Guide: Building a Solar Powered Mining-Plant

[cp1]

does someone know is it possible to fool a Solar Panel with a LED Light for Plants ?
something like use 90w LED on 130w producing Solar Panel

Yes it should work, you would probably get about 50W of power by using your 90W LED.

[zackclark70]

does someone know is it possible to fool a Solar Panel with a LED Light for Plants ?
something like use 90w LED on 130w producing Solar Panel

Yes it should work, you would probably get about 50W of power by using your 90W LED.

more like 25w lol

[cp1]

does someone know is it possible to fool a Solar Panel with a LED Light for Plants ?
something like use 90w LED on 130w producing Solar Panel

Yes it should work, you would probably get about 50W of power by using your 90W LED.

more like 25w lol

Oh wow, just read up, apparently 20% is the best efficiency for solar panels right now, I always thought they were higher than that.

[ranlo]

What would change if we don't want an off-grid system?

I.e. use power from panels, and use AC/DC PSU for the shortage/night time usage?

Say i need to run ~120 W miner. Backing up with grid means id use 0 to 120W from grid... How to loadbalance keeping consistent 12V supply?

Well, you wouldn't be using the battery or battery connection cable... instead you'd be using a grid-tie box, and probably be needing to call in a licensed electrician to tie that into an auxiliary panel. You'd also need to get permit from your town to do grid tie, some small towns don't allow it under their code. The DC-USB converter would also go as well... you'd be plugging into normal power outlets.

Depending on your town codes, and power company, you might be selling any excess power generated at a set rate (usually less than the generation rate you pay for receiving generated power), ultimately reducing your bill while giving the power company cheaper power. OR, the electric company might have a pass from the town or state in which they do not have to pay for excess power from your grid tie (some do... which REALLY sucks, because then they're getting anything you generate in excess for free.)

Overall, the initial hardware outlay would be cheaper because of the lack of battery. Your maintenance over time would be less too, also because you wouldn't have to change the battery at end of life (approx 8-10 years.) However, your TOTAL cost over time using panel+battery would be less than using panel+grid tie, and that would be less than grid-only. The break even point between each is usually about 2-3 years. (Longer time to pay off if you live in an area that has a lower solar efficiency, and less amount of hours of sun in a day. Las Vegas gets more hours per day and more direct solar than Chicago, which gets more hours and more direct solar than Finland. Google Photovoltaic Map)

This is extremely helpful! I'm curious, though... have you looked into wind generation as well, and would you recommend that instead?

I live in the middle of nowhere and have been somewhat looking in to going with either wind or solar for powering the entire house (I think grid-tie though in case something happens, so we have electric when it's needed but don't have to pay when we're not overusing it). At the moment we're using about 3,000 KW a month.

[cp1]

I think it's really expensive to power your house from batteries at night.  Most houses get power from the grid at night.

[ranlo]

I think it's really expensive to power your house from batteries at night.  Most houses get power from the grid at night.

Wouldn't the batteries be charged during the day though, to where at night all you're doing is burning up the saved energy, then replenishing it (while at the same time generating power for things) during the day?

[cp1]

I think it's really expensive to power your house from batteries at night.  Most houses get power from the grid at night.

Wouldn't the batteries be charged during the day though, to where at night all you're doing is burning up the saved energy, then replenishing it (while at the same time generating power for things) during the day?

Yes, but you have to buy the batteries and all the charging equipment.

[ranlo]

I think it's really expensive to power your house from batteries at night.  Most houses get power from the grid at night.

Wouldn't the batteries be charged during the day though, to where at night all you're doing is burning up the saved energy, then replenishing it (while at the same time generating power for things) during the day?

Yes, but you have to buy the batteries and all the charging equipment.

I was under the impression that all of that was required anyways, to account from the over/underusing (so for ex. if you're generating 1 KW/hour and you happen to use 300 W one hour, you'd have 700 stored away so the next hour you could use 1.7KW and still not have issues).

[cp1]

Usually you just sell the excess power to the power company and buy it back at night.  Storing it in batteries is easy when you're talking about a small electronic device, but it's expensive to scale up to a whole home.

[ranlo]

Usually you just sell the excess power to the power company and buy it back at night.  Storing it in batteries is easy when you're talking about a small electronic device, but it's expensive to scale up to a whole home.

Ahhh, I see. Thanks for this btw! It's pretty recent that I started doing research and wasn't sure where to really start.

So if we want to do a grid-tied system getting a professional involved is pretty much a necessity for the wiring and such, right?

And do you happen to know what course you'd take to sell power to a power company?

[cp1]

I think you definitely want an electrician to do it for you, it might be illegal to do it yourself, and if you mess it up you'll either electrocute yourself or the power company technician if they come to work on the street power.  I'm sure they'll set everything up -- your meter will run backwards when you're selling power, so you'll pay for the net power you use.

[ranlo]

I think you definitely want an electrician to do it for you, it might be illegal to do it yourself, and if you mess it up you'll either electrocute yourself or the power company technician if they come to work on the street power.  I'm sure they'll set everything up -- your meter will run backwards when you're selling power, so you'll pay for the net power you use.

Ohh, I didn't realize the meter would go backwards, lol. That's actually pretty cool!

Thanks for the info btw, .

[suryc]

I think you definitely want an electrician to do it for you, it might be illegal to do it yourself, and if you mess it up you'll either electrocute yourself or the power company technician if they come to work on the street power.  I'm sure they'll set everything up -- your meter will run backwards when you're selling power, so you'll pay for the net power you use.

Ohh, I didn't realize the meter would go backwards, lol. That's actually pretty cool!

Thanks for the info btw, .

And, if you end up generating more power than you actually use, you can usually get paid for feeding the grid. You can check with your electric company, but most of them buy the excess power from you.

At 3000 KW/h per month, with a 5kw wind turbine (or or 5x 1kW turbines) you would generate nearly an excess 600KWh each month that you could sell back to the grid (assuming continuous operation of the wind turbine at full output).

[AvenG]

very nice! Actually I have a project of building a 1kW wind mill to produce my own electricity.

I found your thread very useful, thanks for sharing 

[cp1]

Allegedly according to the power company we could get a HELOC to pay for a solar array and we'd make enough money to cover the payments.  I'd do it if we were sure we'd be in our home for long enough.

[ranlo]

I think you definitely want an electrician to do it for you, it might be illegal to do it yourself, and if you mess it up you'll either electrocute yourself or the power company technician if they come to work on the street power.  I'm sure they'll set everything up -- your meter will run backwards when you're selling power, so you'll pay for the net power you use.

Ohh, I didn't realize the meter would go backwards, lol. That's actually pretty cool!

Thanks for the info btw, .

And, if you end up generating more power than you actually use, you can usually get paid for feeding the grid. You can check with your electric company, but most of them buy the excess power from you.

At 3000 KW/h per month, with a 5kw wind turbine (or or 5x 1kW turbines) you would generate nearly an excess 600KWh each month that you could sell back to the grid (assuming continuous operation of the wind turbine at full output).

The highest wind turbines I could find ran $900 or so (plus shipping) just for the turbine itself, and only generating at a rate of 200W, .

[razorfishsl]

I think it's really expensive to power your house from batteries at night.  Most houses get power from the grid at night.

Wouldn't the batteries be charged during the day though, to where at night all you're doing is burning up the saved energy, then replenishing it (while at the same time generating power for things) during the day?

Yes, but you have to buy the batteries and all the charging equipment.

I was under the impression that all of that was required anyways, to account from the over/underusing (so for ex. if you're generating 1 KW/hour and you happen to use 300 W one hour, you'd have 700 stored away so the next hour you could use 1.7KW and still not have issues).

.....
If only it was 100% efficient....., you don't take into account fully charged  or empty batteries.

Also you have to watch these "criminals" and their solar power ratings for the panels., just consider that you need to at least double or triple up, to ensure that you can use the power AND charge the batteries, if you go that way.... even if you feed surplus into the grid its not the storage capacity you think it is..

I spoke to a 'friend' who has a solar panel factory.. and I was quite shocked, by the time he had finished calculating, we reckoned  on nearly 500 panels for even a small sized mining operation.....

Just run the figures for something about 500w..... over a 24 hour period..... (12 kw) based on a 4-5 hours of full sunlight ...

and these 20% conversion rates are bull*** as well (yep if you can get NASA quality then your in with a chance)

[ranlo]

I think it's really expensive to power your house from batteries at night.  Most houses get power from the grid at night.

Wouldn't the batteries be charged during the day though, to where at night all you're doing is burning up the saved energy, then replenishing it (while at the same time generating power for things) during the day?

Yes, but you have to buy the batteries and all the charging equipment.

I was under the impression that all of that was required anyways, to account from the over/underusing (so for ex. if you're generating 1 KW/hour and you happen to use 300 W one hour, you'd have 700 stored away so the next hour you could use 1.7KW and still not have issues).

.....
If only it was 100% efficient....., you don't take into account fully charged  or empty batteries.

Also you have to watch these "criminals" and their solar power ratings for the panels., just consider that you need to at least double or triple up, to ensure that you can use the power AND charge the batteries, if you go that way.... even if you feed surplus into the grid its not the storage capacity you think it is..

I spoke to a 'friend' who has a solar panel factory.. and I was quite shocked, by the time he had finished calculating, we reckoned  on nearly 500 panels for even a small sized mining operation.....

Just run the figures for something about 500w..... over a 24 hour period..... (12 kw) based on a 4-5 hours of full sunlight ...

and these 20% conversion rates are bull*** as well (yep if you can get NASA quality then your in with a chance)

So you mean that if you need, say 10 KW a day, estimate 2 KW per hour and therefore you need at least twice that (4 KW/hour) to account for bad efficiency?

[Bitcoinbernd]

I have just added some new hints and pictures to the guide.

[jago25_98]

From experience in boats and RVs I can say that it's a good idea to keep things simple.

I want to find a guide for the Raspberry Pi & 12v ASICs.

You want to keep everything 12v if you can. Converting to and from A/C induces loss and gets complicated.

The advantage of ASIC is that you can potentially keep adding them until they match what your solar panel is putting out.

I also recommend keeping the whole thing independent on it's own if possible, running either off a leisure battery or another battery setup if you have something cheap or for free.

I don't like batteries; I would much rather store energy as kinetic if possible - like water in a high place. Batteries are always going wrong and they're hard to service. Even forklift batteries get corroded on the fins inside. Sealed batteries are even worse.


Questions:

- 12v USB hub. How to add extra power without using a wallwart?
- Is there a guide for the Raspberry Pi and ASICs? I think if the Pi runs off USB it's unreliable? I've tried the Beaglebone and that's more reliable off USB, running at a lower CPU mhz (300mhz instead of 800mhz I think)
- another way to store 12v energy other than batteries which need replacing?