Finally get to charge my Tesla with solar

FutureBoy

Well-known member
First Name
Reginald
Joined
Oct 1, 2020
Messages
669
Reaction score
877
Location
Kirkland WA USA
Vehicles
Toyota Sienna
Occupation
Private Lending Educator
Country flag
All this talk about uses for ice, looks likes I’m going to need one of those hotel ice makers if I can’t have a refrigerator. Not sure how the ice maker compares to the refrigerator that we are trying to avoid.





Advertisement

 

Frankenblob

Well-known member
First Name
Frank
Joined
Feb 13, 2020
Messages
170
Reaction score
140
Location
Home
Vehicles
M38A-1, Trans-am
Country flag
All this talk about uses for ice, looks likes I’m going to need one of those hotel ice makers if I can’t have a refrigerator. Not sure how the ice maker compares to the refrigerator that we are trying to avoid.
Hehehe, you can have a fridge but it is a consumate waste of energy, a freezer will consume quite a bit less, plus, in the winter ( your locale too) a broken freezer works wonders for food material. Just letting another know about energy conservation.
 

Obxcast

Member
First Name
Steven
Joined
Jul 25, 2020
Messages
22
Reaction score
28
Location
Chesapeake, VA
Vehicles
2014 Ford Escape hybrid
Occupation
Program Director
Country flag
I'm super excited. After watching other people install solar on youtube I finally get to install solar myself. I don't know how long it will take me to install it on my house because I'm not familiar with the whole process of getting solar however I have basic idea from watching youtube. Can't wait to get started.

Mine took 3-4 months. It is great! Congrats!
 

MEDICALJMP

Well-known member
First Name
Jeff
Joined
Apr 28, 2020
Messages
687
Reaction score
1,148
Location
Omaha, NE
Vehicles
Toyota Avalon, Rav4, Tri-motor Cybertruck
Occupation
Nurse
Country flag
Hmmmmmm, what if you put the cans/bottles IN the ice?

Wet can/bottle, slippery....but COLD

Hehehe
Then see Crissa’s comment above. I want my pop cold, not frozen. Only my margaritas and foo-foo drinks get the frozen treatment.
 

ajdelange

Well-known member
First Name
A. J.
Joined
Dec 8, 2019
Messages
2,173
Reaction score
2,283
Location
Virginia/Quebec
Vehicles
Tesla X LR+, Lexus SUV, Toyota SR5, Toyota Landcruiser
Occupation
EE (Retired)
Country flag
I would also look into installing micro inverters, I have Enphase micro inverters installed here in the U.K.
They still sell systems that don't use microinverters? I thought they had dominated the market by now.
 

ajdelange

Well-known member
First Name
A. J.
Joined
Dec 8, 2019
Messages
2,173
Reaction score
2,283
Location
Virginia/Quebec
Vehicles
Tesla X LR+, Lexus SUV, Toyota SR5, Toyota Landcruiser
Occupation
EE (Retired)
Country flag
Hehehe, you can have a fridge but it is a consumate waste of energy,
It is? Modern ones are pretty good. We have a small separate one for drinks which I think uses maybe 20 W?

a freezer will consume quite a bit less,
I'm missing something because that represents a violation of the Second Law (a freezer operates at colder temperature and thus must be less efficient).
 

Crissa

Well-known member
First Name
Crissa
Joined
Jul 8, 2020
Messages
3,037
Reaction score
3,205
Location
Santa Cruz
Vehicles
2014 Zero S, 2013 Mazda 3
Country flag
Roof is better; higher gives better arc to the sky, and it doesn't take up space which stuff is likely to run into it.

If you you do put it on the ground, make sure to raise it high enough so that you don't have to mow grass around it, four feet up and animals can graze underneath.

I'm missing something because that represents a violation of the Second Law (a freezer operates at colder temperature and thus must be less efficient).
Nope. Freezers get the advantage of phase change of water to ice. They're also generally chest-style, so not only are the seals up at the warmest point of the box, when you open it, the pool of cold air doesn't spill out.

-Crissa

PS, ice makers, on the other hand, are horribly energy inefficient. They're forcing the phase change, instead of keeping it. And to get that clear tasty ice every one wants, it has to carefully manage temperature and water flow. Lots of power use.
 
Last edited:

ajdelange

Well-known member
First Name
A. J.
Joined
Dec 8, 2019
Messages
2,173
Reaction score
2,283
Location
Virginia/Quebec
Vehicles
Tesla X LR+, Lexus SUV, Toyota SR5, Toyota Landcruiser
Occupation
EE (Retired)
Country flag
True the phase change adds to the inefficiency of a freezer in a couple of ways but all that energy doesn't have to be wasted. If you remove a frozen item to a refrigerator rather than to the ambient you will recover some of the investment (not the part lost to Carnot and mechanical inefficiency though). This leads to the tip that just as one should not put a hot item into a refrigerator/freezer so should he not remove a frozen item from a freezer except to a refrigerator. With a solar system this is mooted by the fact that the electricity is so cheap.

Also interesting in this regard is that when you open the door not only are you injured by having to take the latent heat out through a double phase change but then insulted by having to expend energy to reverse that (or at least one of the two) by expending energy for defrost.
 

Crissa

Well-known member
First Name
Crissa
Joined
Jul 8, 2020
Messages
3,037
Reaction score
3,205
Location
Santa Cruz
Vehicles
2014 Zero S, 2013 Mazda 3
Country flag
Yeah, it's better to keep thermal mass in your fridge or freezer, rather than air. Our power is unstable in the fall - fire weather, heatwave brownouts, and winter storms take their toll. So I keep frozen gallon bottles of water to act as thermal mass to speed cooling and retain cooling and a dam against that lost energy when the fridge is opened.

Silly little trick of adding these bottles as the refrigerator is emptied.

-Crissa
 
OP
TeslaHugger

TeslaHugger

Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2020
Messages
18
Reaction score
20
Location
NW Pacific
Vehicles
Tesla M3
Country flag
  • Thread starter
  • Thread Starter
  • #25
I can't believe it but I made a big mistake with solar kit. Fortunately I caught it before the vendor shipped out the inverter. The kit ordered was SMA SunnyBoy with TS4-R-F optimizer which turns out isn't really an optimizer. It's just a rapid shutdown.
After spending several weeks trying to determine how to get optimizers to work with SunnyBoy I just gave up and ordered SolarEdge instead.

One more step closer to charging my Tesla with solar :) .

 

TheLastStarfighter

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 6, 2020
Messages
238
Reaction score
520
Location
Canada
Vehicles
Dodge Challenger
Occupation
Engineer
Country flag
Hehehe, you can have a fridge but it is a consumate waste of energy, a freezer will consume quite a bit less, plus, in the winter ( your locale too) a broken freezer works wonders for food material. Just letting another know about energy conservation.
My fridge uses around $50 of energy a year. It is virtually irrelevant. What on earth are you talking about?
 

Advertisement





 


Advertisement
Top