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Nowadays panels are cheap enough that if you want more power than you get with them fixed in place, you just add more panels.
by ncmncm 5y ago
Nowadays panels are cheap enough that if you want more power than you get with them fixed in place, you just add more panels.
- psyguy 5y agoAre panels cheaper than the servo motor & Arduino used in this tool? Not to mention that at mass produced scales chip costs are usually 1/5 the price of an Arduino. What if every panel used these tools, we could increase the amount of power we gather from solar.
- bushbaba 5y agoYes. A 400w watt panel is 250$. When you account for labor and cost of all. The parts for a moving panel that can withstand high wind speeds…Placing more fixed panels is cheaper.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago> A 400w watt panel is 250$. Wait, panels are that cheap? Could you point me to a good place to buy them?
- kurthr 5y agohttps://watts247.com/product-category/solar-panels/new/pallet-new/ https://watts247.com/product-category/solar-panels/new/palle... I don't know what, where, or how many you want, but these are by the pallet (~30ea) and about $6500. You can get much cheaper with used ones. You get conservatively ~3hr of effective peak power per day (so a 400W panel will give you 1200Wh). You also need a DC converter for these to charge a battery or go to AC. Of course you'll want to mount them at the correct angle with a good view of the sun.
- ncmncm 5y agoYou generally have to buy them by the pallet-load, FOB ("free on board") at the source, which means you arrange shipping. Home Depot marks up 4x for local purchase. But used panels, at 80% rated output, are even cheaper, as low as $150. A few of those will fail, so you keep spares. They are often repairable in a few minutes if you are not afraid of a soldering iron, e.g. replace a diode or MOSFET. Any roofer will put in mounting brackets, and almost any electrician is happy to put in the panel.
- walrus01 5y agoDecent vendors such as sunelec.con will easily quote you a price for a one pallet load LTL freight shipment of a pallet of, say, 22 panels. Not like you have to arrange your own freight and often they get a better price because of they great monthly spend with the major us48 state LTL freight carriers. Be sure to specify if you need liftgate service at the destination or not, because that will affect cost, otherwise by default a pallet by LTL freight will need a loading dock to receive.
- hedora 5y ago$3 per watt, installed on your roof is typical these days: https://www.remodelingcosts.org/solar-panel-costs-increase-seia-march-2022-report/ https://www.remodelingcosts.org/solar-panel-costs-increase-s... That includes labor, mounting hardware, inverters and grid tie in. It also assumes high efficiency panels. Watch out before buying older technology (lower efficiency) panels. Some have significant efficiency losses per degree Celsius increase in temperature.
- dn3500 5y agoI paid $1.47 per watt for 3200 watts last summer but that's in Mexico.
- zbrozek 5y agoI bought 42 Sunpower X21-335 panels used for about $4700 shipped to my door a few years ago and couldn't be happier. As far as I could tell they weren't actually ever unboxed.
- yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago> $3 per watt, installed on your roof is typical these days Which is why I was so fascinated by someone saying that you could get panels at 250USD/400W=0.625USD/W; I suppose it's possible that all the other stuff (electrician, mounting, inverters) is the difference, but a factor of 5? That feels like an chance to do something hacky and come out way ahead (like, say, DIYing a panel to run your computers, thus cutting out rewiring the house and needing an inverter).
- fy20 5y agoIn Europe they are even cheaper as we don't have high tariffs on Chinese panels. I can buy a 350W panel for €150 including taxes, or €100 if I go to the equivalent of Craigslist and don't care about warranties.
- rockostrich 5y agoMaybe not bulk cost upfront, but surely the maintenance cost tips towards fixed place panels.
- hedora 5y agoOur solar panels are rated to 115mph winds. What are these servo mounts rated to? Also, installation of the panels currently costs more than panels. They don't say (or I didn't find) how efficient the optimal fixed mount is, but the agent starts at 80%, so assume some fixed position is 80% of optimal. They increase that to 96%, so they reduce the number of solar panels by about 13%. If the installation labor cost increases more than ~26% because of the servo mount, then the servo mount hardware and frame would need to be cheaper than fixed mounts for it to break even. Similarly, the amount of aluminum being consumed by solar panel installions is non-trivial, and the movable frame is likely to increase that. However, this is still a cool hobby project with a nice writeup.
- ehnto 5y ago> Also, installation of the panels currently costs more than panels. That's partly the racquet people set up to snag government grant dollars, but still true.
- kumarvvr 5y agoExactly. Any mechanism that moves the panel to follow the sun, must be sturdy enough to also withstand high winds, which is inevitably costlier than proof of concept ideas. Better to add more panels. A better way to ensure more power output is to have a set of panels with a small battery back to automate cooling of the panels and cleaning of the panels.
- f0e4c2f7 5y agoInteresting that the limiting factor is energy and wind. I wonder if you could devise a locking mechanism or something purely mechanical to solve it. Something closer to gears in a watch.
- ncmncm 5y agoThat costs even more.
- patrickk 5y agoAnother concept involving the cooling of solar panels and how to use the heat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dJixtZdkU0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dJixtZdkU0
- rb666 5y agoEasy method to improve cooling of your panels is installing a sedum roof underneath. Plus such a roof has many more advantages.
- duckmysick 5y agoSomething to consider is when adding more panels brings your total installation power over the limit of your net metering agreement.
- shermozle 5y agoThe intverter should be able to be configured with export limits. In a lot of jurisdictions that's mandatory anyway. Still better to over-specify so that in Winter you get the full amount while in Summer you just throw some away. Or take up a power-intensive hobby like Bitcoin mining in Summer.
- duckmysick 5y agoAs I understand, the limits regulate the total capacity of the installation not the actual amount of electricity produced.
- ncmncm 5y agoThat would be very peculiar. Unusual, anyway. Do you know anyplace that does it? Whose business is it what your total collection area is?
- duckmysick 5y agoOregon limits residential customers to 25 kW (nameplate capacity). https://oregon.public.law/rules/oar_860-039-0010 https://oregon.public.law/rules/oar_860-039-0010 From the cursory look it seems like most states have limits like those. A lot of them are generous enough so you don't have to worry about it. But there are some states where covering an entire roof of a moderately sized building would put your over the limit. https://www.ncsl.org/research/energy/net-metering-policy-overview-and-state-legislative-updates.aspx#statenet https://www.ncsl.org/research/energy/net-metering-policy-ove...
- tonylucas 5y agoNope, at least for ours it limits on export produced (on a technical basis, not a planning permission one). It will deliberately downgrade the energy produced to ensure it doesn’t exceed export limits. You get used to optimising for sunshine for when you run power heavy equipment eg car charging
- barney54 5y agoNot necessarily. Yes, they are cheap, but most current solar installations use single axis trackers. They are simple and increase yield.