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Author Topic: Blasphemy..... Solar power.  (Read 148414 times)

LowGear

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Re: Blasphemy..... Solar power.
« Reply #345 on: January 28, 2018, 06:09:44 PM »
Quote
Here in Australia, we only get six cents per Kilowatt hour from the utility companies. We also have to pay $150 a quarter for the man to come and read the meter.  Grrrr.

I feel your pain.  And to think I was complaining about 15 cents a KW buy back here in Hawaii.  Gosh, they're only making 100% per day instantaneously on my investment as they charge > 30 cents retail - that's me when I'm not selling to them.  "Gee Whiz Aunt Minnie how can they make a living with only 35,600% return per year?"  The $150 a quarter would really frost my sack too.  How much do they charge you when you buy electricity from them? 
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BruceM

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Re: Blasphemy..... Solar power.
« Reply #346 on: January 28, 2018, 06:43:07 PM »
A brief power co. rant follows:

The whole scheme of "public utilities" run by corporations and "regulated" by corporation commissions was developed by private utilities while throwing money at legislators to get it passed.  This and propaganda to paint all government power programs as socialism and communism was very successful here in the US.  This despite highly successful programs such as the TVA which provided power at half the rate of the private power co.s.  In the US, state corporatation commissioners are handpicked and have campaigns overtly funded by power companies, which is why this approach was initially pitched by the power co.s (mostly those owned through various holding companies by JP Morgan).  It is very, very cheap to buy a politician (for a large corporation) and this solves the problem quite nicely as the populace is easily manipulated to vote against their own best interest by repetition of sound bites and images on TV. (Better than 90% of elections go to whoever bought the most advertising.) The corporation commissioner jobs are often stepping stones to higher political positions so they are a very good investment (for peanuts) for power companies.

I'm glad I am no longer am under the thumb of a power company.  I encourage others to do likewise.

Here's an interesting article about what Germany has been doing in converting power back to local control and localized generation.  The global boon in lower PV prices is largely due to Germany's  aggressive RE program.  They have managed it quite impressively. 

https://www.ft.com/content/2f3b0b1e-4dee-11e3-8fa5-00144feabdc0






« Last Edit: January 28, 2018, 06:53:06 PM by BruceM »

ajaffa1

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Re: Blasphemy..... Solar power.
« Reply #347 on: January 28, 2018, 09:21:01 PM »
Quote
Here in Australia, we only get six cents per Kilowatt hour from the utility companies. We also have to pay $150 a quarter for the man to come and read the meter.  Grrrr.

I feel your pain.  And to think I was complaining about 15 cents a KW buy back here in Hawaii.  Gosh, they're only making 100% per day instantaneously on my investment as they charge > 30 cents retail - that's me when I'm not selling to them.  "Gee Whiz Aunt Minnie how can they make a living with only 35,600% return per year?"  The $150 a quarter would really frost my sack too.  How much do they charge you when you buy electricity from them? 
With Government taxes it works out around 26 cents a Kwh. so they are making more than 400% on the solar power I export.
What really gets me is that they can`t even maintain supply, yesterday in Victoria they had a hot day so a lot of people turned on the AC and overloaded the supply. 50,000 homes and businesses without power. The government and shareholders must be very proud. I guess disconnecting everyone is one way to meet the emissions reduction targets.

BruceM

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Re: Blasphemy..... Solar power.
« Reply #348 on: January 29, 2018, 01:43:41 AM »
The simple solution to power co./political malfeasance annoyance is to simply switch over your home to PV-battery-generator.

The trick it to do so without shooting yourself in the foot financially; you must minimize battery power consumption so that battery size and cost (or generator fuel cost) is reasonable...since batteries have a finite life and must be replaced.  PV only loses roughly 1 percent per year.

I know a lady with a big off grid system who uses an 1800 watt ELECTRIC water distiller for all her drinking and cooking water, plus has a gas stove with ELECTRIC glow bar and monster refrigerator with all electronic bells and whistles and auto defrost (resistive heating).  It eats Trojan batteries.  I'd bet her battery bill is bigger than many people's on grid power bills.


BruceM

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Re: Blasphemy..... Solar power.
« Reply #349 on: January 30, 2018, 05:39:08 PM »
Wow, that is some serious power generation.  And done for a shockingly low cost.

 I found that with my added 1500W of panels I must now upgrade my charge controller to the newer design I did for my neighbors.  My older design switched to a fixed net 2.5 amp absorption charge rate after batteries hit the bulk charge voltage (formerly at a max 5.2 A).  The new design maintains the max current the batteries can take limited only by a maximum variation between batteries of 3A while providing just enough current to all 12V batteries to hold them at the temperature compensated bulk charge voltage.  I can see the advantage of AGM batteries for higher current charging- my cheap 110AH marine batteries can't really take even 10.3 amps when DOD is only 10%.

For offsetting your own daytime power use, west orientation (near vertical) can be helpful for late in the day power. 
My neighbor's want to add a vertical "fence gate" array which can be seasonally aimed at a near sundown. That would be a boon for electric supper cooking and would extend water pumping hours for irrigation in the summer.

buickanddeere

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Re: Blasphemy..... Solar power.
« Reply #350 on: January 30, 2018, 07:38:55 PM »
Snow load from the last storm bent the stamped galvanized steel fromwork supporting the neighbour’s 10Kw ground mount system. Will obtain some images and post .

mikenash

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Re: Blasphemy..... Solar power.
« Reply #351 on: January 31, 2018, 08:09:55 AM »
Snow load from the last storm bent the stamped galvanized steel fromwork supporting the neighbour’s 10Kw ground mount system. Will obtain some images and post .

Nothing made from that stamped, punched galv tin is worth having if there is real work to be done . . .

BruceM

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Re: Blasphemy..... Solar power.
« Reply #352 on: January 31, 2018, 05:01:45 PM »
The commercial ground mount racks that I've seen are a farce- pathetic fixed tilt, high price, weak. 
We have wicked spring winds here so site welded steel and concrete are the only way to go.

I was very pleased with the 2" thin wall (1/16th inch thick) square tube I used for my new big tilting rack- very good rigidity vs weight for a nearly 17 foot length of rack.  About $90 for the three 17 foot lengths. Everything else was angle iron.  A local area fence store has pretty good steel stock and prices, and cuts pieces to length via bandsaw at no charge.  We only had to drill mounting holes and weld it together.

Ground mounting is easier here- few trees to worry about and plenty of space.  Different game altogether for city folks.




LowGear

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Re: Blasphemy..... Solar power.
« Reply #353 on: October 27, 2019, 04:41:51 PM »
Sorry glort,

But you went way beyond my attention span.  What I'm curious about is your attachment technique.  I'm also curious about a simple panel count.  5KW at 200 Watt panels suggests 25 panels.  That's a busy load of hardware. 

Are you working on a site storage program?

Does a meter reader come onto your grounds?
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EdDee

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Re: Blasphemy..... Solar power.
« Reply #354 on: October 28, 2019, 12:08:31 PM »
Hey Glort...

Tie male appendage to rope, tie other end of rope to one carbon rod.... When sparks and suchlike become too concerning, apply feet to ground... Rapidly... Ensuing escape will automatically widen spark gap, break conductors and shut down current flow....

PS - Remember to check that the breaking strain of rope is withing personal physical tolerance limits and greater than breaking strain of connected wiring... Electrical, that is!!

Lol
Ed
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mike90045

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Re: Blasphemy..... Solar power.
« Reply #355 on: October 29, 2019, 02:39:17 AM »
>  Might try hooking 4x 250W solar panels in parallel and see if they can do any sort of decent weld.

That will be interesting.   PV panels are current sources, and as their current lessens, the voltage rises back toward nominal.

Here's a bit of an article describing it.   and a pic
http://www.aurorasolarenergy.com/iv-curve-of-a-solar-panel/




dax021

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Re: Blasphemy..... Solar power.
« Reply #356 on: June 30, 2020, 05:46:25 PM »
Hell, that sheer abundance of panels makes me drool.  I have to get buy with 4 x 300W panels for my off grid shack.

dax021

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Re: Blasphemy..... Solar power.
« Reply #357 on: July 02, 2020, 09:18:14 AM »
2nd hand panels are almost non existent here, but then in saying that, there might be a few coming on the market soon.  One of my distant neighbours just had 10 stolen from his field.  Will end up in the township somewhere.  Stove and hot water are both off gas, but now in the winter months my batteries are taking strain.  All about money, money, money, it's a rich man's world, especially post Covid.  Everything has gone up faster than the infection rate.

dax021

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Re: Blasphemy..... Solar power.
« Reply #358 on: July 02, 2020, 01:57:45 PM »
I have a SR2 with a Hoffberg alternator directly coupled.  Batteries are 6 x 8V to give me 48V.  The genny is wired into my Pip (called Axpert in S.A.), but am having problems with earthing and when I try to feed the PIP, my DB trips, so it becomes a mission to charge batteries and power a load.  My electrical skills are just not up to scratch, I guess.  Sounds worse than it is, today is sunny and my batteries are fully charged now at almost 15:00.  Batteries are not great either and don't hold charge as well as they should.  I could be on 50V at sunset and down to 47V overnight with basically just a fridge running.  Not the best fridge, but more efficient than most, the motor only draws about 80W.  When I win the lottery I'll invest in a bigger, better setup, but till then, luckily the winters are not too long down here. (Plettenberg Bay, S.A.)

AdeV

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Re: Blasphemy..... Solar power.
« Reply #359 on: July 03, 2020, 05:13:16 PM »
Safety Zealots please note approved safety harness and full PPE ( May be hard to make out in pic but trust  and spare me, it's there. Really!)

Those "Tree Camo" hard-hats really blend in well, don't they?  ;D ;D

Nice work, though, that's a really classy looking setup.
Cheers!
Ade.
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