- Joined
- Oct 23, 2013
- Messages
- 5,665
- Reaction score
- 2,709
I believe so, yes. One of the reasons I have not decided to play batteries.
Monitoring leccy usage
- Thread starter hoppyscotty
- Start date
Help Support The Homebrew Forum:
Yep but it still doesn't make sense not to have them when you are all electric & cover your house in panels.
(I have 10kwh batteries & 6kw inverter)
The main thing is not to let the charge drop too low, mine is set to 20% minimum. But you should also only charge to 90% to stop overcharging issues, but then you loose 30% capacity.
(My system always charges to full as it had no max charge limit until a recent update & that doesn't seem to work on my kit yet)
(I have 10kwh batteries & 6kw inverter)
The main thing is not to let the charge drop too low, mine is set to 20% minimum. But you should also only charge to 90% to stop overcharging issues, but then you loose 30% capacity.
(My system always charges to full as it had no max charge limit until a recent update & that doesn't seem to work on my kit yet)
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2021
- Messages
- 4,271
- Reaction score
- 4,662
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2013
- Messages
- 5,665
- Reaction score
- 2,709
Or use something like this
I have an old one for a time when I was looking to get an idea of the costs of running things around the house to see what we needed to economise on. They can be programmed with your tariff and are reasonably accurate.
I have a solis inverter & 2*5Kwh pylontech batteries.
@MashBag If you have gas for heating/cooking, you don't get ROI, but were electric only with storage heaters and young adults at home (cooking power is as much as heating power when averaged over the year) when the energy crisis started. Overnight payback time halved to 7-8 years.
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2021
- Messages
- 4,271
- Reaction score
- 4,662
Them maybe it's not for you. But that doesn't mean it's not for other people.
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2021
- Messages
- 4,271
- Reaction score
- 4,662
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2013
- Messages
- 5,665
- Reaction score
- 2,709
We are 100% leccy with 23kw of generation.
The heat pump is a big draw, so unless we put a lot of battery in, no go. 3ph freezer is a not go.
That said, if I did power trading I really would reconsider.
Halving the consumption is OK if the install cost & mtbf is covered and for me that needed to be less than 5 years.
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2020
- Messages
- 1,645
- Reaction score
- 1,050
thanks got one of those for my 3-pin run devices like pumps and chillers, but my brew kit runs off 32a commando sockets. Brewkit will use a a few fair few KW over a short time, but running a glycol chiller and a couple of fridges constantly over time will consume more over time...so wanted to monitor that over time.
Hmm. Smart meter?
Then compare a day with & without running chiller/fridges
Then compare a day with & without running chiller/fridges
Its 6pm somewhere
Active Member
I work from home a day a week and double this as a brewday once maybe twice per month, meter reading before and meter reading after the brew days and meter readings at the same times on a non brewday as a 'control' of sorts. There'll be a bit of swing but it's a good indication. If you have a dedicated brewspace/room not used for anything else then get an electrician to fit a meter to that room.
Lynx Brewery
Active Member
I used to monitor my SmartMeter and compared a BrewDay to the average of non-BrewDays.
Average extra cost was about £2.50.
Average extra cost was about £2.50.
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2013
- Messages
- 5,665
- Reaction score
- 2,709
I used a plug in meter (like the one above) and that was about the same.
peterpiper
Regular.
BZ gen 4, uses the same idea, to control heat by switching the on-off mark-space ratio to achieve desired power. Perhaps you need an old BZ 3.1.1, which had one switch for the 1900W element, and one for the 500W element.
Does the GF allow you to set the power control power switching period. On the BZ4, I've upped it to 40 seconds, to extend the relay life around tenfold (it uses relays for 'reliability'), as with the thermal mass of the base alone) its pointless having a very rapid switch time.
Your inverter would be able to better cope with load switching of 3s on : 9s off (or even better 9s on 27s off), than with 0.3s on : 0.7s off.
Strange that stand alone inverters (not grid connected) can't suffer same problem with varying loads - as there's nowhere else for the power to go.
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2021
- Messages
- 4,271
- Reaction score
- 4,662
No. It seems to be a one second duty cycle, you can only set the power.
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2013
- Messages
- 5,665
- Reaction score
- 2,709
Is this where the dump loads come in?
Last edited:
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2021
- Messages
- 4,271
- Reaction score
- 4,662
Stand alone or "island" systems have their own ground spike (earth connection) as part of the installation. So if the battery and house can't take the load, the extra goes straight into the ground. So there is somewhere else for the electricity to go.
Or it could be that varying draw from the appliances results in a much greater voltage swing as the load increases/decreases.
- Joined
- Oct 23, 2013
- Messages
- 5,665
- Reaction score
- 2,709
Now that might be exciting with grid supplied earth.
Hmm. I am going to have to sit down and think about that.
peterpiper
Regular.
Simple installations, like motorhome/campervans; boats; a mains inverter clipped onto a battery; or a genny with a power tool plugged in, mostly operate without a ground spike.Stand alone or "island" systems have their own ground spike (earth connection) as part of the installation. So if the battery and house can't take the load, the extra goes straight into the ground. So there is somewhere else for the electricity to go.
A ground spike is needed, in more complex installations, to provide a protective earth connection. This is to prevent danger, where otherwise, a fault could make any metalwork on every connected appliance become 'live'. It can also ensure that Neutral is at or around ground potential, while Live is 230V AC. The latter is so that appliances with a single pole power switch, in the live connection, are safe when switched off.
You can't run any power through just a single wire connection, such a a ground spike. A minimum of two connections to the load is needed.
