My solar experience - in a video - because no one reads so much text

Hello. Your video is also quite long. Could you briefly indicate here a few things:

1) Are you off-grid?

2) Are you grid-tied?

3) Do you use net-metering or not?

I'm interested in solar, but I couldn't quite understand if I can be grid-tied without net-metering in my area, because my electricity company doesn't provide net-metering.

To the OP, couldn't see your video, moderated. interested for a chat or multiple but?

Cheers, Steve.

Why is the link deleted? I can't see the external link as a reason in the code of conduct if this was an informative video which it looks it was.

A forum without links is just stupid and pretty useless. Whats on your mind?

Thats why people moved away from forums to social media 10 years ago.

And yes, i'm in process of installing 6kw of solar panels for a 350k on our roof, so i'm interested.

10 years ago or 30, perhaps the OP can elaborate without the need for what has been deemed "not suitable" maybe the members can judge? never happens.

Cheers Steve.

Vloggers make money off of 'hits' to their vlogs.

Hello everyone,

As mentioned in the forum PHILIPPINES FORUM CODE OF CONDUCT.

''The forum can't be used to promote external groups or organizations.''

This includes links that lead to external websites, not to mention individual personal accounts.

Cheers,

Cheryl

Expat.com team

@B Dmitriy

Im not Off-Grid. That would double or triple the cost and needed roof space for panels as you need to calculate for a longer period of clouds - or it would need an extra generator that would cost expensive gasoline.

@B Dmitriy

I dont do Net-Meetering as I dont have a big enough installation to really earn money. Net-Metering is best if you could sell lie 30-40KW per day - that would need a 10KW plant on the roof.

I understand that no forum wants to be used for spaming.

So I just hope its ok that I have my YouTube Name in my profile and hopefully enough interested members find their way when they look it up

Hi All I have been off this forum for about a year while trying to settle in the Philippines and correcting the errors and blatant poor workmanship on the house we built. We could not be onsite and believed in good faith, well lessons learned anyway not to bore you all with that.

More onto solar as a lot of people have commented, let me give my little bit of contribution.

Afetr receiving our first electric bill of 10K we decided to go for solar. While decising and selecting a system and supplier our bills averaged between 9 K and 11 K.

Finally we installed our system, running now for 9 months with great performance. Here is a overview:

16 x Solar panels 545 W on the roof

1 x 8 KW Inverter

4 x 5 KW Battery storage (LiFePO4)

Hybrid system and we do not have nett metering yet.

Now you might ask why such a big system, here is why:

1 x RO plant - 1HP

1 x Borehole pump - 1.5 HP

1 x Booster pump - 0.5 HP

2 x 1.5 HP Split AC

3 x 1 HP Split AC

1 x 240 Liter water heater 5.5 KW to heat up.

1 x Electric oven 4 KW

Besides the toaster, coffee machine, vacuum cleaner, two fridges and washing machine. Additional as I like to do things myself I have power tools, welding machine, pressure washer etc etc.

Also we run at least one AC 24/7 whether it is bedroom, living room or kitchen.

Also have a 5 KVA bqack up generator for the brown outs which is quite often in our region and rainy days when harvet is not great, or typhoons etc.

The system has been running for 9 months and performance is great, we reduced our bills to 1.6 K from 10 K giving savings of average 8.4 K per month. at this rate the approx payback period we are looking at is 8.5 years, which is not exceptional given the upfront investment however 8 or 9 years is still worth it from my point of view. We do not have a full year performance yet hopefully the payback period will improve.

Our record energy harvest at the moment stand at 6.59 KW from the sun during summer which I think is fantastic

The company we used was great, also great after sales support, cannot mention them on this forum or which equipment we have installed. I f anyone wnats more info just le me know, I really feel solar is the way to go.

@Jackson4  So what? So does expat.com with my visit. And i will visit if i know i can find information here. It's just plain stupid. I found the video in the meantime and it's not like this is a scammer video.

@Lothar Scholz

If you read my statement again, there's nothing I said is for or against the original post. It is a fact.

It exposed what is on your mind by your reaction.

Don't be hatin'.

As Cheryl had quoted this site cannot be used for promotional purposes. We all know it can be used for promotional purposes as long as it is allowed by this site's administrator.

This is not to say the original post is promoting his/her vlog, but it is also a possibility.

Most of my haters are just jealous, so bare with them pls.

To make it short - initial invest was 8x500W panels, 5KW Hybrid inveter and 10KW LiFePO4 battery plus installation - 320k PHP. 1 year later a 2nd LiFePo4 10KW battery at 80k incl. Free install from my installer Ariel and just last month additional 4x500W panels 40k and installation 16k.

Initial power consumption before solar was 350KWh per month at around 4400php.

Fast forward, I now work at home and do nightshift and consumption is about 650KWh per month.

In the last 16 month I already saved 100k PHP on electricity and my bill that I now would have to expect being around 8.5-9k php is down to around 500-1000php per month.

@aklokow I guess you should invest in 10KW more batteries, your system is strong and might fill the batteries during the day already, and you loose quite some KW. If you would store these you can use them in the evening and save additional money.

Into the foray and I have been posting on another site regards our solar journey extensively.

To the OP I doubt people here are jealous or envious but simply have a choice and naught against you.

We had a 5KW grid tied system in Oz for years before moving here over 4 years ago so familiar to some degree.

Here we have elected the following system:

28 x 410 panels or around 11.4Kw

2 x 5 Kw invertors linked

4 x 10Kw lithium batteries linked and perhaps another as time and monitoring goes on.

Here we will be grid tied with auto C/O if the batteries get down to 20/30% (still trying to work out the best cycle for lithium batteries LiPo4)

Nett metering here is painful and expensive, Luelco want separate feeds in and out, (never heard of a smart meter that uses the 150amp existing supply that we upgraded 8 months ago)

Their buy back is not a buyback, it is a 4 to 1 exchange, we send 4Kw and they credit the account with 1Kw and no financial credits where as in Oz it was a 3 to 1 ratio and I always a 60 to 80 buck credit on my bill quarterly.

Here it's backward and they can't see the forest from the trees. Our excess power in the middle of the day reduces their generation costs when most needed. We investigated the cost to nett meter and was going to be around P140/150K and 6 months of headaches, stuff that another 10Kw battery is P190K and rely on our own resources.

It's a big investment @ P1.4M but ROI should be 6 to 7 years and no brown/black outs that seem to be a regular occurrence here.

We also have a 5Kw back up generator if needed if the fit hits the shan.

We look at this in 4 ways: 1/ An investment that long term will save a sh1t load of money. 2/ adds value to the property. 3/ Mostly important for me as a user and an abuser of fossil fuels all my life it's time to give back to my kids and grand kids and the turmoil with the environment that us users and abusers took took for granted for too long even while the msg has been there for 30 years.

4/ No more power losses.

Hey as always OMO.

Cheers, Steve.

@bigpearl

Hi Steve, it is quite a big system you have and fully agree with you rationale for installing solar.

You must have a high consumption  to be still grid tied. As i undertsand you have 40 KW of battery storage, that is huge, Suppose the challenge is to get them fully charged but with a good summers day with your 11 Kw panels at a 85% efficiency you will generate a very good harvest. Will be interesting to have a view of your daily consumption.

I have set my discharge limit to 30% for the batteries and set the inverter to start charging from the grid at 1 pm to 5 pm if the batteries are below 85%. Our peak consumption for one day stands at 30 KW.

So far for this month we have purchased 180 KWh from the grid, due to season change and much more cloudy and rainy days compare to the early summer. Our Uitlity rate fluctuates also but last month we paid P11.6 / kWh compared to November last year when it peaked at P18.2 /kWh.

I have looked at increasing my capacity, but I do not have more space on the roof for more panels, so to increase the battteries will not make sense as I will not get it at 100% charged, basically I think I am stuck to be always grid tied, unless diesel becomes so cheap that I can charge with the generator but it also increases maintenance cost and nuliffying the green approach with renewables by sending CO2 back into the Ozone.

@aklokow.

Thanks for your input, we have the panels and feeds in place but still waiting for the batteries and invertors.

We went for 28 panels because our roof is east/west facing to the ocean, 22.5 pitch, 14 panels each side. This orientation is around 10% less efficient than south facing so say 10Kw, my simple math works out that we should collect 35 to 40Kw per day minimum based on my old north facing 5Kw system in Australia averaging 18 to 22Kw per day

For 3 years we consumed around 14/15Kw per day from the grid, for 1 year now we have had major construction with around 10 workers and 6 to 7 of them live in the bunk house which has a bathroom and large kitchen, they live there 6 days a week so rice cookers, 10C/F refrigerator, fans, extra water from the electric pump etc. saw our monthly bill climb to 23 Kw per day but 3/4 months they will be gone, actually we are down to 5/6 workers now as all the masonry works are complete.

Based on past and future use the system is well oversized but I did my sums so we can run 1 x 2Hp and 1 x 2.5Hp split systems through the day in the living area, dining and kitchen one common room of 75M2 through the day while the sun shines, cool the walls (thermal mass) and room through the day and ceiling fans at night when outside is cooler. 4 years ago we also invested in R3 ceiling batts which made a 2 to 4 degree difference in the house.

My figures include running a 1HP A/C for 12 hours in the master Bedroom in our Luelco bill for the last 4 years and will continue to use.

Our reason for staying grid tied is for back up, say an invertor fails, our 2 invertors while tied feed the old house sub board and the new extensions sub board to share the load which we balanced with the electrician, 1 x 2Hp and 3 x 1HP A/C's in the house sub board and 1 x 2.5 HP and 2 x 1Hp on the other board. we also upgraded the supply from 75 amp to 150 amps all underground at great cost and my and perhaps the electricians stupidity as he was aware that we wanted to have nett metering as well as grid tied, based on what we did in Oz seems simple with a smart meter and using the existing supply,,,,, no not here and I expect no less, most things are difficult here as well as time consuming and always pulling pesos out of your pocket, that's why we went for 40Kw back up and if needed we can add 1 or 2 more 10Kw batteries to the system.

Once the system is commissioned and we gather data we will share.

While not sure of your lot size/shading have you considered adding more panels off the ground? Like a solar farm? Could be an answer.

Cheers, Steve.

@bigpearl

Hi Steve, thanks for the reply, fully undertsand your system now thanks. From my side I also do not have ground space for more solar panels, its a bit oif a challenge as our lot size is only 120 sqm. Our house is a double storey, 3 bedroom with a rooftop where I have my utilitiy room for the RO, gen, water storage etc as well as the soilar panels.

You mention R3 in the ceiling, pardon my ignorance but what is that? We face a problem that the first floor gets very hot , I have ceiling fans in the rooms and not running any AC during the day in the rooms, only start the AC about 30 mins or so before we go to bed. I was contemplating some sort of extracting fan as heat rises but then to seal it for rain, wind, typhoon etc will be a challenge.

Appreciate more info on this R3 you used. Another question we have sliding windows and sliding patio door, do you have the same? Did you seal them? That is my next project to seal them more to prevent the cool air to escape.

@aklokow

https://learnmetrics.com/insulation-r-v … -per-inch/

We installed R3 fiberglass batts, they fluff up to 3/3.5 inches once unpacked, I wanted R3.5 but couldn't purchase, lot's of net searches found a company in Subic that imported R3 batts from Malaysia. I think from memory was around P60/70K for equivalent of 240M2 ceiling cover, all the ceiling linings are 6mm Hardiflex.

We have 6" rendered block walls so 8" thick. These walls heat up with the sun so to the east we put a 4 metre verandah and to the west a 7 metre verandah to the ocean, now the east sun hits the lower part of the wall until around 10am and to the west at around 6pm, this also made a huge difference when running A/C units as they weren't fighting the wall heat but instead cooled them and once the A/C is off the room stays cool for 2/3 hours and only running a ceiling fan.

Shame you don't have more roof space, have you considered a cantilevered structure off your south wall for mounting more panels? This will also shade the wall but only if you have the space to do this.

Windows are jalousie in the kitchen, maids area, 3 bathrooms, our office and one other B/room but they are the ones with the black plastic blade holders and seal very well. 3 main entry doors are solid Mahogany and seal well, fixed floor to ceiling glass in the living area and 2 large sliding glass doors to the 2 main bedrooms, not had an issue with water leaks and they seem to be well sealed. Heavy drapes also helps.

A small killer is running the range hood (that's what it's there for I suppose) which not only sucks out the cooking smells but also the cool air in the rooms.

An add on is that since insulating, adding verandahs the house is cooler by 3/5 deg C than outside without A/C. When we moved here 4 odd years ago the house was just as hot inside and sometimes hotter than outside. Trees can help as long as they don't interfere with your solar system. Our master B/room has 4 metres of glass including the sliding door to the private verandah but the roof is only 3.5 metres to the west ocean but on our tax declared lot there are 2 large trees that block the sun to the glass, so little or no sun to the master B/R. Better half wanted to cut them out and I said absolutely not, they are part of the big picture.

Anyway I hope you can work out a feasible plan to add more panels given the size of your batteries, many options given a little thought for achieving your goals.

Cheers, Steve.

@bigpearl

Hi Steve thanks for the reply and info, great help, I will look into the thickness we can use with our ceiling and lay it down. I think the 60 K - 80 K investment is worth it. If i can drop the temp 2 to 3 degrees its worth it less work for the AC and less energy consumption.

I just need to find a way to seal our sliding windows and doors better as we have losses there. The front door is another challenge as our wonderful contractor could make a floor level so the door has to have gaps to be able to fully open. I will need to see how to seal it on the outside.

As for the cantlilever for the solar panels, that was my thought from the start, but problems are that we will infringe onto the neighbour's property, also the contractor said i will damage the water proof and the firewall which might not be a good idea. We are in a subdivision, not a huge house, 3 bedroom double story approx 185 sqm and currently no neighbours or buildings, in fact we are the only full time people living here besides a Saudi guy that comes twice a year for a holiday. So we are enjoying the space, especially my daughter to play and our dogs to run around.

Keep us updated with your solar upgrade / extension and the performance will be very interesting to see the outcome of your system.

Regards

Andre

@aklokow

Google will be your best friend.

https://shopee.ph/search?keyword=window%20seals

I'm sure you will find plenty of suitable products on that or other sites.

We decided to install well sealed Jalousie windows to the east side of the house as we get cooler morning breezes most days from the hills behind us, helps cool the house but by 10am it turns around and comes in off the ocean. These windows we can open part or all and get max air movement as the whole window is open and all the windows are fly screened.

Refrigerators, TV's and cooking generate a lot of heat but not too much we can do about that.

As for extra solar panels what's the possibility of installing to the east/west or both as we have done here?

Cheers, Steve.

Can you please start your own thread with links to your roofing videos hehehe or be so kind and get back to the topic of my videos here :-) Salamat

My apologies Geo, perhaps the moderators can split this topic as I have not watched your video, some of us don't need to make videos and can articulate info on an open forum without the need to generate income.

BTW there are plenty of existing threads with regards to solar systems but you elected to start a new one, these things happen.

OMO.

Cheers, Steve.

BTW how does it work in cloudy wheather when there's no direct sun?

BTW how does it work in cloudy wheather when there's no direct sun?
-@B Dmitriy

As said we are still waiting for batteries and invertors. In cloudy rainy days like today based on my old system in Australia for 7/8 years will be 50/60% collection so @ 50% we should still add 20Kw to the system.

The magic is that on days like today it's pissing rain and overcast, 28C out and 26C inside, no need for A/C's and just a couple of ceiling fans running. 2,3 or 4 days like this our system will automatically swap over to the grid based on what we set the lowest discharge to in the battery bank.

Size your system to average daily consumption, how many hours/days you need/want to be independent from the grid/what your budget is. See our previous figures.

Further delving into Luelco bills for years reveals we used to average only 14/15Kwh per 24 hour cycle meaning say 8Kw through the day and 7 at night (1Hp A/C 12 hours) so the theory is once the extra load goes from the workers here we should have 5 to 7 days of storage in cr@p weather and while the sun shines/warmer we can run an extra 5HP of A/C units through the day and still charge  the batteries to max.

Only my dumb math and again apologies to the OP for apparently hijacking his/this thread.

Cheers, Steve.

I just finished my 100% off grid solar house. Here is a short video detailing how I did it. Thanks

https://youtu.be/bThggJiMF4c

Love it Moon Dog.

Cheers Steve.

@Moon Dog I love especially the water and fire proof design

@Goetz

Don't forget the ambience, a beautiful design and definitely child friendly.

Cheers, Steve.

@Moon Dog 😅😅😅

@Moon Dog I love especially the water and fire proof design
-@GoetzPhil

No worries about fire and flood, I have it insured for a cool P10 million.

Off you go then Morgacj2004.

Remember that here we are guests in a foreign country no matter the country and abide by the laws and wisdom of the powers that be.

As members/guests within an open forum have to abide by the rules and doctrines that were obviously set up for a reason, the moderator you had a go at is simply doing a task following the protocols of this forum.

Simply it's no big deal and you watched the video and I hope you contributed funds. I never bothered to watch for obvious reasons.

Cheers, Steve.

This has NOTHING to do with the Philippine Government, politics, religion or other taboo subject. This is a blog for foreigners!  If you are happy with the moderation so be it. I have a duty and responsibility to object if I believe it has gone too far. Rules and doctrines can be changed and modified. Nothing is in stone. I am not criticizing the moderator I am criticizing the rules.

This has NOTHING to do with the Philippine Government, politics, religion or other taboo subject. This is a blog for foreigners! If you are happy with the moderation so be it. I have a duty and responsibility to object if I believe it has gone too far. Rules and doctrines can be changed and modified. Nothing is in stone. I am not criticizing the moderator I am criticizing the rules.
-@Morgacj2004

Pick a different forum sport. Rules are rules and that's why we have moderators and management, may haps if you feel so strongly with regards to an edited/moderated link then go the hard yards and complain to management, take your b@tch to the supreme court. Go public. Not within this forum.

Mate? Relax, you sir were not involved with the initial post from the OP but later came in with both boots kicking. Let it go, you don't like the rules and moderation then this forum is not for you.

OMO.

Cheers, Steve.

Hello everyone,

Please note that one post has been put aside from this thread. If someone objects to measures we have taken, it is only fair that you contact the mod in private. We are all accessible. I would suggest that posts and criticism should remain cordial and polite.

Regards

Bhavna

@Bhavna

Exactly.

Open forums do have rules and moderators to keep us all in line including me. Appreciate the work that our probably unpaid moderators accomplish to hold a level of decorum here or else it could become a sh1t fight.

Cheers, Steve.

@aklokow

Thank you, very informative, my wife and I have properties in Pangasinan and wish to use and wind, sounds like the company you used is worth while contacting.

If you don’t mind can you please email me their information.

regards Bruce Sidor

[link moderated]

Hi Bruce send me PM

Sorry to hijack your thread again Goetz.

Our system was commissioned yesterday, fired up @ 1130am and by 6pm had pumped 39Kw into the batteries and general usage. The batteries when installed were at 33%, by the end of the day both at 98%.

Yesterday was overcast all-day so a great collection. This morning as I type we are down to 73% in batteries and the panels are now putting in 100watts even though the sun is not up yet. (5:45 am)

As there are 2 invertors limited to 32amps each so we split each to 2 main sub boards. Isolation breaker for Luelco, 2 C/O switches from invertors to mains and 2 breakers, one for each invertor, we have turned off our power company and will see what our usage is like over the next few weeks but I'm positive we will be fine and we have the option to connect to the grid if we need to exceed 64amps, extra guests like extra A/C.

As I type @ 6am we are now pumping in 600whats and the sun is about to poke its head over the hills behind us.

Cheers, Steve.

@bigpearl

Wow... awsome... Congeats!  where do you live Steve?  .. and how big, and how much was your system?

We have a great group of expats that meet bi-weekly near here, in the Dipolog area, and one has had his system set up for 4 months and cannot stop telling us how happy he is... his monthy 120 dollar bill is down to 1 to 5 dollars a month... He spent 5,600 dollars to get it up and running,  so his return will only be 4 or so years.  I have the company he used coming to look at my place and I 100% plan to move forward with a system.  Unfortunately being out here at the light house approximately 19 kilometers from the nearest town of Dapitan... and a "national highway" road that winds up and down and around by the ocean....we get at least 2 to 3 brown outs every week... for various reasons... and I am done with it!!  😆.