Dexter the thinker

There are times when I’m just happy that Dexter exists because he’s almost 4 years old and still behaves like a young dog, full of energy.

Unlike Grace, the quiet empress in the background that only acts when it’s necessary.

but sometimes he just surprises me when he seems to be immersed in really deep thoughts

I wonder what is out there

And recently he sat at the dog beach and it just reminded me of one of those scenes in Ghost of Tsushima, where the protagonist has to take a break, take it all and write a haiku based on his emotions.

I wonder what goes on inside his brain

A friend of mine gifted him a little friend yesterday. This was the first drive in the car where he didn’t try to crawl in the front and sit next to me.

The friend has not been seen without him (except for dinner, he didn’t invite him for food!)

timing

sometimes you just have to be at the right place at the right moment and nature rewards you with something beautiful

dynamic power and solar panels

using a flexible energy tariff is potentially a disaster waiting to happen, expecially remembering the gas prices during the COVID and the Ukraine crisis of lately.

But if you are smart and willing to invest in sustainability, it can really pay off.

In the Netherlands there is a large amount of photovoltaic and wind power available.. so when the wind blows and the sun is shining.. the grid has too much power and you are getting free.. sometimes even negative energy prices (they want you to get rid of the excess power and reward you for that.) It looks like this:

the prices follow the sun. Nice. If you have a programmable dishwasher, washing machine and you can do certain things (like cooking) during those hours.. your energy is basically free.*

(*it is not free. because you still pay transport and tax on it… but the commercial price is negative so it evens out)

at 15:00 hours I switched on the airconditioning as my appartment had heated up to 30 degrees. Working from home became difficult. Consumed 8,5kWh and paid 75 cents for that. NICE. (highest amount is tax and transport.. the power itself was mostly free) – usually this amount of power would have cost me about 3 euros

but we can do better. putting solar panels on the balcony that produce power in the afternoon and buffering 2.4kW in a battery that can be programmed to buffer and distribute power according to a scheme.. we should be able to get even better.

Also.. that flatline is my baseline.. my NAS, the internet router and the standby of all my not-so-smart devices. How about I use the solar energy to cover that?

the challenge is: using solar panels when everyone else is using them does not give me any benefit.. the energy is virtually free when the sun is shining.. so I should use most of it myself! Even more… injecting it back into the grid (as is the default when you have excess energy) will be penalized.. negative energy tariff means they charge you when you inject power. Let’s not do that.

balcony power – 2 x 500Wp panels and a microinverter

in the winter I successcully used those panels to heat my appartment instead of the conventional stove. the reduction in cost for gas was actually about 800 euros / year. Energy will not be as efficient.. so those panels will never “pay back for themselves” as the Dutch love to calculate.

Also I am using more power in exchange for gas.. I am just lowering the operational cost. The investment never pays off..

5 years of gas and energy consumption with trendlines

it gets better, when you add money to the graphs: this is the price per m3 of gas in the Netherlands for the consumer. This is just scary. (also: Fuck you, Vladi!)

so my heating cost went from 120 a month in winter to 400 a month.. and it got worse for some people with dynamic tarrifs.. so I went and installed a heatpump. More power. less Gas.

Plus: we need a battery. We want to save the energy when the sun is shining and the power is virtually free.

I wanted to get an Anker Solix but it was “only” 1,6kWh.. and the Zendure “all in one” offered 2400Wh. Also..it was supposed to be “bring your own microinverter” and not “use Anker’s inverter or miss out on half of the features”

https://zendure.de/products/aio-2400

pretty smart design, the microinverter has a dedicated space on the top / rear and the rest is self-explaining. Connect solar to battery, connect battery to inverter.

plus: LED color is adjustable. an IMPORTANT feature of current products xD

now this is connected, let’s set up our system. I want to charge the battery as much as possible in the afternoon, then output about 200 watts constantly to cover my baseline.

my calculations suggested that 2400Wh would be just not enough for a whole day.. but I came close. This is the setup when the battery is being charged

once it is full, it disconnects the battery and sends all the power to the grid – and because I dont want to give it away, this is the moment when I switch on my air conditioner or the playstation. because.. free energy. let’s use it :)

and to make it even sweeter.. as the power is most expensive in the evening hours, you can have the system monitor a group in your power distribution or a smart plug in your house.. that way I can have the battery give away more energy when I consume more in the evening.

the setup with playstation and TV on.
my energy price.. between 18 and 22h I want the battery to inject most into my home. Otherwise just serve the baseline.

this all works surprisingly well.. my energy consumption is basically down 20% compared to last month (including using the airco for cooling)

this will probably look not so good in winter, when I need to heat again.. but when the sun is shining I can heat my home with the airconditioner. which should save energy, too.

result:

800 euros less energy cost per year (mostly because of the heatpump) and 20% less “wasted” energy because I use it myself vs. injecting into the public grid.

this is the setup working as intended: the day before was sunny, it charged the battery.. from 2000 on it started discharging and almost got rid of the “baseline” for the next day till the morning. (orange is what my energy broker “expected’ for me… sorry!)

the baseline is almost gone

and when I use the playstation in the evening, the battery takes care of that, but then there is not enough reserve for the night and the next morning.

I want to build this even bigger in my next house.. so I can run the heatpump all day from the battery.. about 24kWh needed for that. that’s a pile or batteries :)

and I read that you can even charge them from the grid if you want. so.. charge the batteries for the house together with your car when it’s cheap. Big project coming up