Tip for an isolated site

[gobinieres]

Hello everyone, this is the first message I post here.

I have a leisure area without water or electricity. On the ground there is a well. We are in Vendée where the sunshine and the wind are important.

We have a permanent shed on this site and I would like to be able to equip it with a fridge, lighting and a pump to get water from the well.

Can you give me advice and guidance to help me in this achievement?

First of all, I don't know if I'm going with solar or wind.

Thank you very much

Michael

[Gaston]

Before you start, you have to take stock of your energy needs.

It is also necessary to have a precise study of the production capacity.

For solar, it is quite easy unless you are on the northern slope of a hill, but for wind, it is more "sharp" and two sites a few hundred meters apart will not always have the same potential.

Then we can size the (s) system (s) of production (solar, wind ... or both), storage (usually batteries) ... and possibly backup (a generator for example).

The final choice will depend on budget and preferences.

The main problem of isolated installations is the rate of coverage of needs, which leads to significant over-sizing of storage and production for periods of several consecutive days without production.
If we diversify the production by installing a small wind turbine in addition to the solar installation, for example, the necessary storage time is reduced by the same amount (the long periods without sun or wind are more rare than the long periods without sunlight). can save more on the cost of batteries than the cost of wind turbine.
In this context, a generator to use a few hours per year can significantly reduce the overall investment in exchange for a few euros of fuel per year.

[chatelot16]

for small power the solar is easier: the price of the solar collector is exactly proportional to the power that we install ... we can easily install too small to try and increase the power until we have enough

with the wind below a few tens of KW is too expensive ... if there is not a mast high enough it is bad ... the limit of 12m to do without authorization is too low

small wind turbines with no variable do not know how to take advantage of a wide range of wind, but alas the variable steps are found only for high power except some high-end exeption out of price

the critical point is the battery ... the only practical solution lead-acid battery but beware the lead battery is self-destruct when it is not well enough charged: do not overload the battery thoroughly one day or there is no sunshine ... generator mandatory not to kill the battery: when installing a system solicitor standby a generator 2000W 200 euro is a negligible price, and saves battery life

[gobinieres]

Thank you for quick and relevant answers.

If I understood correctly :

wind turbine not great in my case value for money if you want something really effective.

I already own a group of 3,4 Kw. Can I start to buy only batteries and charge them with my group? If so, how to calculate the charging time? What type of battery and what number?

Then, I buy a solar panel to test, then I complete no other according to the needs and their evolution.

Does this process seem correct to you?

Thank you

Michael

[chatelot16]

how to calculate the charging time?

no need to talk about the voltage, just give the total capacity of battery in KWH

if you want to use your group to the full that you have 3,6kwh of battery it will be charged youhorically in 1h, and the battery will be quickly dead because you should never charge as fast

1 / 10 must be loaded to the maximum capacity: so have a battery of 36kwh that will be charged in 10h ... but as we never discharge the battery fully, the charge will take less time

but 36kwh is huge! in 12V it would make 36000 / 12 = 3000Ah ... and for such a big capacity one never does in 12V ... it would be rather 750Ah 48V

back to earth ... I think you'll choose a much lower battery capacity ... and the charging power will be 1 / 10 of the KWh capacity and will be much lower than the power of the group ... the group will have to shoot for a long time at poor performance: it will be ruinous ... almost as ruinous as lighting up the group each time electricity is needed

my calculation of time of discharge is simplistic, it is necessary to increase it a little to take into account the performance of the battery: to multiply by 1,2 or 1,4 according to the state of the battery

the battery also has another loss: auto discharge: it's ruinous when you have a too big battery

conclusion: a battery is only useful for a source of free electricity: for photovoltaic: the battery capacity must be adapted to the photovoltaic power ... the generator must be used to occasional high power without using the drums

the generator can occasionally be used to charge the battery to save his life and avoid leaving it flat while waiting for the sun, but it must happen exceptionally

when we have a photovoltaic instalation too small we must turn on the group whenever we need a big power ... we can in period of lack of sun connect a charger every time the group turns: it turns not to charge: it turns mainly to feed directly what we use ... we just enjoy the time or it turns to charge also