Loco

Fred

Your electrical supply is not normal !

Hardly any poster here is going to be on a 3 phase supply.

Do you actually need a 3 phase supply ?

Could you actually change your contract to a single phase supply ?

​​​​​Guessing you might not want to change or cannot change you will be glad to know Voltronic Power offer various 3 phase inverters well above your needs. Search their site or type in infini solar 15kw for more info. Huawei also make similar kit using Sun as the model name.


​​Both offer models at 15Kw nominal ( the max you need from what you say plus a decent margin ) that offer Grid Feed as well. I haven't checked what the current grid feed rates are in Spain.

My concern would be how much it costs to get your system registered to grid feed.

Best
Loco

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QUOTE=Fred James;13086887]Yes, we have a normal three phase supply. As we have yet to trip the 13.8kw ICP I would guess that the maximum load is around 12kw when all the heating is on.[/QUOTE]

Mark604

I'm not sure if this will work but I'll give it a try.
This is my electric set up. I keep oodles of distilled water -




This is my solar hot water set up -




Eight solar panels and two hot water panels -




Electric to the left, hot water and tank to the centre and de-chalker to the right -




Gas boiler for the times the sun isn't shining, or not shining enough -




I also have a separate system cobbled together with three separate panels to provide power for the swimming pool pump. I didn't want a link between the house power and the pool power. The batteries are at most 100Ah each on a 24V system, but to be honest, I could do with better more capacity batteries. I'll get round to replacing them one day. No rush though -

Mark604

All that costed a lot more than a kebab.

bfg69bug

Looks good Mark - the next logical step would be to replace the batteries with Lithium - when they need replacing, but as they have lasted this long, you are obviously doing something right.

The "power wall" type boxes avaliable now can be had for about a grand, and only take up the same floor space as a bedside cabinet, or even less - although space isn´t an issue for you.

In your last picture, with the pool power, this is pretty similar to the "shed power" i have set up (although yours is a bigger scale).. I think all mine came from ali express or wish.com, with the battery coming from a supplier in granada.

Mark604

I've been looking at Lithium but I'm no expert and have concerns over matching the power I have now to the power from a Lithium set up. It seems strange to get something the size of a couple of briefcases or a cabin bag and it have the same capacity/power. It's the amp hour thing where I can easily buy a battery with the same Ah but -
Let's say mine can produce 120Ah each but are 2V each and are connected in series to make a bank of 24V. So I'd have 120Amps for 1 hour at 24V. I think.
So a Lithium battery of 24V and 120Ah will do the same thing? Or two of 12V connected in series?
Is it as simple as that?

Loco

No due to DoD.
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Best
Loco

Lynn R

Naturgy have now increased the price per kwh for their flat rate tariff (called Por Uso) from 0.159509 to 0.171000 (so a small increase only, they say the price is fixed for 3 years). They have not sent me notice that this affects my current deal with them which should last until the end of May, remains to be seen if it does when I get the January bill. But even if it does an increase of just over 1 centimo per kwh will not break the bank.

Fred James

What worries me is that the prices they are all charging at the moment are well below the current wholesale cost and for any company that is a recipe eventually for disaster. I wonder if they are just hoping that the governments will bail them out, and, of course, it's not just Spain that has the problem.

Loco

The PM stuck to his promise of Sept last year to bring annual electricity costs for households down to levels seen in 2018 the year he came to power.

The "producers" went ballistic as one way to help him achieve this was to cut their tax breaks, announce windfall profits clawbacks etc.

If I had investments in many of the smaller " sole retailers" here in Spain I certainly would be worried as they may go the way of their UK equivalents.

They don't have the capital, the political clout or the mixed producer/retailer profit centres the producers do.

Will Spain bail them out ? Who knows.

Did the PM deliver his promise ?

Well apparently he may well have and bettered it.

Using the DD's from their customers one of the Spanish Banks research units just published a report that included this :

For 2021 as a whole, the median average bill stood at 743 euros, compared with 748 euros in 2018 (–0.6%, and –5.1% after adjusting for inflation).
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Best
Loco


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Lynn R

When this thread was first started, I hadn't noticed any particular rises in the prices of the groceries we buy. But in the New Year, I saw that the price of some bread and instore bakery items in Mercadona had gone up quite a bit (in percentage terms). The multi-grain sliced bread we like had increased from €1.45 a loaf to €1.60, pan cristal bread rolls from €0.35 each to €0.45 and pain aux raisins from €0.60 each to €0.75. The price of individual croissants and chocolate muffins has not changed, though. Then this morning I saw the biggest price jump yet in Mercadona - Heinz baked beans, which were €0.75 a tin, are now €1.10. However, the Tesco website now shows that the same size tin costs 1.00 pound in the UK, so I suppose that should not be surprising (they may be cheaper in other stores).

Mark604

I noticed for ages that the cost of Heinz beans was cheaper in Spain (in my local Carrefour) than in the UK and cheaper than the Overseas place near Fuengirola. I'll have to look now next time I'm there.

bobd22

Lynn I got some Heinz beans the other day in the carfour store they were either 75 or 80 cents a tin. That was in the new carfour store that used to he Supersol as you enter Torre del Mar

Lynn R

Thank you. I saw online that they are €0.80 in Eroski as well and as I have to pass there tomorrow morning I think I'll pop in and get some, but that's useful to know as a back-up. I suppose they will all put the price up when current stocks run out. I don't need them right now and they're not something we eat very often, but are handy to have in the cupboard and may as well buy some whilst stocks at the old price last!

bobd22

I must admit I have noticed a bit of a rise when shopping recently. I don't think it's anywhere near increase the UK has suffered from what I hear from relatives. Petrol and diesel has increased since around September October here in Spain so I suppose that will be a factor as well. Generally speaking I still find I can do more here with my pension than I could in the UK but I accept it does often depend on one's lifestyle.

agree_to_disagree

If you are off grid then every mA matters....

I just installed a coupe of these are they are great!



https://www.atenlighting.co.uk/10wpirledfl.html

Current when they are illuminated is about 80mA. and dissipation is about 10Watts.

On standby they only draw microamps so minimal dissipation.

I was trying to avoid running conduit on external wall which you really should do if you are running 240AC.

By using a 12v floodlight I was able to tap into a existing supply that was running to a CCTV camera.

The other alternative for outdoor security lighting is to opt for some of the many which incorporate a small battery and a solar panel.

By the way if you have any filament bulbs (ones that run hot) when they are switched on, lose them! They convert less than 5% of their energy input to light as most is actually lost in the form of heat!