Large residential system [RE-wrenches]

[Kurt Albershardt]

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--On Friday, December 05, 2003 3:28 PM -0800 Gary Higbee <gary at windstreamsolar.com> wrote:
>
> I've taken on straightening out a residential system I did not design or
> install, and would appreciate your thoughts. The key thing here is not money
> so much as very solid performance.

Sounds like a fun project.


> The house is periodically visited, and when
> the owners are there the loads can be very high--they occasionally entertain
> dozens to hundreds of guests.

This makes me think generator, at least for the big parties.



> Cooking and water heating are propane
...
> a 40kW (gasp, gross overkill) diesel generator

What sort of storage for each fuel, and any price/availability info that might dictate a preference for the genset?



> there's a 5 ton heat pump that is run in the summer
>
> Other than not running the heat pump do any of you know how to reduce the
> startup surge of the thing? I did measurements yesterday, and had a start
> surge of 55 amps per leg and 20 amps per leg running. I know we're starting
> a compressor here, so maybe there's not a whole lot that can be done to
> soften the start...

I'd replace it with a Robur gas absorbtion unit, assuming that LPG is plentiful <http://www.robur.com/Products/Products.html>





> We do plan to install a much larger battery bank. It appears that
> maintenance-free is quite important (unless these folks want to contract
> someone to check and fill flooded cells). OK, so what is the best large
> sealed cell we can get? I don't want a bunch of parallel strings, so we need
> big or low-voltage cells. This is a big one, as I've got to get this
> component ordered in the next few days--in preparation for a several-hundred
> person gathering in a couple weeks.

Is there a local battery place that could handle the contract?  You'll need to look at cycle depth and frequency and then compute TCO--might be cheaper to use flooded cells with a maintenance contract (or not.)




> GENERATOR
> I'd love to see the 40kW diesel unit leave, and be replaced by something
> that makes sense for this system--maybe in the 12kW range. This big machine
> seems very out of line. Any of you in the West have a commercial prospect
> that could use such a generator? This is a longer-term issue, as the above
> are critical items to the operation of the house.

Send me the specifics on the genset, I might be able to find it a home.

Plenty of suitably-sized options in both LPG and Diesel.  Since their budget is robust, you might also look into one of the Polar Power DC gensets, assuming you add sufficient inverter capacity <http://www.polarpowerinc.com/products/generators/>

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