My 24 Aquion AHI batteries

[Sunking]

It's a shame that you have one of the most innovative battery systems ever offered and
no one seems to have asked any technical questions.

This subject has been beaten to death already. Nothing innovative at all about them.

[kochevnik]

It's a shame that you have one of the most innovative battery systems ever offered and
no one seems to have asked any technical questions.

OffGridHI - can you tell us a little more about performance compared to the batteries
you had before ? What are the charge / discharge rates ? Are you using the same charge
controller as before ? And did Aquion have any recommendations about charge controllers -
seems to be that the behavior of these batteries has to differ in some significant ways
from what has been used before ?

I am very interested in these - contacted Aquion direct last year but have not pulled the
trigger yet - one of my main concerns being that I live in an area of actual WINTER weather
and what would happen when / if the temps in my battery storage room dropped below freezing.
I'm assuming that this would destroy the Aquions.

Looking forward to any first hand info you can give us.

Thanks.

[Sundetective]

Real nice thread OffGridHawiian,

Free electric might need free enterprise.
With the high Local poverty rate and what have you I'm guessing
That a Home Occupancy Business License may be no problem.
Part time help may be ready and willing.

Then you had Mrs. Teshima Living till 106 years old eating that
great food your right on top of.
Old Bill hears some people
just Loves the heck out of their new 1800 watt portable
Induction Cooktops and how they makes their Canners and
Pressure Cookers 'talk'.

How many of those badboys would it take to suck up that extra power?
Or Hawaiian goodie electric dehydrators.

Slow boat to Honolulu is waiting on your goods right now.
Not to mention "Right Where You Are" like the Legendary
Doctor Napoleon Hill would have said.

'Solar Powered Teshima Snacks by TopCat'

Bill Blake

Aloha Hawi,

We live in Honalo, close to Teshima's Restaurant. So far everything has been working GREAT . Haven't changed a thing from when we were using Helco. About the Aquions, kinda missing looking at them. Once the battery box was completed, haven't looked at them since. Really liking the No-Maintenance part

Let me know when you are heading out our way, would be happy to talk story. Just PM me.

Aloha

[OffGridHawaiian]

Thanks for sharing your system with us. What part of the Big Island do you live? I'm located in North Kohala (Hawi) and would love to see your system and talk story. I'm really interested in how you like the Aquion batteries. Aloha...

Aloha Hawi,

We live in Honalo, close to Teshima's Restaurant. So far everything has been working GREAT . Haven't changed a thing from when we were using Helco. About the Aquions, kinda missing looking at them. Once the battery box was completed, haven't looked at them since. Really liking the No-Maintenance part

Let me know when you are heading out our way, would be happy to talk story. Just PM me.

Aloha

[Hawi]

Thanks for sharing your system with us. What part of the Big Island do you live? I'm located in North Kohala (Hawi) and would love to see your system and talk story. I'm really interested in how you like the Aquion batteries. Aloha...

[Amy@altE]

Home Power Magazine has an article in this month's issue about using a diversion load to utilize extra power on sunny days. Your charge controller has an Aux out that can trigger a relay to power a water heater heating element. You could get a DC element to run off the batteries, or an AC one through the inverter. I would think you're doing a lot of laundry with a guest house, may be worth while, rather than just having the solar turn off.

[russ]

As more and more lead batteries are recycled, less mining will be required.

More and more batteries are used - more mining required.

[Johann]

The objection to lead is mostly the mining.

As more and more lead batteries are recycled, less mining will be required.

[sahucker]

Mixing valve

Willy-T,thanks. 2 in series will work for the first wo of us too..

InMichigan

[Willy T]

I took a simpler route and have the tanks in series, the tank with the solar input is a tempering tank and is first in line. The regular 240v tank is second in line and is the hot water output. If the solar tank drops below the set temperature it will automatically come on with it's thermostat ( 125 ° ). I have the mixing valve after the 240v tank. The solar tank can get as high as 170 ° summer and around 130-140 ° in the winter and I have seen it at 60 ° if I get 5-6 days of bad weather. So the valve only has one hot water input and will temper above 115 °.

I only have 2 people in my house, so I envisioned a more complicated system with the 3 way valves for the op.

[sahucker]

mixing valve question

What you have to do is come up with a scheme to utilize the excess production after the system reaches 100% soc. I mentioned a second hot water heater as a possibility that most homes would have. It's set up with zone valves and diversion relays to only come on during high soc situations. You could utilize a 2 stage thermostat where the hot water heater you have temperature is based on time of day with a set back during non production time. A Mixing valve will determine the water temperature at the faucet, you store the water at 170 ° or so.

I was curious how this would work, so I went looking at mixing valves online at Home Depot. I could envision how your system would work if your diversion tank was always the HOT source, then it seems your other tank would be the less hot source to dilute the temperature to a lower desired valve. But, if several days of cloudy weather prevents you from having excess load to dump into the diversion tank, what happens then? (I can see around that situation with various NO/NC valves, well labeled, and instructions for my wife to use.... perhaps there's a better way). I have assumed the mixing valve didn't also work backwards if the normally HOT source happens to be cold and the COLD source makes a better hot... either I'm wrong, or there is some special kind of mixing valve out there?

[J.P.M.]

Same for the Global Warming idiots who believe our oil supply is dwindling. If that were true the problem would solve itself. The Public is easily duped and their pockets picked.

Need proof. Go to Lost Wages and take notes. You go there, get grossly over charged for every thing, and robbed blind in the casinos. When you get home you tel all your friends you cannot wait to go back.

Simple minds are amused and duped by simple things. About the most crass place on earth.

[peakbagger]

Oil is actually starting to be used for generation again in New England. When natural gas prices run up due to transmission constraints, the utilities crank up simple cycle peakers that run on distillate. There is a large oil fired plant in Cumberland Maine that was on standby for years that runs far more often now.

[Sunking]

I know a solar guru who, tongue in cheek, suggested that if all the tree huggers believed oil truly was in short supply, they should support lowering the price to zero. We'd burn it all up, and then be forced to use solar.

Same for the Global Warming idiots who believe our oil supply is dwindling. If that were true the problem would solve itself. The Public is easily duped and their pockets picked.

Need proof. Go to Lost Wages and take notes. You go there, get grossly over charged for every thing, and robbed blind in the casinos. When you get home you tel all your friends you cannot wait to go back.

[J.P.M.]

Are those the same ones that think Solar & Wind can produce all of the power needed to keep everything going 24/7?

Yea, mostly. He's a pretty sharp guy who, while a solar advocate, was a pragmatic engineer who didn't mind using sarcasm to skewer pie in the sky dreamers. Some of his audience actually thought he was serious and had a good idea.