Solar panel power up! (1 Viewer)

[Cronk]

Solar panels are rated as being Tier 1 (the better ones), Tier 2 (cheaper but also lower performance), less than Tier 2 (rubbish). I went for Maxeon SunPower panels, up at the top end of Tier 1 if not the top one. Top dollar but best performance and warranty. This site writes At this rate, 5,000 watts of standard solar panels costs about $3,200, but 5,000 watts of Sunpower panels would run between $5,600 and $6,400.

On top of that you need an inverter to convert the DC output of the panels into AC for your house consumption and to feed into the grid. Maybe $1.5K to $3K depending on brand, power rating, one or three phase.

And also cost of installation labor - say one or two days for a gang of 3 or 4. Plus any profit for the installer.

Hi-balled is an understatement.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

I've been thinking of alternatives? What can I do with all this free Electricity

Lithium iron batteries appear to be a cheaper option and they have an exceptional life span.

Another, alternative use for solar:-
Charge up devices which have these batteries fitted.

For example, a lawn mower, rotavator, hedge trimmer. Possibly an electric patio heater to extend your outdoor party.

I saw a chap the other day, cycling down the high Street on a tricycle. It looked like it had a battery fitted to it.

I don't think I could quite see myself on a tricycle, and a four wheeled version would look a bit like a mobility scooter, not something I would go for, but with a bit of imagination, you could make it look like a quad, or better, you could convert a quad from petrol to electric.

Now you would have something fun and convenient for nipping up the shop instead of taking your gas guzzler!

 

[Pat Hartman]

When you put the single wheel in the back, the tricycle looks cool like a funny motorcycle.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

single wheel in the back, the tricycle looks cool

I know what you mean. Some of them have a cargo carrying contraption on the front. I think they're called cargo bikes or something?

There are some very nice electric scooters around, but I think you've got to have a minimum of three wheels, just for the sake of a nice bit of width to give you some presence on the road. I think you're less likely to get run in
to, and you can add lots of highly visible flags and lights...

 

[Pat Hartman]

I used to own a 1967 Austin Healy Sprite. I can't tell you how many times people tried to run me off the road because they just didn't see me. Winters in New England are much colder than in old England so if the temperature was below ~ 25 degrees, the battery wasn't powerful enough to turn over the engine so I would drag my younger brother out of bed and make him push the car (there was a slight hill in front of our house) to get it rolling so I could pop the clutch to start it. The next winter, I bought a Sears die hard battery AND a hard top for it The heater was also a joke but I loved the rumble the exhaust made. It was like a Harley but soft and sexy.

 

[moke123]

I know what you mean. Some of them have a cargo carrying contraption on the front. I think they're called cargo bikes or something?

There are some very nice electric scooters around, but I think you've got to have a minimum of three wheels, just for the sake of a nice bit of width to give you some presence on the road. I think you're less likely to get run in
to, and you can add lots of highly visible flags and lights...

They are Can Am's

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

They are Can Am's

Now That's Nice!

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

Electric Can Am Spyder​

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

They are Can Am's

That's what I like about this site, I'm always getting an education!

 

[moke123]

Now That's Nice!

But it's not an Indian.

 

[NauticalGent]

I get jealous everytime you post pics of her...

 

[moke123]

I get jealous everytime you post pics of her...

They're pretty resonably priced. You only live once.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

You only live once.

That's the right attitude for a motorcyclist!

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

I understand that inverters for converting the DC from solar into AC for the house are relatively expensive and problematic in that they break down regularly...

I wondered what about converting the house to DC? Lighting would be relatively easier as there are 12-volt equivalent DC bulbs for most places you would need them in your house.

There are also 12-volt camping appliances available.

It gets a bit more difficult for things like tumble dryers and washing machines it would be possible to fit 12-volt DC elements I suppose but then I wondered at the sense in converting to DC?

Even though 12-volt is very safe, it's not a standard that is is regularly used in domestic accommodation.

For AC, there are off-the-shelf industry-standard protection devices.

So it might seem a sensible option to switch over to DC where you can in the house but the downside is you are using a non-standard system which might be difficult to get regulation approval for if you wanted to sell your house and you might have insurance problems.

Although it seems like a good idea it would probably be best to stick to AC and use an inverter...

 

[moke123]

I tend to recall hearing that dc is more efficient over distances, as in power transmission lines, as it does not degrade over distances like ac. The problem however still remains that it needs to be converted to ac before being consumed.

 

[Cronk]

It's not so much DC or AC but rather the current. The power loss along a transmission line is current squared times electrical resistance. Power transmitted is voltage times current so to minimize loss, increase the voltage and decrease the current.

That's why transmission lines have tens or hundreds of kilo volts. China has started installing million volt transmission lines.

To change the voltage, it's easier and more efficient to use AC and transformers than DC

@Uncle, you're going to need a lot of copper to power your oven at 12 volts DC.

 

[moke123]

It's not so much DC or AC but rather the current. The power loss along a transmission line is current squared times electrical resistance. Power transmitted is voltage times current so to minimize loss, increase the voltage and decrease the current.

That's why transmission lines have tens or hundreds of kilo volts. China has started installing million volt transmission lines.

To change the voltage, it's easier and more efficient to use AC and transformers than DC

@Uncle, you're going to need a lot of copper to power your oven at 12 volts DC.

Sorry Cronk, I ran that through Google Translate and it still didn't help me.

 

[Cronk]

One watt is the power being generated by one volt with one amp. The formula is P (power) = V (voltage) * I (amps)

A circuit along which the current is flowing has certain resistance (ohms). The power loss when power is transmitted can be calculated by
I squared * R (resistance)

By halving the current, the power loss is reduced to 25%. However to get the same power through the circuit, if the current is halved the voltage needs to be doubled (formula first line).

A high power transmission line of say 100 Mw, could be configured 10 kV with 10 kAmps but the power loss would be reduced to one in a 100,000 by having 100 amps at 100 Mvolt

It's a lot easy to increase AC to higher voltages using transformer and then to decrease to lower voltages at the consumer end. It could be done with DC but it is more expensive and less efficient ie increased losses.

Hope that is more enlightening.

 

[moke123]

Hope that is more enlightening.

It is, but in reality all I need to know is, "Is the breaker on or off?"

 

[Cronk]