Random Renewables Thread

paulbok

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121632824#Comment_121632824

Looking at a HP prodesk 600 G5 sff instead. has a I7-9700 processor with 32gb ram so plenty of poke for what I need, and would like to have it for a number of years, have current optiplex around 10 years but not it's now not able to run much on it. Have a similar number of services as yourself in mind but want to also dip my toes into Docker & containers. Looking up the power usage on it now, getting mixed answers so far, 30w idle - 110w max and 65w idle- 180w max.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121633026#Comment_121633026

It's a slippery slope. Look at all of the washed-up NFT owners now in rehab... 🤣

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121633083#Comment_121633083

Yeah, i7 is a hungry CPU. It's TDP is 65W, so expect the CPU alone to pull that when running heavy, plus two DIMM's at 5W each... all adds up.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121632057#Comment_121632057

And to put things into perspective, a PC averaging 350W, uses 3MWh per year. That is as much as the total electricity consumption of an average Irish household 😮

I have home assistant now running on an old business desktop, with i3 CPU and upgraded to 8GB of RAM. I upgraded to SSD and disconnected the DVD drive. It now uses about 30W, which is acceptable to me. This setup is so much faster than my old Raspberry Pi, it's night and day.

paulbok

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121633268#Comment_121633268

my current Optiplex draws an avg of 55w (measured, but doing little work compared to planned) so do expect to have to go up a bit if I want the extra processing power. Only a few will run 24/7 so it won't be running hard except for a couple of hours in the evenings or the weekend when the kids are watching Plex or e.g on the minecraft server.

I don't thing a NUC type pc will suit Plex transcoding or running Frigate for cctv.

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121633470#Comment_121633470

I've moved to jellyfin.. and got it loaded on the Samsung smart TV too.

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121633441#Comment_121633441

Went from an rpi4 to a NUC myself and Home Assistant runs so much better, strongly recommend to anyone that can upgrade.

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121633486#Comment_121633486

Nice, thats a port to the Tizen OS I presume. Will this work for other non tizen apps? Is there anyone doing similar for an alternative browser for Samsung smart tvs, seeing as how they killed off in-browser video streaming on their browser during an irreversible update, rendering multitudes of streaming sites unusable. They've turned a deaf ear to the pages of posts on their own support forum. VM player not available on Tizen, but web version did work on the browser until they broke it.

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121633628#Comment_121633628

Yeah there's a guide, get a Ubuntu VM and basically put the TV in developer mode and build/push the app.

Or just get a fire TV stick. The other TVs in the house are "smart TVs" but grabbed a few cheap fire sticks on prime day or one of the sales.

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121633648#Comment_121633648

Are you running your jellyfin on the firestick also I presume. I used to watch a lot of recordings from a Sab Linux receiver over the local net on the Samsung Qled served from the Sab which was in a different room, or just visible as a file share in the Samsung media player. I record hardly anything these days, and I have a Sony Android now in Sab room for all the Catchup and players. So much media, you could never watch it all. I watched the UK Post office scandal series on a binge on a sideload of the ITVX app, the UK really know how to do miscarriage of justice. Would jellyfin serve my Sony HDD to other devices, and the Samsung? I'll have a play with it.

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121633763#Comment_121633763

Jellyfin, is a server based media hosting like plex, the frontend is really just a glorified Web UI. Currently running on my windows pc that also hosts my VMs so always on. Uses the media files from my NAS. Does transcoding like plex too.

I am intending to move my NAS from truenas core (BSD) to truenas scale (Linux based) but thats been put off for a while now..

bullit_dodger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121633258#Comment_121633258

Never lost a single cent on Crypto. I've been doing crypto on/off since 2013 - early adopter me, but then again, I'm in the computer industry. At one stage early on I had 10-11 BTC, I sold them for €6000 or so. Yeah, thought I was a winner with a cool €5000 in my pocket. Little did I know 5 years later they would be worth €0.5m. I do laugh at myself, but it was always just a hobby/messing about. Even now I can't take it too seriously.

Spare a thought for a buddie of mine in the UK who forgot his password to his doge wallet - which had £850,000 in it at one stage. Yup, forgot his password. Thats it, funds NEVER to be retrieved.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121634787#Comment_121634787

That's nothing compared to this other dude in the UK who threw out a hard disk with his wallet. About £50 million worth on it. He was even considering hiring a team to go digging in the dump for it 😁

Or of course the dude in the USA who paid 10k BTC for 2 pizzas. That's nearly half a billion dollars 😂

bullit_dodger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121635039#Comment_121635039

Yeah, that one I heard of. He petitioned the local county council for permission to go into the dump and search and he was refused on health & safety grounds. I'm sure it was a nice pizza to be fair - LOL!

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121633590#Comment_121633590

Think i will do something similar. Pi4 wont stream 4k without being jumpy & doesnt like my SATA adaptor

slave1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121634787#Comment_121634787

Two of my nephew friends got into BC right at onset, both now left the country in their early 30's, retired and multi millionaires, good luck to them

DrPhilG

Any hints on why my system has conked out?

Power is still on, batteries are at about 55%. Inverter dead for the last 40 min.

Jonathan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121652012#Comment_121652012

Solis Hybrid is DC powered so I'd look at the battery first. Have you a breaker/isolator between that and inverter? Do you have 51.2V at the inverter?

graememk

I Do have a memory that the Solis needs PV to start, then can use battery.. But cant confirm it.

Dont know why it turned off though.

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121652184#Comment_121652184

Is that not just the string inverter though?

DrPhilG

Battery seems fine, all healthy on bms screen and neey app.

Have 52.8 on the inverter side.

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121652194#Comment_121652194

I can't remember, for sure, and I ain't turning my dad's off to test 😂.

I remember someone else having that problem, turned everything off at night and then wouldn't turn back on again.

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121652012#Comment_121652012

You have to check if mains is present at the Solis input, no grid tied inverter will function unless there is mains present. Check the inverters breakers at the consumer unit are not tripped.

This is the reset sequence.

1.  Turn the black switch (the DC-switch) at the left bottom side of the inverter a quarter turn left, towards ‘OFF’.

2.  Switch off the AC-switch next to the inverter or the solar panel group in the switchboard and wait for about one minute.

3.  Switch the AC-switch or the solar panel group back on.

4.  Turn the black switch at the left bottom side of the inverter a quarter turn right, towards ‘ON’, to start the inverter again.

DrPhilG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121652232#Comment_121652232

Nothing tripped at the consumer unit. But I did flick it off and on again after trying everything else.

Went through your process at the inverter too.

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121652232#Comment_121652232

I'm in the middle of a power cut and the inverter is working fine if that's what you mean?

unkel

@deezell - "You have to check if mains is present at the Solis input, no grid tied inverter will function unless there is mains present."

That only applies to standard inverters. @DrPhilG has a hybrid inverter, which works fine when the grid is gone. It can discharge batteries into the emergency AC circuit and it can charge batteries from solar PV

deezell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121652307#Comment_121652307

Only if the Inverter has an off grid mode and a secondary circuit, or has mains changover relays to isolate output from the during a power cut. Otherwise, the inverter will not output during absence of grid mains voltage at its mains connection (to prevent electrocution of linesmen working during an outage), but I take the point that a hybrid would still operate to charge a battery and should have the power lamp lit and the display illuminated if a charged battery is connected and feeding back in.

A quick search states that Solis need 90V+ DC connected on the panel side, other wise the actual inversion function will not 'start'. I've just noticed that @DrPhilG says he has only 52.8 V at the panel input, so either its getting dark, one of the panels has failed, or there is a branch or a trampoline blown onto them! I'd expect though that the battery should be capable of starting it, as its a hybrid and should run with no panel input. Wait till it's bright and panel voltage rises, then proceed with the reset steps if it's still blank.

https://usservice.solisinverters.com/support/solutions/articles/73000560426-blank-screen-blank-lcd-no-lights

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121652477#Comment_121652477

52.8v on the battery side. Not PV.

It should have been on, but some reason it turned off

deezell

If it doesn't light up during daylight, assuming pv voltage is present > 90V, and the reset sequence doesn't work, then its time to invoke the warranty. I do wonder how this works with such an extended warranty period. Will the original installers visit, or do you have to hire in a sparks to remove it and then send it off? That could be costly.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121652561#Comment_121652561

I've had a few inverters replaced under warranty from different manufacturers over the years. All of them (eventually - it took between 2-5 months from first tech support email to receiving the replacement with hundreds of emails sent in total) sent me a brand new replacement for free and none of them wanted their faulty one back.

Self installs though. I guess if I had an SEAI grant install done, my first port of call would be the installer. Try get it done through them.