If you’re Woke, you of course KNOW that it’s BAD to waste energy.
I HATE wasting energy !
Yesterday, the Vernal Equinox, it got up to the 60 oF and the sun was shining! Early in the afternoon my 400% efficient ductless DC inverter Heat Pumps had the house too warm, and my PV (photovoltaic) Array had the batteries at 100% charge and the Charge Controller was in Absorption Mode, throttling back power from my PV array.
I was Wasting (throwing away) Energy! What to do ?
I opened up 2 doors to my house and turned on 2 more of my 400% efficient Ductless DC Inverter Heat Pumps and I was STILL wasting energy! I did some laundry, but my dc inverter front-load washer hardly uses any energy, and I always hang my clothes on the line (dryers, with all that tumbling, wear out your clothes — your clothes will last almost forever if you wash them in cold water and hang them on the line), so I was BAD and continued wasting energy yesterday, at least until the sun went down. I will only be worse today.
If I only had a woman in the house.
She would have said, “Strap on that Industrial Backpack Vacuum Cleaner of yours and vacuum the house! It uses a kW of power! And when was the last time you had a shower? Why not take a long hot shower and do then do the dishes using lots of hot water?” Instead I walked behind my 10 HP bush mower clearing land in the sunshine — burning “fossil fuels”.
I similarly have to worry about wasting energy in the Summer sometimes. My 400% efficient ductless DC inverter Heat Pumps will have the house a little too cold, and the batteries full and in Absorption Mode. I hate wasting energy, what to do ? Simple, I turn on another heat pump (I have 5 of them) and open another door1. I hate wasting energy.
While it’s easy living off-grid in the Summer in Southern Indiana, it’s not real easy in the winter when you get less than 1/5th the amount of solar power and you need much more for heating! The first year I had solar I made it till a couple of days before the winter solstice, and when I was pushing my refrigerator out onto the front porch I decided that this was getting a little ridiculous and that I was sick of being a slave to my woodstove! I called the electric company and reconnected to the grid. At least until Spring.
Yesterday was the Vernal Equinox. The electric company will be out next Monday to disconnect my house from the grid until some time after the Autumnal Equinox. You might ask, why don’t I sell my excess energy back to the grid? Well, my local “Green” Co-Op would charge me about 50$/month just to be connected, and then buy my energy at their wholesale rate (0.06$/kW-hr), and then sell it back to me at their retail rate (0.11 $/kW-hr, plus tax). You don’t need a Ph.D. in physics to do the simple math !
When I was doing my physics-thing in PV manufacturing, a Marketing colleague told me, “Utilities are the Enemy”, despite how much they might “promote solar” and how much they pay to be “Green”. I think he was right.
The only downside to this technique for eliminating my energy wastage is all the mice, squirrels, birds and snakes that come into the house. On the other-other hand, the wolf sure enjoyed being able to come in and go out as he pleased.