I've had rooftop solar panels since 2014, and finally put in a Tesla Powerwall a year ago to store and conserve excess solar production. The Powerwall app made me realize that even with the battery storage I was sending over 2kW of power back to the grid, and the compensation is of course pennies to the dollar.
So why not build a mini-Powerwall that plugs into an outlet and charges a battery when the Powerwall is full, and the Solar panels are producing more than what we are using? That, and the opportunity to experiment with LiFePO4 batteries spurred this project.
I will post details of the build when I have more time. Here's a sample visualization from my InfluxDB console.
In the winter months Lightning charges the battery from midnight to 3:00 AM when the rates are lowest, and powers my Dell R710 server (about 200W) from 3:00 PM to midnight.
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