WEBVTT


NOTE Transcript 2024-03-09 from FLAC by https://elvery.net/prototypes/transcribe/ on my MacBook Air M1 on medium/default quality setting.
NOTE Body lightly edited.


00:00.000 --> 00:06.880
Hi, I'm Damon Hart Davis. I was asked, "You have solar panels alongside your fence.


00:06.880 --> 00:11.360
I would like to know more about the considerations you made for this and whether you need a separate


00:11.360 --> 00:18.400
inverter." The solar panels that I have on the roof feed power into the mains, which is great for


00:18.400 --> 00:24.400
powering gadgets and appliances during the day. I recently added a mains battery that holds onto


00:24.400 --> 00:29.840
some of that solar juice we don't need during the day, drawing lights and TV and fridge and so on,


00:29.840 --> 00:36.000
overnight. But there are some things that I'd prefer not to take power from the mains for at all,


00:36.000 --> 00:42.400
and until I bought the new mains battery, I would have had no way of powering those things overnight


00:42.400 --> 00:49.280
other than with the mains. For that, I have a completely separate off-grid system with its own


00:49.280 --> 00:56.880
panels and battery and battery controller, rather than inverter. From that, I can power some small


00:56.880 --> 01:03.760
lights, the server for my website, my laptop and other bits and pieces. The big panels on the fence


01:03.760 --> 01:09.520
that you are asking about are part of the off-grid system. One feature of those panels is that they


01:09.520 --> 01:16.240
point due south, the ones on my roof point east and west. The combination makes it easier to soak


01:16.240 --> 01:24.320
up sunlight all day long, especially in winter. Those panels also act as handy privacy screening,


01:24.320 --> 01:31.120
since what they are on is rather low. The big panels were an experiment to see if I could make


01:31.120 --> 01:35.200
a significant difference to the total solar energy that I collect in the middle of winter,


01:35.200 --> 01:42.640
and so far the answer is not really, but I'm continuing to try. When the big panels are getting


01:42.640 --> 01:47.120
lots of sun on a bright day, my system automatically transfers a couple of gadgets,


01:47.120 --> 01:53.440
such as my internet router, from being mains powered to the off-grid system. Sometimes those


01:53.440 --> 02:02.000
gadgets can stay off-grid all night too. There's lots more on my Earth Notes Web site at earth.org.uk


02:02.000 --> 02:03.600
about all of this.