OK Guys, this could turn out to be a very long post since it will condense the work I’ve done over the past year in my basement. Maybe you will understand, why the activity on my blog was a bit low during this time 🙂 If you just want to read about the technics, jump to the TL;DR section.
Introduction
I know what you digged last year?
Around September last year (2021), I did just what I regularly do, watching the electric energy prices on EPEX on Energy-Charts. Since a few weeks at that time, I already realized, that the spot prices where raising a bit, but did not yet investigate it. But in September, I could not resist to have a look at the gas prices, since these control the maximum prices for electricity (merit-order) and I got a bit of a shock: The gas price was raising with quite a high ratio. And the reason was found quickly: Some of the gas storages had a astonishing 0% level and in December, also the news media realized, that there was something going completely wrong. In January, many more people realized, that the storage levels have been a bit low.
As a mole, you feel, when there is something bad happening in the underground and I decided to prepare for a new heating system, including solar electricity production and battery storage. Already in September, I started to learn about heat pumps, LiFePo batteries and searched for partly transparent solar modules to be installed on a car port, that are certified for over-head mounting without an additional roof cover below the modules. Even moles don’t like dark corners around the mole hill and the garage 😛
Self-teaching all this is not a big problem, if your background is that of an electronic engineer with a diploma grade and with physics and solar as your hobby. So I felt to be trained enough end of 2021 and ordered the heat pump (at this time, it was on stock and the price was 2.800 €), the heat storage (at the time of ordering, it was around 2.100 €), the batteries (on Aliexpress for around 2.700 €) and all the important components I expected a supply shortage (charge controllers, grid-inverters) in January.
I decided to use an air-to-water heat pump. It makes no sense for moles to draw the heat from the ground 😛
It took until mid of february, until I found a supplier that was willing to sell these special PV modules to private people, but I found one in the end. These special modules cost around 1.000 €/kWp including mounting stuff, but for me, there was not an option. I can not create a dark corner in front of my garage. The neigbours (no moles) would simply kill me and I also think it looks ugly.
In the meantime, beginning of March, relatives of my wife escaped from Ukraine and found to our place to stay some time (March to August). I quickly decided to tear out that old 70s bar in the basement and prepare a living and sleeping room for them. And to fence off a part of the room for the heat storage of my new heating system.
![](https://the78mole.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/image-4-1024x576.png)
Some hours later…
![](https://the78mole.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/image-5-1024x576.png)
Some days later…
![](https://the78mole.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/image-3-1024x576.png)
And even some more days later…
![](https://the78mole.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/image-6-1024x576.png)
While waiting for the heat storage (approx 250 kg) and for friends helping to carry it down into the basement, I also prepared the battery storage in the old sauna, that could be entered through the passage on the right in the previous picture…
![](https://the78mole.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/image-7-1024x576.png)
![](https://the78mole.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/image-8-1024x576.png)
![](https://the78mole.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/PXL_20220927_203720230-1024x576.jpg)
TL;DR – The Technical Groundwork
Welp, now after presenting some of the pictures, the more interesting part is the technical description of all that stuff…
The Heating Sytem
![](https://the78mole.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/image-9-1024x648.png)
ÜSV – Überströmventil – Overflow (Pressure) Valve
MBA – Mikroblasenabscheider – Microbubble Air Separator
MSA – Magnetischer Schlammabscheider – Magnetic Dirt Separator
And here is, how it looks in reality up to now (work in progress)
![](https://the78mole.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/image-1024x824.png)
![](https://the78mole.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/PXL_20221028_212323097.jpg)
![](https://the78mole.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/PXL_20221028_212330872.jpg)
![](https://the78mole.de/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/PXL_20221028_212347169.jpg)
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