idea.
OTOH that is more money than I have even spent on buying a car before, and if I am going to just spend £3k it would probably be more sensible to spend it on a less janky car.
TBF that 2kWh "Delta 3 Max Plus" unit for £1.4k is tempting me.
I think for me for now 2kWh is enough, and I really don't need to deliver more than 3kW ... the use case here is "power the home office", not "power the house" (though if I can route it to handle the fridge that would be cool... lol, unintentionally intentional).
I think I could just about cobble together 4kW worth of vaguely approximately equivalent functionality for a similar price via a reputable UK seller like Midsummer Energy, maybe? But ... when? How much faff? Etc. (And less, if at higher risk, if I lean more into AliBaba. As for the kWh I have also looked into ex-EV battery packs... its just a lot of time & faff.)
The 2kW can be expanded upon if needed, currently £800 for another 2kW.
With this option I could have some solar next week, probably as opposed to: some solar $FUCKKNOWSWHEN ... 🤷🏻♂️
I should grab some of those panels and test them first. (Good day for it at least.)
OK!
A small Saturday side-quest occurred! https://toot.ale.gd/@yvan/116663396033830183
Then I got to cosplay as a Space Marine for a short moment.
I present: The Bogalow Solar Array ... made up of 4x ~210W rated Sanyo panels manufactured in 2008.
Managed to find a way to make 4 panels fit.
Finger hovering over buying an EcoFlow Delta 3 Max Plus right now. (Mainly because it has the option to add more battery, the non-Plus doesn't... though also the Max Plus can take up to 1000W panels and there is scope in this space for me to add a few more which might be a good thing in winter.)
Anyone about to buy anything from EcoFlow, have a referral ink with 10% off lol... I want a referral link for 10% off though! Referral link: https://www.ecoflow.com/uk/referral-rewards?inviteCode=ASRTIUPI35
I am currently not sure if the EcoFlow does what I want which is basically:
I.e. I want to maximise use of free/cheaper power... not use it as a "UPS" in the usual sense of UPS.
Also it looks like the DJI Power 2000 is a similar specification equivalent to consider, maybe slightly cheaper even: https://store.dji.com/uk/product/dji-power-2000?vid=184911
In fact that does a 4kWh option for a pretty good £1,678.
I probably need to watch some utoob summaries/reviews. That can be a research job for tonight.
@ErikBussink it's a <500W base load, probably <300W overnight. I've done the various calcs for this before. But I am not looking at 100% ... just taking off what load I can within the scope of my means and equipment, so the focus is on daytime solar and the overnight being a useful add, with the ability to pull our cheap overnight economy 7 power into the battery a useful feature to get the day started. It's just for office/computers/tech and not touching the house electrics/etc (because I rent).
These 2kWh expandable systems are a totally fine starting point.
I could also build a full system myself from parts, but I don't have the time for that. So that's why I'm looking at these more turnkey solutions. I specced up a nice 10kWh setup earlier in the year but ... the time, always the time.
@ahnlak the angle of the sun at this time of year means that the small shrub doesn't actually cast much shadow on the panel. (And the thyme in the pot can of course be moved.)
But hell, if this lot delivers 400W total in good conditions I'll be happy enough, and I expect it'll do better than that... and I have more panels I could lean up elsewhere if I need more.
@OneInterestingFact @ahnlak yeah, definitely. I have all the DIY skills & tools, no worries there. At the moment I am just seeing how they fit to the space. But I cannot build structures/etc as I rent, I'll just have to make do. I am not trying to over-optimising anything here anyway - and I'm well aware of the foibles. I'd run the pannels as two separate loops to limit the impact of that, not much else I can do. I could chop the plant off at ground level lol... but probably I won't.
End of the day: some Watts is better than no Watts!
Yvan
ErikBussink 
ahnlak
<10%
Andy