Tuesday, June 10, 2008

An unexpected bonus

Now this may look like an ordinary 60 gallon electric hot water tank, and it is. And it was the last thing we expected to have in our new house because it would use too much electricity. However, we discovered that there were times when we produced more electricity than we needed to fill the batteries and run the house. We could just let the extra electricity dissipate, but instead my husband added an extra circuit to the AC panel and connected the hot water tank pictured here into the circuit through a relay added to the AC panel. When the solar controller detects that the batteries are full, it turns on the relay, diverting the extra electricity to the hot water tank and we get FREE HOT WATER!!! Now, this does not happen all the time, so then we use the instant ON hot water heater, but this electric hot water tank saves us from using a lot of propane. As I mentioned above, one 100 pound tank of propane usually lasts us 4-5 months! There are even days when we produce so much electricity, more than we need to fill the batteries AND heat the hot water tank, then we turn on electric space heaters if it is winter. We are starting to think of more creative ways to use our extra electricity. As we develop them, I will write about them in this blog.

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