Solar charged battery system providing electricity for audio system

[Jud]

I did research on this before my home was built in 2017.  You may be surprised to learn that at least as of 2nd or 3rd quarter 2017, there were no inverters on the market that had power quality specs (for example, harmonic distortion and power factor) better than US utility power, and perhaps one or two I could find that even had equivalent specs.

 

Regulations on utilities in the US are fairly strict about power quality.  Contrary to popular imagination, most power quality problems are inside the home (appliance motors, digital controls that are in everything from toasters to lighting now) rather than out.  So unless something has changed drastically in the past 2 years or less, you'd actually start out with better power quality from the grid.  Therefore, yes, you'll want to clean up power from your home inverter, whether it's a regenerator, isolation transformer, something else, or a combination.

[Jud]

4 hours ago, Nsxturbo said:

Absolutely! without testing it as I said in my original post, my grid AC could be atrocious. That is why I would hesitate to apply my local results broadly to everyone else. 

I really need to a decent scope for tangible measurements for any of my experience to be translatable to other’s AC setups.

If you’re in the US (and very likely other developed countries), by law your grid power cannot be “atrocious.” It actually has to conform to extremely tight specifications, tighter than all but a very few inverters, and at least equal to the best available inverters (as of mid to later 2017, anyway). This isn’t some general average specification, it’s a minimum requirement.

 

So I’d look elsewhere. Perhaps due to no need for transformers or ac/dc conversion internally. Or perhaps the power actually measures worse but sounds better to you. Impossible to know, and in any case I’m certainly no expert.

[Jud]

18 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

Jud - do you have a cite to the law on that?

 

Also, I suspect it is measured at the source or a sub-station.  Possibly, a noise source could be down the block from your house (or in an adjoining apt.) and mess up your AC line, yet remain undetected at the measurement point (assuming there actually are measurements, and not just a technology based estimate the way air pollution sources are treated).

 

I suspect the conclusion is correct however - noise (if it exists and affects your SQ at all) is likely coming from inside your own house.

 

The ANSI standard measures at two points, the service entrance to the home and the point of utilization (individual appliances, lights, etc., within the home).

 

The laws (regulations) are done by individual state Public Utility Commissions or equivalent bodies.

[Jud]

7 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

I do think it would be interesting, if not useful, to run a system (or at least the DAC) off of pure DC, and that we will see more of that in the future.

 

Jeff Rowland Design used to make a DC amp, don't know if they still do. @Nsxturbo, I imagine you may be the homegrown expert here.   

 

[Jud]

6 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

I have a feeling that a solar charged battery, perhaps with some wind to help as well, will be the future as we move to a more sustainable form of energy. It has the added benefit of decentralizing the power grid too, making it more secure.

 

Yep.  Have solar that has supplied slightly over 100% of our power needs since we've been here (relatively small system - pretty efficient home), and the system is wired to be able to hook up batteries conveniently along an interior garage wall.  Looking forward to getting those in a couple of years.

[Jud]

11 minutes ago, AudioDoctor said:

I’m very interested in an off grid house using solar and wind as power sources alongside a gas (propane) tank and good old wood burning fireplaces. 

 

The wood burning fireplace is (a) a romantic idea, and (b) something I personally love to see.  But it also (a) requires cleaning vs. a gas fireplace (Jotul makes very nice gas fireplaces - they have furnace-rated blower systems that can keep a floor of your home from freezing if the rest of the heating system goes on the fritz), and (b) is energy-inefficient enough that I think I remember you can have trouble getting something like a LEED certification if you have one.

 

We have propane for in-floor radiant heat and hot water (one small - probably 2' x 2' x 10" or less  - tankless boiler supplies both), electricity for the rest. Use less than 400 gallons of propane a year (maybe $30/month averaged out), but then our winters are nothing like MN.  Got down to about 12F for the low one day this winter (we're at 5700 feet), and that's as cold as it's been in 2 years.

[Jud]

3 hours ago, barrows said:

Indeed, same here at 9,300' in Colorado!  As well, sometimes there are power outages, and my boiler is electronic ignition, so it will not run if the electricity is out.  So a wood burning stove is an essential backup heat source.

 

Wood burning stoves can be made to be pretty efficient (and my wife back in the day loved to cook on one), but I think most wood burning fireplaces are another matter.

[Jud]

3 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

Having an empty tank of propane and 4 feet of snow on the roads preventing a fill up is a real concern.

 

Because we only use about 60% of our 500-gallon buried tank's capacity per year due to the relatively mild winters and a well insulated home, we have the luxury of only filling once annually but never letting the tank go below 30%. (Fills don't go past 90% to leave room for expansion.)

[Jud]

1 hour ago, AudioDoctor said:

I have actually seen emergency vehicles unable to go anywhere due to snow fall and freezing to death isn’t my preferred way to go...

 

Having a couple of backups is great, in some climates essential.

 

In terms of the primary system, I like the in-floor radiant because each area has its own zone (total of 6), with each zone controlled by a Nest thermostat. All I had to do was adjust the temperature a couple of times, and they've got a nice little algorithm on their chips that keeps everything within about a degree F of what we like. (Can also set to allow lower temps when you're away, but with in-floor radiant the associated thermal mass means changes take hours, so for us that setting isn't worthwhile unless we're on vacation.)

 

Don't have to think about or fuss with anything, which is the way I like it.

[Jud]

3 hours ago, RickyV said:

@thotdoc I thought this was a thread about Solar charged battery system providing electricity for audio system. 

It seem it’s gone OT to “the green American” thread. 😳

 

I like to listen to music in my "green" home. 😲

[Jud]

4 hours ago, firedog said:

Your grid power may be good at it's source, or an area transformer, but it can be polluted by a nearby source before it gets to your home. I found this out when I had excess DC on my line causing my amp to hum and determined it wasn't coming from inside my building (I'm in a semi-detached).  Never did determine the outside source, but it had to be relatively close to have an effect, and put a DC reducer on my line.

 

Remember, electricity is a circuit. To meet requirements, it has to be able to flow through everything in the circuit and not have its specs suffer much.