Topic: Any solar powered rigs out there? I have an idea for one, check it out! (Read 7966 times)

But if you want it in the grid, you need an inverter. The whole science behind planning one is very difficult, kinda like building your first computer. You almost worry that you bought incompatible parts.

Nice epic bumps guys.

It largely depends on where you live and what government subsidies are available, in some cases you can't do the buying and install yourself if you want subsidies (needs to be done by a certified company).

You need panels and an invertor to turn DC into 230 V AC (or in your case 110V AC). Solar panels range in prices from cheap (need large surface to put them down) to super expensive (you only need 3 panels to get 1000 Watts). I don't know how much roof you have available. Solar panels last 20 years, invertors break down after 10 years.

A 240 Wp Solar panel costs here about $USD 600, a 3k VA PVI costs $USD 1800. Add costs for cabling and roofmounting and you are looking at $USD 4 / 1 Wp for a large installation.

Unless you want to use a system disconnected from the grid, where you'll need batteries to store the excess capacity and then it becomes really expensive.

I was wondering where do you guys purchased solar panels and in what cost. I am thinking of buying a 1000watt solar panels but only have limited information bout solar panel and it’s usages in the daily life like the operation of solar panels Colorado and it’ maintenance. Can someone give me ideas or menu for understanding the functionalities of solar panel before purchasing it..

solar panels colorado

It seems that you already have...

My uncle has a homemade wind turbine on his farm. It puts out about 3.5Kw/h. (His assumptions) The best part is he built it for a few thousand dollars. I'd love to have "green" energy to mine with.

And where did you get the ruby for the laser?

Ya the whole getting a C for making a hamster charger is a little low. I used to make models of the solar system and get A's lol. Also tried to make a laser and test what would resist it best which didnt work quite as well 

Not if he found the instructions on the internet. If he came up with a unique design using old step motors from printers or something, rock on!
I've been trying to figure out a way to get a battery array to charge from an array of potatoes and a joule thief.
Being from Ohio does not make sunlight a year round practical solution. And unfortunately steam and other outdoor fire burners don't produce enough to be cost effective.
Nothing I have checked out allows for anything shorter then a 3 or 4 year ROI.

Peters teacher should be shot.

What if you hooked up the original idea to an uninterrupted battery backup? It's not totally off grid, though.

I'm in LIPA's jurisdiction, and in a condo, and I'm playing around with the idea of getting a little windmill to supplement my power usage.

Source: http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/pets/green-power-use-the-hamster-wheel-062855

I live in Ohio where there's not to many solar bonuses. Was thinking a small solar array would still be good for emergency backup or just charging a laptops battery directly.

I do have a google chrome laptop that I got for free. So if the power ever goes out charge it and use the free   
100MB a month(yeas 100 MB ) satellite internet that that gives.

In regions where there is over subsidising, trackers are not worth it:

0. you need planning permission,
1. they are more expensive,
2. they are complicated equipment, bound to suffer long term wind damage and need maintenance.

If you have enough room, just plunk down more panels. I have North-West facing pannels that give 30% less return but because we have room and we get free loans to pay for it, we just put double the amount of panels.

In Germany it's not uncommon to see buildings with panels on all orientations (not just south, also north).

As for the quality of panels, I've only bought European produced panels (not just assembled, but also produced here) because of the environmental concerns (it's really polluting to produce them) and the company should be able to guarantee me 20 or 30 years of use. Unless they go broke of course but good luck in getting that from a Chinese factory. Purchase price is not everything...

First of all, in some countries, small producers don't get any feed tariffs. Anything you put back onto the grid, and you don't consume later, you don't get paid for it. We only get green certs (but they are rewarding ;-) In France for example you can only sell your electricity to EDF which offers a low price. Netherlands is not very good either. Belgium and Germany are the opposite with green certs. Just take a cross country drive and spot the difference on the roofs.

As for the green certs, they are local as they are paid for by the other local (non-green) consumers. I don't think you can trade them outside of your region, at least not like things are setup here. It's not like you get a printed paper you can trade on to another party, you just fill in your meter value on a website (after registration and accreditation) and they wire you the money.

As for costs, most house insurance covers the pannels for free against storm damage (if they are fixed to the building, they are covered, just like your ceramic electric stove is covered against glass damage but your plasma TV is not). The going rate (without 6% VAT) for a large installation (say 10kWp) is EUR 0.28 per watt, so about EUR 30k everything in. You can get a loan @ 1.7% to pay for it. Pays itself back in 5 or 6 years, green certs for 20 years, warranty on the installation for about 20 or 30 years (80% capacity guaranteed). Oh and free electricity for that entire period, enough to run plenty of computer equipment

I believe the 70-100w is the amount of heat a person produces doing nothing. Not how much work they can do. A professional cyclist can produce almost 2000w/hr. I would like to think I can make at least a quarter of that, lol

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Just for math an average man can produce 70-100W, but the idea of the gym is fun
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Trackers are defo the way forward if you have the space.
Over here tho you have to face Planning permission for them. We're are all living ontop of each other, its really crowded so its always going on the roof  
Some really cool methods of tracking out there and one day I hope to have my own farm of them (if i can find some space/money).

To keep the cost down you could always check out some of the new pannels coming outa China ( I wouldnt but then I take the long term view in these things). Perhaps make your own roof hooks or even the tracker if you have a workshop/will etc.

EDIT:

m3 wise yep its Mono>Poly>Thin film/amorphous but check out the newish shiny HIT pannels that  are a Hybrid of sorts cos their are winning hands down atm.
Some liquid cooled ones about too that also act as solar thermal for your hotwater while bringing down the pannel temp which is win win when you look at the temp co efficancys on the pannel datasheets for mono and poly cells.


Soz bout spelling etc im dyslexic and too much effort to..

Not only that, but the queue for applications appears to be filled completely for this year. People usually get solar water heaters because they don't really need lots of electricity (0.14$/kWh).

Now about those costs, I know there is overhead for every Wh installed, but if I do the bill of materials myself, I get around 1$/Wh for panels, and about the same for wiring, mountings, inverters, controllers, etc. I am quite sure the companies that install these would get the same kind of prices, so that would be like £1.5 per Wp. Of course they charge at least £3 per Wp, but also include shipping, mounting, installations, tests, etc.

I will look into my options for both honest and bribe-enhanced applications for these kinds of subventions.

Now, I know that roof-mounting is a space-saving and simple installation layout, but if anyone else is interested, they should look into a tracking platform, especially one-axis horizontal trackers. You can mount the horizontal tracker on a manually controlled equatorial declination platform, such that you can obtain ~100% solar incidence if your declination is less than 1% (you only need to change it every week or so). Also for security and shade issues, you could mount the platform on a pole that reaches above the canopy, giving you 100% sun exposure all day long. And even though polymer panels are resiliant, polycrystaline and monocrystaline panels are more efficient per surface area.

Hate to say it but the paperwork is shocking. I cant see how you could do it yourself and get the feed in tariffs but if you find a way please let us know. You must use MCS approved moduals and inverters and also be MCS acredited <--- this is epic good luck  or have a MCS acredited dude commision it and take responsiblity for it.

The Green energy certs are a nice little bonus but thats on top of the feed in tariffs we get in the UK. They are not the same thing they are additional and not easy to sell IMO in small quantitys to heavy industry.


Edit : er solarsilver whats stopping me buying up these certs here in the UK and selling them to you? since your subs are prob way better than here in the UK. Maybe the UK ones are not the same because we are not fully Euro ?  Not looked into this tbh.


@ BombaUcigasa  yep 150% sounds a little much. I will be aiming for around £4k per KWp thats around 100% mark up but also what MCS suggests is a fair price. I think you might be fogetting the overheads involved not to mention the labor involved (putting roof hooks in is a right bugger somtimes and involves some meaty powertools while working up on a roof. Which means horribad insurance costs also.
To be honest those roof hooks are the biggest pain in the ass. What we need is a company that makes a wide selection of solar tiles then its a simple refit...ow man how easy would that make my life...hhmmmm

You can build it yourself but you'll need to get it certified (and use authorized equipment like the kWh counter). Getting that done means you'll have to run through all sorts of paperwork and you'll need to have some electrictian do the final hookup to the grid. Having it done by a specialized roofing firm is much easier and there is plenty of competition. And by law, they need to offer 10 years of warranty (sometimes extended to 20 or 25) which is worth the premium.

Do you have to use contractors to build your installation to get this contract, or can you build it yourself then get it certified somehow? I ask because contractors around these parts charge a 150%-200% premium over the cost of materials, what should be a 5 years return on investment becomes 15 years, so even if you sell the electricity you make off completely it would take 7-10 years to pay off.