Basically, I want to set up the new homestead off grid and would like to do it with a diesel generator to a DC disconnect, to a charge controller, to a battery bank, to the system meter, to the main DC disconnect, to an inverter, then to an AC breaker panel. Just like a solar array system but using the diesel instead of panels for the first year or two. The home will be using no more than about 22kWH daily. I guess the main question is how do I use a diesel generator in place of 19, 210W solar panels without running the generator 24-7?
It will work if you can do without a few major items. Air conditioning is the main culprit. It uses a huge amount of electricity and amperage. An electric cloths dryer is also a major electricity user, as is an electric stove. Both of the latter can be eliminated if you have natural gas or propane. If your building the house, you can wire the lighting for DC and eliminate some of the inverter task. Inverters are expensive. If you decide to go battery, get industrial forklift batteries. They will hold power longer and give a cleaner flow of electricity than a bank of car batteries. Be sure to used distilled water. It will extend the life of the batteries.
That's a lot of energy for off-grid. We're on grid, and don't use 22 kWh a day. Be that as it may, I have heard of people who use a generator in tandem with solar. The solar provides enough to keep a small battery bank charged. In prolonged cloudy spells, they fire up the genny to top off the battery bank. Maybe that would work without the solar. Another approach would be to have a separate circuit on the generator, with the high-power, non-critical systems plugged into it. So if they're going to wash clothes, use power tools, or something like that, they turn on the generator. At other times, the small battery bank is enough.
You can do anything you like providing of course you don't have your neighbours banging on your door asking you to turn that racket off! Or worse still you could have the noise control officer ordering you to shut it down! co's it's disturbing the neighbours!! It's different if you live in the country, but you will still have to find some way of muffling the noise from the diesel exhaust . In some countries like NZ what power you don't use can go back into the national grid the power company actually pay you! Sounds good eh!! Cheers!
Well, you're hitting one of the major problems of the modern age: storing electricity is very expensive. Batteries are bulky, costly, and you lose ~20% of your power just going in and out of the battery (the inverter will cost you another ~10%). But if you're willing to buy enough batteries you can store as much electricity as you want.
