Off the Grid

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by nicho3, Apr 7, 2009.

  1. nicho3

    nicho3

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    Hello everyone, I'm a newbie to the forums but I have completed the beginer and intermediate c-bus courses. Can anyone tell me if c-bus will work off the grid? My wife and I have decided to "go bush" and we are in the process of designing and then building an energy efficiant home but we also want to live normally without sacraficing any of the creature comforts of home. The property we are looking to purchase has no pwer available so a solar panel system along with a back up generator will be used to power the house. I was wondering if c-bus would work as an energy management system in this situation. For example if when we leave for work we could turn everything except the frige and freezer off. Then during the middle of the day when the solar panels are at there peak input have it so the dishwasher and washing machine come on. Thanks for any ideas or input.
    Robbie.
     
    nicho3, Apr 7, 2009
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  2. nicho3

    NickD Moderator

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    C-Bus can definitely be used as an energy management system, however with anything like this there is a break even point...

    The C-Bus system itself has a standby energy consumption, so you would need to make sure that the energy it enables you to save is greater than that standby consumption.

    As far as running off-grid goes... the main thing to watch out for is that the standard dimmers need a relatively stable 50Hz frequency in order to perform the phase control properly. I would imagine a quality sinewave inverter would be OK, but it would probably be best to ask for advice from Technical Support first.

    Nick
     
    NickD, Apr 8, 2009
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