Browse Forums Heating, Cooling & Insulation Re: Reverse Cycle AC and solar 5Mar 05, 2017 4:19 pm Hi all I'm also toying with this idea, although my current position is that it probably doesn't quite work out. Given now the export rate for solar is a paltry 7c/kWh you would want to use as much as possible in the house. My first thought was great, if the RVAC needs 5.4kW to run, then a 5.5kW solar system with some smart on/off technology should be fine, either in winter or summer. However the reality seems to be you'll seldom squeeze that level out of your panels, and only for a few hours during the middle of the day in summer. In winter the panels generate about 1/2 capacity at best from what I could see. I used pvwatts.nrel.gov to get a local summary of daily solar availability and it would work, sort of, but you would still be dipping into the grid for a bit when clouds came over/cloudy days/etc. Re: Reverse Cycle AC and solar 6Mar 08, 2020 6:03 am How did you go with this? Is it on single phase? Brett philbert83 Hi all I'm also toying with this idea, although my current position is that it probably doesn't quite work out. Given now the export rate for solar is a paltry 7c/kWh you would want to use as much as possible in the house. My first thought was great, if the RVAC needs 5.4kW to run, then a 5.5kW solar system with some smart on/off technology should be fine, either in winter or summer. However the reality seems to be you'll seldom squeeze that level out of your panels, and only for a few hours during the middle of the day in summer. In winter the panels generate about 1/2 capacity at best from what I could see. I used pvwatts.nrel.gov to get a local summary of daily solar availability and it would work, sort of, but you would still be dipping into the grid for a bit when clouds came over/cloudy days/etc. Re: Reverse Cycle AC and solar 7Mar 08, 2020 7:11 am All fine in the end. The solar is single phase but at least in ACT they average out the import On 3 phases v domestic use/export of solar on 1. So over winter middays and summer afternoons we run the RVAC on a timer using the solar. The things that actually made a big difference to heating were the north-facing aspect and insulation (which I wish I got more of!). The summer western sun beats in so once the shade trees establish I hope that will make a difference. halcyon545 How did you go with this? Is it on single phase? Brett philbert83 Hi all I'm also toying with this idea, although my current position is that it probably doesn't quite work out. Given now the export rate for solar is a paltry 7c/kWh you would want to use as much as possible in the house. My first thought was great, if the RVAC needs 5.4kW to run, then a 5.5kW solar system with some smart on/off technology should be fine, either in winter or summer. However the reality seems to be you'll seldom squeeze that level out of your panels, and only for a few hours during the middle of the day in summer. In winter the panels generate about 1/2 capacity at best from what I could see. I used pvwatts.nrel.gov to get a local summary of daily solar availability and it would work, sort of, but you would still be dipping into the grid for a bit when clouds came over/cloudy days/etc. I looked into it a few years ago and my conclusion was to just build a carport that will support panels and get a system installed separately. The company I looked at had… 1 6457 I recently went through a similar renovation and move scenario when updating our family home. We also swapped some rooms around and tackled a major… 2 9745 OK it's been a little while! I've been busy getting time where I can to work on this. I started by grading a pad (borrowing a… 26 19832 |