I recently set up a large solar panel system with batteries, and it wasn't DIY. Even after fully charging the batteries, I have about four hours a day where the system is producing around 5kW while my house only uses about 1.5kW. What are some fun or interesting DIY projects I can do with that extra energy?
3 Answers
A cool project is to create what's called a "nightstore heater," which is basically a heated brick tower. You can charge it during the day with your surplus power, and it’ll radiate heat for hours. It’s an old-school method that could work well depending on your climate!
How about getting another battery or even an electric car? That way you can store the extra energy for later use. You could also look into immersion heaters to dump excess energy into hot water storage, or maybe even use it for heating your home with a storage heater. Those hold heat for a long time after being charged!
One idea is to set up a BOINC server to contribute to distributed computing projects, or you could dive into cryptocurrency mining if that's your thing. If you're looking for something a bit simpler, consider using the extra power to heat water in a tank, especially during those peak production hours.