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mtgoat666
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Posts: 17382
Registered: 9-16-2006
Location: San Diego
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Mood: Hot n spicy
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So, what was your price per sq ft?
[Edited on 8-26-2023 by mtgoat666]
Woke!
“...ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” “My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America
will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”
Prefered gender pronoun: the royal we
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RFClark
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Posts: 2343
Registered: 8-27-2015
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Mood: Looking forward to 2024
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Goat,
The true cost including the lot and improvements, house and living while building was around $140 per sq ft. That’s the number you need to know when
you go to sell a house not just what the builder charged you per sq ft.
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RFClark
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Solar AC report
It’s been 6 -7 weeks since we finished the major part of construction and a week since we returned from our road trip.
Here are some thoughts and information we have collected that may be of interest.
We have 1400 sq ft under climate control all of the windows are double pane and all of the windows have in-place white hurricane shutters. The climate
control consists of 4 units. 2 - 1.5T and 2 - 1T heat pumps SEER 19 240VAC under software control.
We have 18 - 540 W panels installed in 3 - 6 panel strings the wattage rating is at 1000 W/sq m. Our solar input only runs 700 W/sq m probably as a
result of the high humidity.
The peak power production I have seen is 7+KW from the 9.7KW of panels. The house is using about 32KWH per 24 hrs. That is around 1000KWH/M We run the
AC off of the solar from about 8:00 to 17:00. 26C works for us as an indoor temperature. At night we can run the AC off of batteries or the 8.7KW
inverter generator.
Once the sun sets the heat load goes down dramatically and our nighttime lows are currently in the mid-70s. We have been running the generator between
17:00 and 18:00 until we see how much power is required. Tonight we will try w/o running the plant.
Overnight we AC just the master BR & Bath. We have been turning off the BR AC around 3:00 as it is no longer necessary.
We probably use around 10KW of the 30KW of batteries overnight. That number is difficult to separate out from the total.
Our water usage for house and landscape is running around 12 CU Meters per month. Reusing the gray water seems to save about 4 CU Meters of water per
month. If there were 4 of us the gray water alone would be able to supply the landscape.
Propane usage currently very low exclusive of the electrical plant.
The house is not quite at “0” CO2 emissions but compared to CFE power and trucked water it’s way better.
1000 KWH of Solar is equal to 860 Lbs of CO2 saved per month.
That is probably low as CFE burns really dirty fuel at their La Paz plant.
More information as it’s collected.
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Santiago
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Good info.
Is the circular stair a kit from The Iron Shop? I'm a stair builder and we have used them before.
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RFClark
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Mood: Looking forward to 2024
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Santiago,
No, the stair kit is Italian we bought it at Lowes and brought it down. It was about $2K and really well built with good instructions.
[Edited on 9-15-2023 by RFClark]
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RFClark
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Rancho Nuevo Home Results to 10/24/23
Hi everyone,
Here’s a post Hurricane update:
Structure: No obvious problems, one small leak near electrical conduit to AC
Hurricane Shutter and Sun Shade System - maximum wind speed 70 Mph no problems or damage. Some screws replaced with S/S screws due to corrosion. 2nd
floor Shutters open and close in about 30 minutes. The shutters pervert wind driven water from getting into the house around the windows.
Solar Power System: No mechanical damage from the storms. 18 - 540W panels in 3 - 6 panel strings average panel voltage 240V total power around 6700W
in current (10/24) clear sky. 1800W heavy overcast conditions. Extra 3 X 330W panels on grid tie carry about 1/2 of the 900W (aprox) day base load.
Night base load is about half of that. Currently “Night” is about 14 hours long.
Solar AC Results: from about 9:00 - 17:00 it’s possible to maintain 24C-26C inside total on Solar. Running the Inverter generator 18:00 - 20:00 at a
4KW rate allows 25C - 27C all night by running the 4AC units for 15 minutes each in rotation every hour or two. Fuel (propane) costs for the generator
are about $30 pesos per day. The day AC electrical load runs between 2KW and 4KW.
We cook with electricity when the generator is running to keep the house cooler.
Currently we’re not using the AC units as natural convective cooling is adequate. Airflow enters the ocean side on the ground floor and exits the
2nd floor on the land side by way of the windows after coming up the stairwell, as well as through the GF engineering space which has powered
ventilation.
The green space next to the GF windows is a part of the passive cooling system as it both cleans and cools the air.
We are developing a 2nd green space along the street to reduce the amount of dirt from the traffic.
Our water usage is between 12-14 Cu M/Mo which is lower than the average here.
The gray water watering system is working well and provides about 400 Gal/Week for the yard.
We’re going into the cooler time of the year we’ll post more as the season progresses.
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JDCanuck
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Thanks for all that info RFC: I believe you and we have equivalent sized homes with very equivalent solar panel sizing. I suspect our battery storage
must be significantly higher tho as we need no propane under normal conditions as long as we stage our cooking, water heating and laundry according to
solar availability while we are there.
AC and Heat pumps are off at night except for the one room we sleep in and the rest of the cement house will gain or lose about 2 degrees C from 8 pm
overnite until 7 or 8 am when we turn the other heat pump units on again and start making breakfast. Stoves, hot water heaters are all electric. Back
up generator is there to supply power if we have 2 to 3 days of very cloudy weather in a row and will kick on if batteries drop below 20 percent State
of Charge.
Battery bank is 35000 watt hours total using ten Pylontech 3000C Lithium batteries. Gen is 13kw Cummins and should recharge batteries from 20 percent
to full charge in 3 hours. Solar intensity should be very similar to yours as we are not that far removed from you.
In future I hope to replace the two largest hot water tanks with 40 gal. heat pump hot water tanks when they become available in Baja and reduce hot
water heating loads by 2/3. Presently, the hot water tanks are my largest electrical draws and replaced the propane tanks in the original design late
in the planning stage.
[Edited on 10-25-2023 by JDCanuck]
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RFClark
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JD,
We currently have 14+KW we plan on adding another 4+KW soon.
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JDCanuck
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Yes, we were maybe too interested in going totally non propane except for backup and chose to boost our battery size above that recommended.
Consequently lithium batteries were the major extra expense in our build and came in around 20,000 total cost installed. However, they are very highly
rated at 6000 cycles at 95% discharge and so far have been exceptionally reliable.
I looked back at your panel sizing and your power usage. It looks to me like you have a significant amount of solar available you are not using. I
tried out our system north of you and hit a daily 60kwh usage on 24-465 watt panels (11,160w) in mid October by running every load I could think of
putting on the system while the chargers were still in bulk mode and during a clear sunny day. There should be a fair amount more available in mid
June.
Have you yet come up with a way of using the surplus you are not yet using? EV charging based on a programmable relay in your system maybe?
[Edited on 10-25-2023 by JDCanuck]
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RFClark
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Mood: Looking forward to 2024
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JD,
Our panels put out in excess of 7KW peak this summer. That’s enough to run the 4 AC units and charge the batteries. After the batteries are charged
we charge the 10KW battery in our PHEV Kia.
We’re adding another 4+KW. The 16 batteries cost about $4K. Now that we’re not running the ACs we have excess capacity. Our Winter Base Load is
about 500W for 14 - 15 hours, more if we need to run the mini splits in the heat mode.
The purpose of the inverter generator is to recharge the batteries. During Norma 2- 3 hours in the morning and evening was enough to cook and recharge
the batteries. The propane cost about $40 pesos a day. That won’t change much even with more batteries.
I’ll look at how we did next spring to see if we need more batteries. Batteries keep coming down in price so waiting where possible is good.
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RFClark
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December Update
The house has now been up and running for over 5 months. We just added the 4th set of Li ion batteries for a total of 16 ( 4X4) batteries. We now have
in excess of 20KW of storage. Our night time base load is about 120 AH for this time of year. Daily usage is around 22KW including car charging. We
are currently running 3 refrigerators. I estimate that on peak load days we’re only using about 55% of the available power.
We’ve been driving around 90 miles a week on electricity. Generator usage in currently 0 hrs/week. We’ve been mostly cooking with electricity,
primarily microwave and induction.
Water usage is averaging 12 Cu M/month. Gray water recycling is around 4 Cu M/month.
The grass dust control area next to the street is now about 20’ wide across the front of our lot.
I’m currently looking at the requirements for an RO water supply system for the hot water and drinking water systems. The wastewater from the RO
system would be added to gray water system where it would recombine with the used hot water.
La Paz currently requires a bio digester septic system for new construction if you are closer to the beach than we are. This probably precludes a
separate gray water system without its own bio digester.
I’ll add some pictures to this post as soon as I cut the grass. Thank you all for watching.
Have a great Holiday Season and a Happy new Year!
The Clarks
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mtgoat666
Select Nomad
Posts: 17382
Registered: 9-16-2006
Location: San Diego
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Mood: Hot n spicy
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Have you tried oiling the road? Waste oil or diesel may help keep the dust down.
Woke!
“...ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” “My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America
will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”
Prefered gender pronoun: the royal we
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RFClark
Super Nomad
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Registered: 8-27-2015
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Mood: Looking forward to 2024
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Goat,
This close to the scared turtle beach? The greens would put you up against an adobe wall and shoot you!
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pacificobob
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Calcium chloride widely used for dust control
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JDCanuck
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Would be great if we could convert some of that excess CaCO3 in our well water supply to reduce dust on roads. Perhaps now that we have managed to
significantly reduce it in our cisterna using AC units and an additional humidifier to demineralize and protect plumbing that would have been the next
thing to investigate. Unfortunately, we have sold our place and our fun is coming to an end. Congrats on your designs RFClark, I will continue to
monitor this thread to see your further progress.
I especially admired your storm shielding designs for windows, much cheaper than our Hurricane impact windows if you are there consistently.
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JDCanuck
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Posts: 1163
Registered: 2-22-2020
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RFClark: Might I suggest you look at the Innovaqua NUBE SS30 Atmospheric Water Generator as a solution to your drinking water? Supposedly generates up
to 8gpd per day at a liter of water for about 350w power and it could be phased in to only operate when you have excess unused solar with a bit of
programming on your solar system. Produces potable water through 3 stage RO and a UV light.
Info available here:
https://www.innovaqua.shop/collections/nube/products/nube
Side benefit is it will significantly reduce humidity problems in your oceanside home.
[Edited on 12-15-2023 by JDCanuck]
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mtgoat666
Select Nomad
Posts: 17382
Registered: 9-16-2006
Location: San Diego
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Clarkles:
Try paving the road. Keeps the dust down.
Topes works too. Really harsh topes work best!
Sometimes the best dust avoidance measure in rural areas is don’t build next to the road!
Woke!
“...ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” “My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America
will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”
Prefered gender pronoun: the royal we
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surabi
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Reverse osmosis removes all the healthy minerals from the water, along with the bad stuff. It is "dead" water. I prefer to use a Berkey filter for
drinking water, which removes the pathogens, but not the minerals. Pour tap water in the top, it filters through to bottom, easy peasy.
And the filters last for up to 7 years- no need to replace filters or UV lights every six months or a year.
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RFClark
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I personally don’t have any say in how the roads here are maintained. That limits what we can do to controlling the results. As suggested driving
slower would help. I have asked about topes at community meetings and have been told by those in charge that Mexico has rules about the placement of
topes. Their use for residential speed reduction isn’t a choice.
Of the materials available locally, graveling the roads seems to work best. We will do that in front of our lot next time we buy some. (Media Noche
Gravel never sleeps) Dusty roads seem to be endemic around here due to the soil composition. The high humidity doesn’t seem to help either as it’s
as dusty in summer as in the winter.
We use less than 50 gal of hot water a day on average so 100 gal of RO water is enough to have available for making hot water. I’m working out the
plumbing necessary to feed the 2 water heaters from a common source in the garage. First we need to do the concrete floor in the garage. All of this
and more is on the 2024 project list.
I will post as we progress. Thanks for all the advice.
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surabi
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Regarding topes- I read that they had removed a lot of topes in Mexico City, as they found much higher concentrations of air pollution where there
were topes, as all the cars have to slow down so traffic sits longer almost idling. So dust or exhaust pollution, take your pick.
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