Ok we're nearing the limit of the piggy bank jar but hey at least we now have power! No more noisy generator (mostly).
So we had Solteck in Rosarito install a 9 panel evergreen (3 strings of 3) and Outback inverter system. Batteries are 12 395 Ah Crown deep cycle. Also
have 3 flat plate collectors for floor hydronic heating and domestic with on demand heaters to take up the slack. Have yet to live with it, still
working some leaks/bugs out of the water system but it looks promising. So far the system gives 10.5 kw on a sunny day and 2.8 on a cloudy one!
astrobaja - 3-7-2009 at 06:41 PM
the control room and water system (3 zone pumps) holding tank with blue expansion tank
astrobaja - 3-7-2009 at 06:42 PM
The inverters and charge controller
dianaji - 3-7-2009 at 06:49 PM
wow! that looks like a lotta $$$.Diver - 3-7-2009 at 07:00 PM
Don't know why you need 3 pumps for the 3 zones.
You should easily be able to run the hydronic system with one pump and the domestic with another.
3 zone valves would replace the individual pumps and take no power.
If all 3 zone pumps are running, that's 3 times the power draw you really need.
Interesting that they chose to use 2 separate water heaters instead of one larger unit. With a dual core water storage tank, it could have run on one
heater/boiler instead of one for domestic and one for heat.BajaGringo - 3-7-2009 at 07:03 PM
I was asking myself some of the same questions diver...comitan - 3-7-2009 at 07:36 PM
First things first, check the water, check the water in the batteries even if they are new..... Oops also find a way to lock your solar panels.
[Edited on 3-8-2009 by comitan]bajalou - 3-7-2009 at 07:43 PM
Looks good. If you need more solar power, putting the panels on a tracker will increase the power to your system by 30% or more. I was running a gen
set every couple days to keep up on my system until I put up a automatic tracker - haven't run the gen since. And for the first time my system shows
"full charge" on a regular basis.
They look like big panels, what is the rating on them?
[Edited on 3-8-2009 by bajalou]BajaBruno - 3-7-2009 at 07:46 PM
"So far the system gives 10.5 kw on a sunny day and 2.8 on a cloudy one!"
Pretty good! You should be happy with that.astrobaja - 3-8-2009 at 10:29 AM
Each zone works on a thermostat which reads ambient air temp, most of the time only 2 zones might be working unless we have guests.
The pumps really do draw very little power and are not always active.
The hydronic and domestic are descrete systems, the white tank is merely a holding tank for the hot water that the 2 flat plate collectors pre-heat,
if the temp needs to be bumped up the on-demand kicks in. The same goes for the domestic which has one flat plate collector. Time will tell how well
this all will work!
BajaLou: the panels are 195 watt EvergreenBob and Susan - 3-8-2009 at 03:49 PM
now you need to "tweek" your system
the factory defaults for your charge controlers are too lowsd - 3-8-2009 at 09:21 PM
It is a very nice looking installation.
Be sure to insulate all those pipes up there on the Mountain. I have stayed at Meling Ranch several times and just love the peaceful sound at night.
A great area and it looks like you are enjoying it. Your place has turned out very nice.
a lot of equipment
noproblemo2 - 5-16-2009 at 02:48 PM
We priced our system thru them as well and found they were twice the cost of more modern and efficient equipment thru EcoyEco out of TJ, for the quote
of there electric system, actually only 3/4's the quote we installed both the elec and hot watersystems. The service we rcvd was far superior to that
of soltek.BigWooo - 5-16-2009 at 05:27 PM
Very nice system. Looks like your installer was a real professional. I'm jealous, you have the flexware system I wish I could afford David K - 5-17-2009 at 08:36 AM
Very nice Astro!
Thanks for sharing the project with us!jorgie - 5-18-2009 at 05:20 AM
Astro , WOW . You folks have done wonders , I can still think the pics of when you bought . Great stuff .
Reading Divers comments made me go back and have a looksee . There will be many comments . Mine is it looks "backed up" and that's a good thing .
Are you folks still in love with the ranch ?astrobaja - 5-18-2009 at 12:14 PM
Hi all,
Sorry have not checked this tread in a while! While we totally still love being here in the sierra, it is (and had been) 5X's as hard as building
near "civilization".
We also learned the hard way that Soltek was wayyy too expensive in their labor charges ($120 an hour). When we discovered they wanted to ding us an
additional 10 hours for a 1 hour repair of one of our hyronic lines we refused payment and broke ties with them!
Since then we have had lots of issues with the cheap home-made flat plate collectors they installed ie leaks from improper couplers. Really cheap
easy for them mounting hardware.
Also now we have found they did not even setup the Outback system right so that it never showed proper state of charge. We are working out what was
wrong in the setup with the helpful Outback techs but progress is slow.
My brother in law who does marine electronics is coming down soon to tweak the system.
We would NEVER recommend Soltek to anyone!
I think the owner knew how to do it right but just took the fastest easiest way in order to make the most $$$.
we'll figure it out though sooner or later!
Mike
[Edited on 5-18-2009 by astrobaja]astrobaja - 5-18-2009 at 12:27 PM
One other thing we als omade the mistake of listening to the Soltek guy when he recommended Degree on demand tankless heaters over the Bosch we
originally had in mind. After googling the company and numerous other online tankless heater resources I CANNOT find any mention of this Chinese
company. The one he setup for our domestic is pretty crappy inadequete piece of kaka, since we have 2 baths and a washing machine.
He has one flat plate collector (only holds 5 gallons) in line to preheat the agua. But there is no holding tank or circulating pump so whe nyou go
to turn on any hot water it goes through the heater way too hot and totally confuses it. So you have to run the water till the overly hot water has
run out and then wait for it to turn back on, what a stupid design!!
Love to have a referral to a good ruputable company (like the one you used from TJ Noproblemo2) to redo the system sometime down the line.BigWooo - 5-18-2009 at 01:53 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by BigWooo
Very nice system. Looks like your installer was a real professional.
Ouch! Guess I ate those words!
EcoyEco
noproblemo2 - 5-18-2009 at 06:49 PM
Sorry you are having issues with your system, I agree that II would NEVER recommend them, over-priced, sell you far more than you need and quite rude.
I assume you dealt with John, the owner?
However having said that, this is the info you requested, 664 684 1886. If you would like to email me for info/references my email is
noproblemo2@yahoo.combajaecoliving - 5-20-2009 at 08:36 PM
wow. i like when people go solar. water or electricity. ... we had some good work done by www.ecoyeco.com also. and the the guy Rolf is really helpful.
The installation in these pictures looks like a full on power-plant or a water treatment plant.
it seems like there has been lots of things installed that one can do easily without. why have 2 tank less water heaters? instead of 1. or a solar
holding tank? why not have a normal gas boiler with tank attached and do completely without the tank less. ... i really think if you think to go
solar... which i think is a great idea then call the ecoyeco guys in TJ and let them give you a quote.astrobaja - 5-21-2009 at 09:41 AM
Hi all,
Thanks for the info on ecoyeco we will for sure contact them in the future when we have some more $$ saved up. For now though we are very happy to
have quiet clean power, the problems I'm sure will eventually be ironed out. For the future I'm sure we will add perhaps 6 more batteries and a few
more 200W panels to max out what the one charge controller can handle (80 amps).
Thhe hot water setup is what was the biggest f-up on the part of Soltek, I'm sure that will have to be radically changed, but for now at least for
domestic hot water use it works ok.
solar
noproblemo2 - 5-23-2009 at 02:07 PM
You will be very pleased with the service and attitude of Rolf at EcoyEco.
