Some info for terminology

After our post yesterday, we had someone ask about how we pluck our chickens. Specifically they asked about if we used a drill plucker like the one pictured below.

We process about 400 chickens a year... between my wife and I and our small kids. So, we use a large chicken plucker that I can drop 2 chickens in at a time instead of the drill plucker. It plucks 2 chickens in about 10-12 seconds and the feathers all neatly go out the bottom of the unit. Its made for chickens and ducks so for our bigger birds like turkeys, thats when I revert to the drill plucker instead. However I'm always COVERED in turkey feathers when I use the drill plucker and it takes me about 5-7 minutes per bird using it. When I use the plucking machine for our chickens I dont have to worry about the feathers going everywhere... they go out the bottom into a makeshift collection basket I have (you can see it in the picture). If you're interested in seeing the chicken plucker we use, check out the link below.

https://amzn.to/3SXAzQL

Here we see a ground mount 6kw inverter connected to 20 panels (blue) and two 3kw MPPT dc chargers conencted to 10 panels each (teal and purple).

if you add up the two 3kw power it is 4452w and the 6kw inverter is making 4336w. So close.... all of these devices are fed from the same 370w panels at a 40degree tilt. Just confirmation that every panel in my ground mount is working the same as all the others.

Yard is mowed. Pasture is cut. Hay is baled.

Rainwater harvesting tank

Batteries sit at 99.5%... one of my DC MPPT chargers has cut back in preparation for the connection to the grid.... and.... the clouds roll in. almost connecting.....

One of the goals of my system was to match the house's needs all year. Most homes draw more power in the winter or summer, so you'd want to bias production for those times by designing the mounts for the tilt that gives you power when you need it. For my house, our power usage is nearly the same each month so I wanted a system that made the same amount of power each month. As it stands I make about 3000kWh a month.

This is my production for the past 14 months. I modeled the production using the PVWatts website and found that tilting the panels 10degrees steeper than textbook gave me consistent power each month.

If I had tilted the panels "by the book" I would make 20% more power in 365 days, but at the cost of mot making anything in the winter.

So when you design a system you need to know your month to month usage, if you will export power or if your goal is to run the house from batteries. This will determine your array's tilt angle.

Important enough to post here.

We have a chick that none of the hens will take care of. So it gets under this stuffed woobie each night.