Setting up solar panels

[w1z4rd]

Also, AFAIK, the govt. subsidies are only for solar water heaters, not PV panels.

Cool where can we get those as well and how much is the government subsidising by?

 

[thedoc!]

I have used KG Electric successfully in the past (www.kgelectric.co.za), Uwe is really professional, reasonable and always has good advice.

Good luck with your project...

 

[BCO]

Cool where can we get those as well and how much is the government subsidising by?

I got mine from Solahart. There's a fairly big subsidy. I was part of the pilot programme and I got R6k back.

@ thedoc! I've also received some helpful advice from Uwe, he seems very knowledgeable.

 

[Syndyre]

Cool where can we get those as well and how much is the government subsidising by?

If you look on the Eskom website they give you an estimated total cost, subsidy amount etc.

 

[icyrus]

How resilient are solar panels. Will the first jhb hailstorm mean replacements?

 

[Impreza GT]

I got mine from Solahart. There's a fairly big subsidy. I was part of the pilot programme and I got R6k back.

@ thedoc! I've also received some helpful advice from Uwe, he seems very knowledgeable.

Where do I get the info from? Been doing some "shoping" and need all the info I can get....

 

[jls_n]

Eskom have updated there list of accredited suppliers. Only 1 so far in the Cape.

http://www.eskomdsm.co.za/swh_7_supplier.htm

 

[mustangsa]

w1zard, a colleague of mine is about to bring in a container load of panels from China that should be about 40% cheaper than what's available on the market ATM. I'll be getting involved with the distribution of these panels, so if you're interested, gimme a PM.

Looking at your requirements briefly, I'd say you need a 1000W inverter/charger and you'd use about 1.5kWh over 3 hours of usage. You could get away with 2x 102Ah batteries, but this system will discharge them quite deeply over that period. Also, bear in mind that ithe size of your inverter/charger will affect how many batteries you can have connected (it needs to output a certain number of amps per battery). A 1000W inverter/charger can take (iirc) max. 4 batteries.

2 batteries and the inverter will set you back about R5k.

To generate 1500Wh of power a day, you'd need about 500W worth of panels, which at current prices would come to about R15k (current SA prices, not the panels we'll be bringing in).

You then need a solar control module, wiring and installation, so all in your system would cost roughly R25k.

I am interested in this solar panels , please send me the info [email protected]

 

[PCTECH]

I went to our farm and fetched it Its about... 30 years old but still in good nick

I have just spoken to my parents, and the answer I got was, "someone at the bottom of Oxford street".. while that doesnt help you or me in the slightest, I can investigate it more for you and find a decent supplier?

LOL Probably Elcos but I think they closed a long time ago They had a huge shop and sold virtually everything you'd need to set up a house. I used to love wandering around the shop as a kid.

 

[Ivork]

From a few months ago, but FYI, place around the corner in Cape Town:

Dear Ivor



Thank you for your enquiry.



Unfortunately we do not sell the cells themselves - we manufacture the panels. What I can suggest to you if you would like a more affordable option is to buy what we call “non-standard” panels. These are panels are 30% cheaper than the prime A-grade panels. A “non-standard” is graded that way because it has a visual flaw such as a crack that affects the output of the panel. So a 150Wp panel may only produce 146Wp. These panels are charged at 2.20Euro/w compared to an A-grade panel which is 3.10Euro/w. To give you a better idea of this please see the table below.

http://www.yellow-mini.co.za/pvpanels.pdf

 

[Nod]

Can look for prices at pricecheck for gas fridges.

 

[SilverNodashi]

w1zard, a colleague of mine is about to bring in a container load of panels from China that should be about 40% cheaper than what's available on the market ATM. I'll be getting involved with the distribution of these panels, so if you're interested, gimme a PM.

What brand will this be, and who reliable are they? What would a 80KW cost?

It would be cheaper to charge the batteries from the Escum supply, when it is on, than solar!

Not quite, since you'll need more power to generate the power needed. i.e. if you have a 100A battery, and the charger is 10A, it will take 10hours to recharge. If you were to use 50A of that power at the same time, then it will take 20hours - roughly.

Im trying to find the most cost effective route to setup a solar powered system for my house. I am just looking to run a TV, a couple of laptops and a couple of cellphones off the system.

www.planmypower.co.za have some useful samples of solar driven "dwellings", you could use their calculations as a base to what you need

Any solar installation is going to cost a fortune - even with Chinese panels at 40% less it will STILL be OTT.

True, for our house we're looking @ about R100K run the whole house on solar. But, with a R2K electricity bill every month, it could repay itself in a few years time

 

[BCO]

@ softdux - I discussed this with W1z4rd in a couple of pm's, but negelected to post in this thread (sorry) so here goes.

After further investigation with the chinese supply company it looks like the panels won't come in much cheaper than is already available in SA, so my colleague decided not to start bringing them in.

 

[MontyPython]

LED lights

Hello w1z4rd,

have a look at this:

http://www.c2r.co.za/html/bulbs___down-lights.html

scroll to the bottom of the page.

Have a look at the rest of the website.
keep in mind that LED's are by nature 12V devices,
so even the lights that gets powered by 220V
have a miniature step-down transformer built inside.

The point being that any of the 220V lights can be
manufactured by the company without the transformer,
therefore all the illumination in your house can be done with batteries
charged by solar PV panels and LED lights.

Regards.

 

[captainwifi]

Im trying to find the most cost effective route to setup a solar powered system for my house. I am just looking to run a TV, a couple of laptops and a couple of cellphones off the system.

I already have a gas stove and gas fridge (have not worked out a solution for the geyser yet).

Whats the best company to approach for this kind of equipment, and who also has decent pricing.

I am also wondering what the full hardware spec for this type of project would be. So far... solar panels... battery and inverter. Not to sure what else would be required.

Does anyone have any suggestions for this?

Try this http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/01/molten_salt_as.php it uses molten salts to store energy which can be used at night to drive equipment such as a http://www.stirlingengine.com/ecommerce/product.tcl?product_id=84 to power an alternator. Solar panels from a engineering cost perspective simply isn't going to work.

The molten salts are heated using parabolic mirrors http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Parabolic_reflectors or this brilliant Fresnel lens design at the bottom http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Fresnel_reflectors

Molten salt looses only 1degree per day, which means the heat can be stored nearly indefinitly. Combined with a [[SterlingEngine]] it can even power a vehicle. Instead of using batteries which converts chemical energy into electrical energy, thermal energy powers a Stirling engine power the vehicle.
The thermal tanks are heated using [[Solar Energy]] via parabolic reflectors and Fresnel lenses. The thermal tanks can be exchanged anywhere on the road because parabolic reflectors can be built anywhere. The reason why this fantastic idea can't be commercialized is because of key patents holding Stirling engine technology hostage as explained by a Stirling engine developer at [[StirlingEngines]]. We will thus rip-off the patent and make these engines ourselves via a [[FrontingCompany]]. One can imagine the reaction of vehicle companies like Toyota to this, they are excluded because of the patents , because they won't be able to afford the licensing terms by the extortionist holding the world hostage.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Again, simple question wifybabycakes....

Have you tried any of your suggestions yourself or are you just copying and pasting from other sites?

As for ripping off patents... thats illegal, and please stop trying to get other people to break the law, its getting tiresome.

 

[captainwifi]

As for ripping off patents... thats illegal...

Being awarded a patent doesn't automatically mean the patent is valid. Only the court can decide that. Webber Wentzel and other patent attorneys have conned many people into filing patents, wasting their money because as an individual you don't have the funds to fight Altech in court. Altech says your patent is invalid as they certainly have the right to say. You can't sue Altech, unless you have millions.

Take software patents for example, Amazon have patented one-click shopping which is ridiculous. There is nothing immoral, unethical or "illegal" about putting an icon on you site for people to click. What we have is what Mbalula called "much mockering about". Webber Wentzel is "mockering about with your head", the lawyers are engaging in "mind mokkering".

If it isn't immoral to copy a one-click idea, then why is it immoral to copy a design to power my house at night using molten salts?

 

[rebel998]

But copying a patent is only illegal if you do it commercially isn't it? Let's say I reproduce a routerbord and use it for personal use, is that still illegal?

 

[captainwifi]

The problem we face in SA is the peak load on the Escom grid around 6pm when everybody switches on their heaters. Think of a container with molten salts lets say 2 x3m as a huge battery. The container is heated up during the day using solar parabolic reflectors. The energy inside gets released via a heat exchanger to provide energy during the night. Solar panels don't solve this problem because they generate electrical energy which can only be stored efficiently into chemical energy(batteries) . Batteries are way to expensive and pollute the environment.

The technical solutions for the urbanite and farmer to remove themselves 95% from Eskoms grid exists just like the technology to provide 100meg over 40km via an RF link on Wimax. What prevents this from being commercialized in a normal manner is patents.
People still think that cancer hasn't been solved, that bandwidth is impossible to obtain or that we must burn through our scarce coal reserves because the technolgy isn'y mature yet. NOthing could be further from the truth, this stuff works as Rocketdyne , Solar one and others have shown. But they have patents. Further more there is transmission and switching losses with long distance transmission. With my idea using thermal energy , the power generation and usage are together. IT is all to do with the cost/performance ratio of the various technology.

The public at large don't understand this fully.

 

[captainwifi]

But copying a patent is only illegal if you do it commercially isn't it? Let's say I reproduce a routerbord and use it for personal use, is that still illegal?

True, what you do in your backyard is your business, it only becomes an issue if you commercialize it. you can be sued, or at least your fronting company or empowerment partner. The main crises for altech and other is that as the public figures out that we will never get cheap energy because Altech simply can't help us with it, we will do it ourselves which leaves them doing what?