Introduction The basic idea behind an off-peak battery is to use cheaper power during an off-peak period to charge up a battery, then use that power during a peak period when such power would be more expensive.
This article is meant to provide back-of-the-envelope calculations to help you decide if such a battery setup makes sense for you.
Marginal Savings – A Litmus Test Given transfer and battery efficiency losses, we want to make sure that the difference in price makes up for the efficiency losses of storage....
Introduction With growth in renewable energy, much of the conversation has shifted away from the economics of energy production to energy storage. This is because many sources of renewable energy like solar and wind are variable and intermittent, affected by factors like changes in weather or time of day.
This reflects a lack of stability in power production, requiring the need for energy storage solutions to act as buffers or dispense energy in more controlled bursts....
Introduction When I first started car camping and doing extended road-trips, the question of power needs came to the fore. Which naturally led to lots of excited research into what kind of batteries to buy, how to choose and setup solar arrays, what sorts of fuses and transformers I needed to get and where to fit them into the extended circuit.
But deep into this research, I hit a deadlock – my own limitation on how electricity works....