DIY Solar Panels

I can totally understand that, my brother was already onto calc 3 his firs semester in school...I thought it was a little overkill but apparently not, I have lots of respect for people who can deal with those intricacies of mathematics. I wish I would have had male math teachers in HS, I think I would have been more excited about it. Loved geometry, but lost interest during trig and pre-calc. teacher was completely unstable human being. Anyway, good for you man, I love all the different backgrounds of people who enjoy some herb. It truly reaches a global community from rich to poor, genius to layman. Cheers bro

I'm not exactly stable, and I knew it all along, somehow I just managed to deny it for years.. I think it was the workload that helped me do that ironically.. I'm pretty hardcore when it comes to digging in.. I could sit and do wave eq'ns etc. for 40hrs straight.. I did crack at times, but it wasn't hard to get extensions etc. when my profs saw the shape I'd fall into (losing a ton of weight, hallucinating etc), and I explained my habits.. Sure they warned me, but if I'd put up a front that said there was no getting into my head.. I can scare anybody into leaving me the fuck alone..
Calc/Differential equations/Number theory are easier to dig into when you realize their power for application.. The math disappears, and it all turns into the logic behind it.. I've applied them to growing dope for instance.. There are bells that go off, suddenly making everything make sense..
Most ppl like this know their limits/weaknesses I think.. There is nothing I hate more than when friends/family try to convince me of what they think I can do.. If you want to do that stuff, just learn it as a hobby if you know you can't handle the academic BS.. Some ppl play Sudoku/FreeCell, whats the difference besides usefulness..

born2killspam said:

i'm not exactly stable, and i knew it all along, somehow i just managed to deny it for years.. I think it was the workload that helped me do that ironically.. I'm pretty hardcore when it comes to digging in.. I could sit and do wave eq'ns etc. For 40hrs straight.. I did crack at times, but it wasn't hard to get extensions etc. When my profs saw the shape i'd fall into (losing a ton of weight, hallucinating etc), and i explained my habits.. Sure they warned me, but if i'd put up a front that said there was no getting into my head.. I can scare anybody into leaving me the fuck alone..
Calc/differential equations/number theory are easier to dig into when you realize their power for application.. The math disappears, and it all turns into the logic behind it.. I've applied them to growing dope for instance.. there are bells that go off, suddenly making everything make sense..
Most ppl like this know their limits/weaknesses i think.. There is nothing i hate more than when friends/family try to convince me of what they think i can do.. If you want to do that stuff, just learn it as a hobby if you know you can't handle the academic bs.. Some ppl play sudoku/freecell, whats the difference besides usefulness..

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could not agree more!

born2killspam said:

I'm not exactly stable, and I knew it all along, somehow I just managed to deny it for years.. I think it was the workload that helped me do that ironically.. I'm pretty hardcore when it comes to digging in.. I could sit and do wave eq'ns etc. for 40hrs straight.. I did crack at times, but it wasn't hard to get extensions etc. when my profs saw the shape I'd fall into (losing a ton of weight, hallucinating etc), and I explained my habits.. Sure they warned me, but if I'd put up a front that said there was no getting into my head.. I can scare anybody into leaving me the fuck alone..
Calc/Differential equations/Number theory are easier to dig into when you realize their power for application.. The math disappears, and it all turns into the logic behind it.. I've applied them to growing dope for instance.. There are bells that go off, suddenly making everything make sense..
Most ppl like this know their limits/weaknesses I think.. There is nothing I hate more than when friends/family try to convince me of what they think I can do.. If you want to do that stuff, just learn it as a hobby if you know you can't handle the academic BS.. Some ppl play Sudoku/FreeCell, whats the difference besides usefulness..

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Hey guys... I just have to say that these types of discussions really piss me off!!! How dare you two come in here and completely ruin Spicoli's mojo by actually engaging in highly intelligent, forward thinking and completely relevant discussion? You make me sick!!! hahaha

Sweet mother of .... Born2Kill... I ran across yours and UB's discussion on topping... loved it.

B.Head... Me being in SoCal, to this day I don't understand why there aren't solar power R&D and manufacturer's knocking on every homeowners door.

I have an old and limited 'formal' education in EE, specifically power generation. (was really into super conductor technology back in the 80's) Needless to say I ended up in the Navy as an Electrician. I have now parlayed that and my uncanny knack with computers into designing and implementing data centers. Anyway, I'm totally diggin' your discussions, even though I can't talk to the theory and high level smart guy talk ya'll are throwing out, I really can understand, comprehend and envision implementation of what you are talking about.

Seriously, after reading through these forums for the past few months, I'm totally convinced that if we put a bunch of people like you two from these type forums up in a nice cabin in Tahoe or something for two weeks, we'd have a lot of this countries problems solved! hehe

I look forward to reading and hopefully, maybe, being able to contribute at least at a basic level with you guys.... keep it up!!!

Hey guys... I just have to say that these types of discussions really piss me off!!!

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Story of my life.. But whatever, how about that Americas Got Talent huh??

hey socal!! glad you stopped by to join. Please feel free to add any knowledge in here. I would like to turn this into a library of useful solar info....maybe we can even get "sticky" status if we get enough....and trust me, having a background in EE and working for the navy you have much more experience and education in this field that I do. I do the best I can by reading anything I can find on the subject. I am actually going to school right now for instructional technology, because my first degree in business left me on the side of the road with my thumb in the air. I love playing with computer as well... and I am loving my authoring class, I get to play with Flash all day long...it's a blast. I am looking forward to being able to telecommute to work whenever I find a job that pleases me and then it's off to the forest for me. Nor-cal here I come!!! Enough room for my dogs to run, and a mountain ridge to build my own power station on. It just takes a few people to get the ball rolling, wouldn't it be great if it was the "stoners" who saved the planet and people's wallets. I love this forum, you meet people with very different backgrounds, true diversity focused on a common goal... which thankfully isn't organized religion hahaha

Back to sun-power
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Evergreen-ES-A-Series-195-Watt-A-Solar-Panel-2-98-W_W0QQitemZ390066337848QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item5ad1c3f838&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65:12|66:2|39:1|72:1215|293:1|294:50

I know its alot more than 54cents/W, but these things will lose alot of efficiency if you gotta string alot together etc.. The bigger the better, and yes, price reflects that.. If I were you I'd research on performance of cells of various sizes, and go for thmost cost effective regarding expected output/$.. (Calculus and curve-fitting could even be applied hehe)
IIRC I saw 60W units in Canadian Tire (Like walmart kinda, but with funny money) for just under $200cdn..
And if you're a real massochist take a gander at these offers..
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Broken-Solar-Cells-20-pieces-for-Solar-Panel-Project_W0QQitemZ200362341894QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2ea686b606&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65:12|66:2|39:1|72:1215|293:1|294:50

I'm gonna' run off on a tangent here. These pics are of my companies PV system (well... not 'mine', but the one I work for! ;P) All these panels constitute about 450kW of power and is responsible for 60% of our lighting bill. Also, the panels on the parking garage also act as a free charging station for anyone with electric cars. We also use some electric cars as shuttles between our buildings.

Any idea what they actually produce on average over the year??

born2killspam said:

Any idea what they actually produce on average over the year??

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Ask you shall receive. This is real time data off of our largest solar array.

Notice that the current output is only like 1kW. It's 7:45pm here in sunny socal.

Any idea how much incident power would be needed to max the potential of the cell??
And I really gotta thumb the GH gas emmision part unless they're actually in tune with the power generation your building feeds off of..

300,000 kwh a year would average out to about $33,000 worth of electricity out here. That looks like pretty massive setup for your business. Anyway we could get make and model of those panels, and how many they have. I would like to know what the entire system is capable of? Do you have battery storage, or only direct conversion. I am wondering because if your application only requires heavy power use during the day when the panels will be using the sun, then you might be able to avoid the storage aspect of the system. I don't know if it is worth while to engineer it that way, but from what I have seen, and know about batteries, is they are expensive and not very effective at storing large amounts of energy. I would just like to compile the data and break it down, to possibly create a formula for these cells and then people could just change all the variables to see what these systems would provide year by year.

Let's face it, if CERN gets up and running sometime soon and we find the answer to cold fusion, then to hell with solar panels....but seems we have been chasing the cold fusion dream for quite some time...meanwhile the sun burns bright and rises every single day..

Why dink with fusion when we could react antimatter?? Oh wait, nevermind..

hahaha, what do you think bout all that? I have been following the progress but at a distance, I am very fascinated, it just seems so complex. CERN just blows my mind...so much money invested in that, it's unbelievable

Boulderheads said:

300,000 kwh a year would average out to about $33,000 worth of electricity out here. That looks like pretty massive setup for your business. Anyway we could get make and model of those panels, and how many they have. I would like to know what the entire system is capable of? Do you have battery storage, or only direct conversion. I am wondering because if your application only requires heavy power use during the day when the panels will be using the sun, then you might be able to avoid the storage aspect of the system. I don't know if it is worth while to engineer it that way, but from what I have seen, and know about batteries, is they are expensive and not very effective at storing large amounts of energy. I would just like to compile the data and break it down, to possibly create a formula for these cells and then people could just change all the variables to see what these systems would provide year by year.

Let's face it, if CERN gets up and running sometime soon and we find the answer to cold fusion, then to hell with solar panels....but seems we have been chasing the cold fusion dream for quite some time...meanwhile the sun burns bright and rises every single day..

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So here is the link to the panels we are using. http://www.affordable-solar.com/kyocera.kc200gt.200watt.solar.panel.htm and http://www.affordable-solar.com/kyocera.kc190gt.190.watt.solar.panel.htm

Here is the cut sheet on the power inverter. http://www.gosolarcalifornia.org/equipment/inverter_tests/summaries/Satcon-AE-135-60-PV-A.pdf

And no, we do not use batteries. You are correct in that we utilize the solar power for our lighting systems which are not needed as much after hours.

Do you guys have Power Point?

So at this one campus we have 1750 panels.

I have powerpoint, you have presents for boulder????

Boulderheads said:

hahaha, what do you think bout all that? I have been following the progress but at a distance, I am very fascinated, it just seems so complex. CERN just blows my mind...so much money invested in that, it's unbelievable

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You mean the LHC specifically?? It doesn't worry me that much.. I'm a believer that these things are already happening everywhere around us anyhow, the LHC will just help us observe them..
Sure probability in any state is low, but do you know how many states are in a unit of space-time at the Planck scale??
I'm pretty sure that if there are boundary conditions that prevent the risk intrinsic to QM that we don't yet know of, then no collider will make a difference..

The inverter data is a little over my head. Looks efficient just based on the graph alone though. Based on quick calcuation, all those panels wired together on that one campus would generate over 12,000 amps. Enough to power more than 4000X1000watt HPS bulbs running on 240 volt current....Looks like it would cost nearly a million just for the panels alone. I am sure you could get some bulk order discount though. 20 year warranty multiplied by 33,000 a year in savings only puts you at 660,000...better hope they outlast the warranty

born2... no I do not, I try to wrap my head around these things, my 2 physics buddies always try 2 explain, and I can just tell that they understand way better than I do based on how excited they get whenever they talk about it. I try to keep up, but most of the day I am focused elsewhere, its only late at night when I get to learn about all this cool new tech.

I don't try to explain QM to ppl.. Either you've grueled through the math, or you haven't.. Ppl like Hawking are screwing up physics students these days..