Article: The Audio Impact of Solar Panels and Battery Backup: Introduction, Installation & Initial Listen

[AudioDoctor]

The MN Winters are exactly why I insist on having a wood burning fireplace in my house. Sure it's nice and cozy to sit around in the winter, but the worst case scenario we have heat.

[AudioDoctor]

1 hour ago, Foggie said:

A a big increase is coming this winter for natural gas  - which is great cuz it doesn't get cold here 🙄. 

https://www.kare11.com/article/weather/heating-costs-expected-to-skyrocket-this-winter/89-7909e445-ea65-47e0-8ce4-8c92c499ecb1

 

Great... its not like I don't heat or cook with gas...

[AudioDoctor]

I am sitting here thinking about this. We have been thinking about putting solar panels on the roof for a while now, and I was thinking why not put the house on the solar circuit, and use another dedicated circuit for the audio system and separate the two? Then, while not being able to listen to music during a power outage, you wouldn't have any potential sound quality issues to worry about either.

[AudioDoctor]

6 minutes ago, Jud said:

I can’t see the switch that flips from grid to solar during an outage causing audio issues, unless you’re Michael Fremer. If the power goes out, listening to music is a nice way to pass the time.

 

I am spitballing ideas here, but it seems to me that separating the two would be the best of both worlds. Additionally, unless you are getting enough energy to refill your batteries every day, then during a power outage I think being smart about power usage would be a good idea as storms get crazier and times to fix damage gets longer. A Class A Pass Amp, even if its the smallest one, would probably drain batteries in no time. But for that brief glorious amount of time, we would also be warm...

 

edit: Here in the frozen north, on even a sunny winter day, we probably wouldn't get enough sunlight to refill batteries every day, as our amount of sunshine is very limited that time of the year.

 

edit 2: I have a personal weather station in my backyard that has a battery recharged by a small solar panel in it, I already know how much solar energy I would get, approximately, through the day and I can also see that amount dropping significantly already.

[AudioDoctor]

1 minute ago, Jud said:

Moar panels! Moar power! 😉

 

This seems to me like a great argument for a set of really good Class D monoblocks. I love Pass but have also heard Class D sounding terrific.

 

I would love to be able to fit more panels, but that would mean cutting down the big beautiful trees that call our backyard home. Both my wife and I don't want to do that as it seems a little counter productive.

 

Allegedly the new Marantz Model 30, which while having a discrete (HDAM) front end, has a Class D Hypex module output, and sounds wonderful... I have not heard one personally, though.

[AudioDoctor]

25 minutes ago, austinpop said:

Some anecdotal posts here have already indicated -- no audible difference. I will see what my listening tests tell me. Perhaps the same. Perhaps better with batteries? Wouldn't that be something!

 

I excitedly await your thoughts.

[AudioDoctor]

14 hours ago, Meridimac said:

We are also in New Mexico with plenty of sunshine and a 40 panel 13.6KW ground-mounted array. No audio degradation that I’ve noticed, but maybe the Shunyata Denali conditioning accounts for that.

 

Along that same line of thought, I was wondering if an isolation transformer would be beneficial in a scenario with solar and grid connected power sources and their associated equipment.