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Solar Power + Domestic Battery Installations, impact on sound quality

Great question OP and one which i have been thinking about for a while. Unfortunately i am in a small flat so the chance to play with a Solar set up has not happened yet.

Although the general consensus on whether the sound quality is impacted seems to be no, i was wondering if you were in an 'offgrid' set up then would the quality of inverter -for example - effect the sound ?

I also wonder what would happen if you could design an amp to run straight off 24V DC, bypassing an AC/DC conversion, if that would improve the sound ? But i guess thats going off on a tangent now !

Its an interesting area in any case.
 
Simon s said:
Great question OP and one which i have been thinking about for a while. Unfortunately i am in a small flat so the chance to play with a Solar set up has not happened yet.

Although the general consensus on whether the sound quality is impacted seems to be no, i was wondering if you were in an 'offgrid' set up then would the quality of inverter -for example - effect the sound ?

I also wonder what would happen if you could design an amp to run straight off 24V DC, bypassing an AC/DC conversion, if that would improve the sound ? But i guess thats going off on a tangent now !

Its an interesting area in any case.
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A lot of Naim kit has the necessary connections to take a DC feed so not out of the question...
 
stevec67 said:
Lithium batteries will not be disposed of any more than existing LA batteries in the waste vehicle stream. There is too much residual value. Ask any plumber how much copper piping he throws in a skip. None, if he can avoid it. He keeps it in a corner and weighs it in.


The energy cost in making a car is about the same as 50,000-100,000 miles of normal use.The general view is that half of the energy a car uses in its life is in making it. I don't think that EVs cost much more in energy to build, batteries aside. Indeed, they don't have engines, gearboxes, fuel pumps, coolant systems and the rest. But as you say this is not about green issues. It's about keeping the car industry rolling by killing old cars, because an old car costs very little other than fuel to run. Once a year a service, MoT and replace a few worn out parts? Big deal. Nobody is making a fortune on that compared to selling you a new £30k machine, then the same again in 5 years.
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Steve, I agree re energy usage, the interesting one is Co2 emissions. I've yet to read any quality analysis that isn't biased by the funder. Total asset lifecycle Co2 emissions would be interesting. but then I don;'t see the point in buying a car that depreciates.
 
When we installed solar panels at our work interference bands appeared on the tv screens in the reception. At the time I was advised that solar units put some interference back down the mains. Can't be sure they were linked. The tv's were replaced with better ones a couple of years later.
 
forester said:
When we installed solar panels at our work interference bands appeared on the tv screens in the reception. At the time I was advised that solar units put some interference back down the mains. Can't be sure they were linked. The tv's were replaced with better ones a couple of years later.
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The solar panels won't, they can't. They generate DC. Any interference will come from the inverters that convert this to AC, with varying degrees of accuracy and precision. If the installation can feed back to the grid there are stringent rules on the quality of what can go back, mostly relating to frequency.
 
You could run 12V hi-fi car stuff with a proper 24-12VDC step down psu.. hmm..

To go back in topic.. would it be reasonable to run a separate inverter for the hi-fi only?
 
I don't have personal experience but a mate of mine who's a retired electronics technician and a radio ham hates solar panels. He claims that since a neighbour had them fitted it has caused so much interference from RFI and mains noise that it has almost ruined his hobby.
 
I've seen two sets of data both reaching the same conclusion, one a fully fleshed out study. In the study, comparing total CO2 (including that from manufacture) over the first 8 years of usage in Germany a diesel E Class Merc produced 40% less CO2 than a similar sized Tesla. Once the Tesla is onto its second battery the CO2 gap open much wider, batteries according to Polestar increase CO2 for production of a new car by 50% compared to its internal combustion equivalent.
 
stevec67 said:
The solar panels won't, they can't. They generate DC. Any interference will come from the inverters that convert this to AC, with varying degrees of accuracy and precision. If the installation can feed back to the grid there are stringent rules on the quality of what can go back, mostly relating to frequency.
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I agree it's the inverters, I was being a bit economical with my words. Two of the four inverters have failed after 8 years.
 
paul rich said:
I've seen two sets of data both reaching the same conclusion, one a fully fleshed out study. In the study, comparing total CO2 (including that from manufacture) over the first 8 years of usage in Germany a diesel E Class Merc produced 40% less CO2 than a similar sized Tesla. Once the Tesla is onto its second battery the CO2 gap open much wider, batteries according to Polestar increase CO2 for production of a new car by 50% compared to its internal combustion equivalent.
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What energy mix were they using for the calculation (g/kWh)?
 
+1, that is a key consideration - it is changing fast, and few places as fast as in the UK - where that number has dropped to 1/3rd it was , 10 yrs ago.
 
Yep, 118g/kWh now and 64g/kWh between 04:00 and 05:00 this morning, effectively 13-24g/km actual for an EV. Compare that to 100g/km at the most optimistic for ICE ( which excludes distribution emissions) and the extra carbon cost of battery production will disappear quite quickly.
 
12yrs ago we (my team) used the then-accurate av figure of 450gCO2/kWh as the basis for including a designed-in% of CHP on a large scheme, that could actually exploit the % thermal DHW / electrical split properly (which in itself - is rare).

We've decarbonised so far, so fast, such moves as CHP no longer make any sense. Which is very interesting.
 
Jennifer F said:
Guys,

Thank you for the experiences much appreciated. I'm in a conservation area, but solar shouldn't be an issue other houses have it as such I think that will be fine. The battery point is very valid. One of my big gripes with electric cars is the Co2 in production and safe disposal of lithium batteries vs petrol cars pollution . I suspect that on a total vehicle lifecycle running my 18 year old Mercedes will still be greener than buying an electric car, sadly the government doesn't see car tax that way!

I will be installing just over 6KW of panels as such the commercial case for battery is pretty good. Solar overall isn't as exciting as it used to be and if I wasn't looking at an ASHP I probably wouldn't bother.

Jenny
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Be prepared for higher than expected mains voltage, if you are in a high mains area factor in another 5v or so on top when the panels are generating
 
gingermrkettle said:
What energy mix were they using for the calculation (g/kWh)?
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They used the energy mix that was prevalent in Germany at the time of the study, about 2018. Their grid was a bit more fossil heavy than in the UK, remember they switched off all of their nuclear plants n the wake of Fukushima.
 
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