Minor solar miscalculation

[DQDick]

When we added solar we set it up so when we are paying for electricity, such as at our home base, we could use the solar for the usual things and use the electric for AC, frig and water heater. We are oriented north to south so the sun should pass right over the rig this time of year and with the set up we have we should be able to use fry pans, microwave, coffee pots etc. What we forgot was that since Kansas gets very hot and humid we left a large tree that shades the rig to save on the AC bill. That means the sun doesn't fully strike the panels until after 1:30pm. With the AC we like to use it's not a recipe for success and toping the tree would cost more in AC than the solar could save. Going to the NASCAR race in KC tomorrow and we have several days of severe storms scheduled. Once they're done I'm going to raise the panels to point toward the west and see if I can't make the most of the half day that I have. Should be interesting to see what that accomplishes.

[7.3Ford]

Dick,

Don't think microwave is good idea to run off of solar. Yes you can, but will drain you batteries pretty quick. Microwave will pull around 200 Amps DC. Don't use electric frying pan, so don't know about that one. We have a Bunn Coffee maker, and it doesn't pull much.

[DQDick]

We have four large panels and six golf cart batteries so as long as we don't go totally crazy we can use those things and still keep the batteries above 70%. We do some aggressive energy management if we decide to use most or all of the big users on the same day.

[mlh]

I would like some solar but for what our electric bill is I just can't justify it. Our home is total electric and run the machine shop with 3 CNC machines the manual machines employ 4 people for a few bucks over $200 per month
Lynwood