Solar cell panel prices to drop soon..

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by NeilBlanchard

Hi,

Are you leaving off the "hour"? If a 1,000watt panel produces full power for 1 complete hour, then it is putting out 1kwh

thanks for catching that for me, it's corrected now.


as for fixed mounts compared to trackers, a fixed mount is simple and will never brake down unless a bolt or weld brakes, where trackers have have moving parts, and they need to have some way to know where the sun is, sensors can get pooped on by birds, blocked by snow or dirt, damaged by lightening, motors wear out, pivots are a weak point as well, with our system we figured that our output per dollar spent would be the same if we got a tracker or a few more pv, and that the pv is going to last longer then a tracker, oldest pv we have are 25 years old and still working perfectly.

[cfg83]

Ryland -

Originally Posted by Ryland

thanks for catching that for me, it's corrected now.


as for fixed mounts compared to trackers, a fixed mount is simple and will never brake down unless a bolt or weld brakes, where trackers have have moving parts, and they need to have some way to know where the sun is, sensors can get pooped on by birds, blocked by snow or dirt, damaged by lightening, motors wear out, pivots are a weak point as well, with our system we figured that our output per dollar spent would be the same if we got a tracker or a few more pv, and that the pv is going to last longer then a tracker, oldest pv we have are 25 years old and still working perfectly.

The Zomeworks tracker doesn't have a motor :

Introduction — Zomeworks Passive Solar Products

UNIVERSAL TRACK RACK Passive Solar Tracker for Photovoltaic Modules
Incorporating over two decades of experience with tracker design and more than three decades of innovation of new products, Zomeworks has introduced the F-Series Track Rack Passive Solar Tracker to our line of UTR Universal Trackers. This tracker is our most popular design. It features an integral early morning rapid return system, is shipped partially assembled, is easy to install, and is module specific.

Simplicity and Elegance
The sun's heat moves liquid from side to side, allowing gravity to turn the Track Rack and follow the sun – no motors, no gears and no controls to fail.

But I agree that a tracker has a much greater cost, so the much longer payback makes it hard to justify.

CarloSW2

[MazdaMatt]

I believe that the justification would be shorter paybacks... you're forgetting that you aren't just following the sun for the sheer fun of it, you are doing so to increase your system efficiency. The idea is to make sure that you increase in cost is paid for by your increase in efficiency before the payback period is up for a non-tracking system... if not, then don't track.

[Funny]

Subscribed, and very interested in adding solar charging to the Rolling Lemon.

[BrianAbington]

There was an article in the omaha paper today that said that the omaha public power district (or OPPD for short) had to renegotiate their coal prices. They had a 5 year contract that expires at the end of this year. However because of the increase in diesel prices, the cost of coal, and the increase in the ammount that it costs to get said coal out of the ground, their new contract cost will increase by 150% per year.
The article said that it will only be about $8 a month extra for all 300,000 customers. However I have a feeling that this will just be for a while and then it will jump alot more.

OPPD has a nuclear plant that is old but still puts out a good portion of the power for the district.
They also have one wind turbine that I think I read isn't super powerfull but it was primarily setup as a an experimental project to see if it would be a good option for the future.

Solar power is looking better and better every day.

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by cfg83

The Zomeworks tracker doesn't have a motor :

Introduction — Zomeworks Passive Solar Products

CarloSW2

the zomeworks trackers are nice and work well for a while, but we have one of those as well that is around 20 years old with a few of our oldest panels on it and it doesn't always rest in the morning and that is a common problem it still has a dampener and pivots that need attention.

[jjackstone]

Originally Posted by MazdaMatt

okay, to all of you quoting numbers you really need get your Watts and Watt-hours straight. You can't say "I produced 7.7 watts today"... watt is a rate, watt-hours is a quantity. Its like saying I drove 100km/h today to describe how far i went. km/h * h = km, which is how far. W*h = Wh, Wh is your measurable, quantifiable, cash-related amount of eletricity produced.

Sorry for the rant, i'm trying to learn here and this thread is very confusing.

And Watts are power, whereas Watt hours are energy(power used over a period of time).
JJ

[Xringer]

Originally Posted by jjackstone

And Watts are power, whereas Watt hours are energy(power used over a period of time).
JJ

A Watt is actually a Watt-second.

A watt is a measure of actual current flow (at a certain voltage) or work done.

1 Watt=1 volt x 1 amp for 1 second of time. P=IxE

If you look at your amp meter and see 10A and your Volt meter says 12V,
during each second, you are using 120 Watts of power.

If you only left the switch on of 1/2 a second, only 60 watts was used..

If you kept the switch on for an hour, you will have used 120 watt hours.
After about 9 hours, you would have used one KWH.

[WisJim]

[QUOTE=Xringer;61117]A Watt is actually a Watt-second.

A watt is a measure of actual current flow (at a certain voltage) or work done.

1 Watt=1 volt x 1 amp for 1 second of time. P=IxE QUOTE]


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!


NO NO NO NO NO---there is no time involved.

[Xringer]

[QUOTE=WisJim;61680]

Originally Posted by Xringer

A Watt is actually a Watt-second.

A watt is a measure of actual current flow (at a certain voltage) or work done.

1 Watt=1 volt x 1 amp for 1 second of time. P=IxE QUOTE]


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!


NO NO NO NO NO---there is no time involved.

Back in the 70s when I taught electricity and electronics (for 10+ years), the watt always referred to the amount of current x the voltage used over time.

An Ampere being one coulomb. (A coulomb is equal to exactly 6.24150962915265 ×10 to the 18th elementary charges.).
Or, a whole big bunch of electrons!!

Here ya go!
Watt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The watt (symbol: W) is the SI derived unit of power, equal to one joule of energy per second. It measures a rate of energy use or production.