valhalla360 wrote:
12thgenusa wrote:
A little correction to your understanding. There is no solar power going to waste. You have excess capacity, so the potential to produce power is going unused. Power is not produced until there is a load to use it. So, I suppose in one sense you either have a wasted opportunity, or an overbuilt system for your needs. Since you already have the system, finding ways to use the capacity is good, however you have to weigh the costs of having that system vs the cost of a couple of tanks of propane.
Semantics.
If you are pumping gas and spill 5gal on the ground because you overfilled, if you only consider what was in the tank when you pull away, there is no waste but we all know 5 gal was wasted.
Same thing. X KWH of capturable power hit the panels and it would be wasted if not used because the system can't hold it.
Not semantics. In your example actual gas is spilled and wasted on the ground. In a solar example, the energy is not even produced, so it can't be wasted in the same way. You don't think in terms of wasted energy when your truck is parked and the engine is not running.
That said, I'm a little jealous of having that much solar capacity. My last trip I averaged 1.58Kwh per day with just 370 watts of solar. With that I powered two CPAPs, toaster, coffee maker, instant pot, some microwave use, and two movie nights, and charged an "old fashioned" battery bank.
