Solar energy

[DFINITLYDISTRUBD]

Apparently, a tester for a lead acid battery is quite expensive:

Batterie hygrometers (I think that's whath they're called) are quite cheap and with patience and practice give a relatively good idea of your batteries charge state and health.

Of course with some wire, some LEDs of known value, and some resistors of known value wired parallel you could build yourself a rather accurate tester.

[Zythryn]

Originally Posted by Turtle

Wow! That's a cool graphic. Can we see the setup from GoogleEarth? More details man...pleeeeeease.

I'm responding to Turtle's question from another thread here, as my system doesn't fit the topic in the other thread (thanks for the point to here Turtle).

GoogleEarth is about three years old right now, at which point my house hadn't been built yet, much less the solar array added
It is a 43 panel system, with panels on both the SE and SW facing parts of the roof.
They are stationary, no tracking, however some day we may add a couple more Kw in the back yard on a tracking system.
I'll also pull over the link from the other thread:Zythryn's solar array summary
We just added to the array last month, so I am looking forward to tracking the results over a year.
Funny though, for some reason now I get much more depressed on cloudy days than I used to

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Zythryn

I'm responding to Turtle's question from another thread here, as my system doesn't fit the topic in the other thread (thanks for the point to here Turtle).

GoogleEarth is about three years old right now, at which point my house hadn't been built yet, much less the solar array added
It is a 43 panel system, with panels on both the SE and SW facing parts of the roof.
They are stationary, no tracking, however some day we may add a couple more Kw in the back yard on a tracking system.
I'll also pull over the link from the other thread:Zythryn's solar array summary
We just added to the array last month, so I am looking forward to tracking the results over a year.
Funny though, for some reason now I get much more depressed on cloudy days than I used to

Roge Z. Danke. Ran across a new setup this evening that is interesting.

SolFocus Announces Leading 25% Efficient Concentrator PV Systems

Originally Posted by Solar Daily

...The SolFocus 1100S system combines high-efficiency solar cells (approaching 40%) and advanced optics to provide energy solutions which are scalable, dependable and capable of delivering on the promise of low-cost, clean, renewable energy.

The company's CPV design employs a system of reflective optics to concentrate sunlight 500 times onto small, highly efficient solar cells. The SolFocus 1100S uses approximately 1/1,000th of the active, expensive solar cell material compared to traditional photovoltaic panels. ...

[Roadam]

Hmm, if someone would attach a few brass tubes around that cell and circulate water trough them, the system could also be used to supply generous amounts of warm water for heating and showers.

Thats about the same as Combined Heat & Power plants, which as far as I know convert similar precentages of power to electricity. So overall, the system may be able to use about 85% of incoming energy. I think. But thats good isnt it .