Howdy from Eastern Canada

Long time lurker. Bought my second Tacoma August 31st 2017 after a brief love affair with my first 2011 DCLB 4x4. The new truck is a 2017 TRD Sport DCLB in MGM.

I thought I'd join up after successfully diagnosing a mystery sound on my new 2017 with the help of the forum. Front passenger body mount was the culprit. Fixed under warranty, all is well...so thanks!

 

eastern canada he says, but doesn't specify how east haha

I'm guessing east coast so might be a bit too far but for what its worth check the Canada section if you want, we've got a decent size of southern ontario guys and planning an overlanding trip to Quebec area.

 

Welcome to TW!

 

Ha, at work so it was a hasty post. New Brunswick to be exact. Thanks guys. I don't have a lot of free time. When not at work, since I live off grid in the woods I'm usually junkin' firewood, plowing, building sumthin' etc. but appreciate the heads up. I'll get some pics goin' once I'm off for the day. Actually on a conference call right now .

 

Welcome from not so eastern Canada

 

We may have some things to discuss . Been off grid for the past 4 years. What kind of homesteading you get up to over there in lovely Quebec?

 

Don't let the screen name fool you, my wife and kids won't allow and propre homesteading, it's much more of a dream...

 

Ha, no worries. I've often described what my wife and I do as "homesteading lite". We both work full time but also have a fully solar powered house and roughly 22 acres that we keep meaning to turn into something great but have yet to find the time.

 

what are you using for off hours?
Generator or batteries?

 

Welcome to TW!

 

24 volt battery system. 8 deep cycles from a company by the name of Rolls. Big red batteries made specifically for photovoltaic setups. Works great for our needs.

 

yep know exactly which ones you're talking about haha.

I'm in the process of getting my full certification for solar. And thinking eventually doing solar at the cottage. just not sure what system I want to go with yet.

Battery system would need to be pretty big. thinking I'd do a mix of batteries and geny
How big of an array do you have?

 

We also have a generator to charge 'em up when it's not bright enough out. An hour of generator gives me a good 5 to 6 hours of run time if we're using things normally. TV going, routers and modems...that sort of thing.

 

Array...well, its multi-generational we'll call it lol. The panels are between 10 and 4 years old and they're all different so I'd have to go add up the wattage. That said, we run 12 panels ranging from 80watts up to 200 and something. Maybe 175 square feet of panel if I had to guess. All on a big mast. Sorry, not much help there. One of those things where you know it inside out initially and then if it all runs well you tend to forget the details.

 

haha all good man. Guessing not a very large place? Sounds like maybe a 2-3kW array.

 

You're right. It is small and we use way less power than the average person I'm sure.

Older pic but to give you an idea. Pay no mind to the F1-Shitty in the background .

 

niceeee

Ya if I am to put one in since its my line of work I'd likely go overkill.
Do a full tracking system etc just to maximize my output.

Really don't need much now days though. With LED bulbs etc you can save a lot of energy. Biggest demand in homes are dryers, stoves, heating and cooling.

So if you have a gas dryer, stove and heating you just cut back a lot of your demand. I remember talking to a neighbour recently and they said they have huge hydro bills identical house as mine, but everything is gas in my house vs them being electric.

 

Jealous. I'd love to upgrade my mast to something that can at least be moved vertically more easily. Huge ass pain as it is now. As I understand it vertical tracking, Y axis, that's where the largest bang for your buck comes from; but I'm no expert.

 

depends on the time of year. you want the sun hitting the array as close to 90 degrees as possible. ideally you want the whole array getting covered in sun.

When I did a portion of the course we were told how all home depots at least in ontario have the whole roof as solar. Although they are fixed at a 4degree tilt they get next to nothing in the winter months but maximize on the summer months. because they're on the green energy incentives where they get paid to put back on the grids, they generate millions in the summer for how its set up.

So ideally you want to track the sun and keep that 4 degree tilt as much as possible. So with a full tracking system you'd get x and y axis tracking. I should try and find the website our instructor showed us. But you can put in your array size and show the difference of tracker vs fixed its amazing how much more you can generate with a tracking system. But they are expensive.


It was pretty nuts how one panel can generate almost as much as 3 fixed ones if its a tracker. In the long run it pays for itself but I know upfront its got to be in the 50k+ range to do a full tracker array in todays market. Go back 5-8 years ago was probably double that

 

That makes perfect sense. I feel multiple trips to princess auto in my future.