Chris Collins

Tagged “solar”

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Off-grid solar system sizing

Size a stand-alone solar system from a list of what you run — cabin, van, boat or tiny house — and your location's month-by-month sunshine (Open-Meteo, or your own peak sun hours): the PV array for the worst month or the year, how to string the modules (cold Voc under the controller's limit, NEC 690.7; 1.25 × Isc, 690.8), MPPT or PWM, the LiFePO4 or lead-acid bank in series and parallel, the inverter, a month-by-month balance with generator hours, and a single-line diagram.

MakingElectronics

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Energy usage analyser

Import your smart-meter data (Green Button XML or CSV, Octopus, Home Assistant, or any interval CSV) in the browser; see every hour as a heatmap, daily and monthly use, baseload and peaks; price it on flat, tiered and time-of-use tariffs you can edit; and try an EV, a heat pump, solar and a battery against your own hours.

LifeElectronics

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Battery life and power budgets

Duty-cycle battery life for IoT devices (sleep, radio bursts, sensor reads, hourly and daily events) with regulator quiescent current, temperature derating, and a daily energy budget; battery chemistries, series/parallel pack builder, charge time, and solar panel and battery sizing.

ElectronicsElectronics

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Solar ROI calculator

Size a rooftop solar system from your electricity use and location, then see payback, NPV, IRR, the cost per kWh of solar energy, financing, and a year-by-year cash flow over its life.

LifeElectronics