What to do with excess solar power.

[glort]

Now we are in spring down under, the solar generation has picked up again.  with around 20Kw worth of panels on 4 inverters and 2 Circuits, I am making more power than the wiring can handle.
Before any safety sissys go into orbit on that statement, there is no danger as the main inverter with 9 KW of panels on it simply detects a high voltage and cuts out.  I plan on getting heavier wiring to the shed where this inverter is located and the existing wiring is not actualy too small, it's just too long back to the circuit board.

To keep the inverter from tripping I have 2 Voltage monitoring relays that kick in dummy loads to keep the voltage in check.
It annoys me though that I am just wasting 4-5 KWh a day atm but I can't figure what I could use the power for.

I'd like to come up with something practical and useful as it seems wrong to be throwing it away atm.

I already have the hot water setup so it only comes on when the solar is working or I manually over ride it. Being a 3.6 Kw load, it pulls the line voltage down nicely but we don't use enough hot water and I only get a 2-3 hours with it kicked in.
The septic pump out is also set up on a timer so it only runs between 12 and 4 PM but it's done pumping in about 10-15 Min as well.  I also installed a separate 1.5Kw pump today for taking the recycled water and putting that on the garden. I'll do that a little later in the afternoon.
I have a hydrogen generator I have been playing with and was thinking of using the gas to run a stove but on discovering the wide range of air/ hydrogen Volatility, I'm not going to be playing with that any more. I don't need any destructive explosions bringing all sorts of unwanted attention on me.  I just burp the thing every day to see how much gas I have made. The oxygen is not captured.

I thought about filling a chest freezer with water and running that to store the cold for cooling the house in summer but a freezer won't freeze in a day so that's kind of pointless as well. I want something with about a 2Kw motor but they are normally only a fraction of that.  The only thing I have in mind ATM is a single phase split AC system put in the centre of the house and running that through the day to keep the indoor temps lower which will make the place more comfortable at night.  There is a ducted system in the house but it runs off 3 phase and I can only backfeed 3 of the 3 phases and the thing doesn't pull that much off each phase but it adds up on the one I can't supplement.
There is no point going the battery route, it would simply never pay itself back in any savings especially seeing I will only have an excess of power 6-8 months of the year.  We use a lot of power because the whole place is electric only so there will allows be a winter shortfall and an excess in summer even when the wiring is done. I'm back feeding spinny meters so I can't go backwards over a given quarter the meter is read on or I'll get put on a smartarse meter and loose all the benefits I have now with being able to use the grid as a battery.

I have about 10-15Kwh a day excess power in summer so anyone got any clever and practical ideas what this power could be put into?

[oiler]

How about selling your exess power to your neighbour?

[Henry W]

A small swimming pool  or hot tub might work nicely. It's a bunch of extra work but a little bit of luxury at times could make life more enjoyable.

[LowGear]

I'm suggesting you take the leadership of your very progressive and intelligent utilities companies and put in a Power Wall system.

Hows the upgraded wiring coming?

[glort]

How about selling your exess power to your neighbour?

I thought about offering some to one neighbour for nothing but it could be complicated. Not like a guaranteed continuous supply so what is he going to use it for?  It would really only be peak/ Mid day power I wanted to offload. Morning and evening ramp up is very useful. Cost of setting up to sell it would probably not be justified by the return.

Spa I have thought of. Really don't know if I could be bothered with it though and it's something else to maintain and look after.  I am in the process of setting up an outdoor shower/ bath area so it could be something to look for that in the future.

Putting in a battery system is a complete and utter waste of money. NONE of them repay their purchase cost with the amount of power they can store over their lifetime for anyone on grid and from what I have seen, that applies anywhere in the world. Would never entertain the idea of an actual Tesla power wall either. The insecurity of that company's short let alone 10 year future to cover any warranty claim is highly doubtful and their big brother way of controlling and dictating everything about their products is for the Koolaide drinkers not me.

Wiring will be upgraded and added to once I get the 5KW array presently sitting in the back yard up on the north house roof.  Organizing a mates cherry picker for the solar job and trimming up some trees at the same time.

[Henry W]

Another thing that I thought of. And I will be ready to admit that I'm not ready for it. That is an electric car or truck. It's free transportation. But I don't know the distance you need to travel.

[Henry W]

Well, I mean a possibility of having cheaper transportation. Nothing is free.

[glort]

I have had close as it gets to free transportation for 15 years this month.  Veg oil.
Can carry enough fuel for 2500Km  and topping up on the way isn't a problem either. Just go round the back of a restaurant with my pump and filter and can easy pick up another 1000Km worth.

Ev's here are rare and expensive. I think it will be a long time before even used EV's are within the realm of most people and then they are likley  to be suffering from depleated battery packs and have limited range or require expensive battery pack replacement.
Many people say battery's will get cheaper but I HIGHLY doubt that in the next 10-20 years.  The demand will be ever growing, probably outstripping production and the raw materials will no doubt become more expensive as well.

Plain old lead acid batteries have been around for decades and made in the 10's of Millions every year but I don't see them coming down in price, quite the opposite.

I looked into making an electric tractor for round the place recently. Batteries are basicaly irrelevant for that purpose but Motors, controllers and all the other componetry is still very expensive here even used from things like forklifts and golf carts.