By celsias
Posted on July 28, 2011. Listed in:
This is taken from the website of the Hybrid Smart Home . It's great to see architects looking at options for hybrid power sourcing for homes.
" The solar systems that we use in our homes are designed to run your new On-Site home with no issues at all. Our systems are fully automated and very user friendly. Whether you are placing your On-Site, Off the Grid Home at the beach, on the farm or even in town, our systems will ensure you NEVER pay another power bill again.
The home pictured below is running "Off the Grid" using six large, roof mounted solar panels, a deep cycle battery bank, backup diesel generator and an in-home smart control unit.
This particular system is designed specifically to run this home. The system will run the fridge/freezer, washing machine, all home lighting, TV, DVD, power points, computer and most other appliances needed in the home. The smart home can be connected to No.8 wireless for phone and internet services. The hot water supply is by LPG gas califont by Bosch and has a log fire with a wetback and cook top system attached.
This is a very energy efficient home, you can switch between gas hot water and wetback any time you like. The cooking in this home is by LPG gas oven with gas cook top. This home can, of course, also be supplied to connect to mains power services.
Deep cycle batteries are expensive, have a short life and are full of lead. This system setup has been available for over thirty years; instead it is preferable to grid connect when it is available - be a part of the system and us the grid as your "storage".
Obviously if connecting to the grid is prohibitively expensive you would consider a stand alone system - but including other power sources (such a small wind turbines) is advised. Using LPG as a hot water heater seems contradictory to the obvious cost effective addition of solar thermal panels to heat water. Solar thermal + wood wetback is a resilient water heating solution. Any resistive load is to be avoided in a setup like this -so no oil heaters and consider a wood fired oven (with wetback) that heats the house, cooks your food and helps heat the hotwater. Your choice of fridge freezer is crucial: too high a load will trip the inverter. There is more to this subject than this article indicates... expect true off grid viability once 2nd hand lithium batteries from electric vehicles arrive - no toxic lead to recycle... and really if you can - be a part of society not apart from society.
Written in July 2011