Do you have any suggestions on who to buy from? I'm going to put my own system up, and will do it in stages. I was looking at a co. Called grape solar, but would be interested in any wholesalers.
personally, ive never heard of those companies. im in So-cal, and companies vary, However, I DID do some research for you, and out of those 3 im going to say Astronergy. and that reason is cuz they not only use the "mono" cells, but I hear tell the black ones are more proficient with "shaded light" which means even when the sun isn't at Zenith, its still pulling sufficient amps from non direct sunlight (I could be wrong on their types of panels not being what I said here, I haven't seen them up close) also, I checked and Solarworld doesn't offer the 20 year warranty on their panels it seems, but I couldn't find warrantys on either of the other 2 either....you really WANT to make sure that's in place. but I WILL say, that all of the panels I looked at seem like the high end type panels, and should have the long lasting effect anyway. with Astronergy you can always call to see if there is a warranty. if I can remember, on Monday, ill ask my professor, just to have a second opinion on it.
Balancing any electrical system is important. I think what I want are seperate systems, and hook a few circuits to each individually. If you have 3 seperate setups, the odds of all 3 going down at the same time are slim. Do you have a chart for determining how many of the 245 watt systems and batteries it would take to run a modern efficient refrigerator? It pulls 10 amps max. I'll check the chest freezer soon as well, but I'm assuming it's comparable. My first set up will be just for these two appliances. Any input is appreciated.
ok so you're doing a stand alone system, which means off grid right? be careful cuz batteries, even made for solar, need to be replaced every 5 years, and that can cost some bucks. car batteries only last like 3 hooked up....though I hear tell the people at Tesla are making a lithium that will change all that.
I used to work with 480 and it made me a little uncomfortable. I worked alot of live lines in my life, but always shut down the 480.
first, volts isn't even what you look at, its just common to say volts, but volts is just the flow of electricity. it IS possible to have high volts with absolutely NO watts or amps running through it. it is the amps that are whats rated when dealing with death and under. however, to RUN a 1000v panel your looking at medium voltage which uses special wrap wire that has to be hooked up by a pro....I wouldnt touch it even if I was a pro personally.I can't see how any solar panel can generate 1000v, 24v is the highest I've ever seen in a single panel. You can certainly string them in series to create high voltages though. However I have many times seen their max system voltage quoted as being 1000v, but that's of no consequence in the real world and refers to the insulating properties of the various parts of the panel, for example at 1000v+ you can expect to get arching as various components that are normally not conductive break down and conduct. As to how you will achieve this 1000v outside of a testing lab is not clear, but some commercial systems do get to these levels I think, for example a string of 40 24-volt panels will give you 960 volts (all nominal levels, much higher with no load). There are good reasons for using a voltage as high as possible, but there are dangers involved as well.
Most domestic solar systems are 24 or 48 volts, some go up to 96 and conversely some are 12 volts, those with micro inverters have mains AC levels at the panel. If you stick to the lower voltages (12/24) things are very safe although you can get a buzz from 24. At 48 you are starting to get into the area of getting a nice tingle if you touch the wrong thing, at 96 you have to be very careful.
Regardless of the voltage there are some potentially HUGE currents involved, do not drop a spanner across two wires
Any combination of panels and batteries that are matched (IE all 12/24/48/etc) will "work", it just may not be optimal. For example you can have a 100 panels and a single battery, that's very badly mismatched and the battery will be fully charged by about 6AM, but it will work. Likewise you can have 100 batteries and one panel, that may even be a reasonable option in some weird situation, it's hard to imagine where but it will "work".
A simple system can be wired up in minutes, I did one two days ago, 8 panels, 500w, the largest job is physically mounting the panels, but the wiring is very simple. If you just want a simple 1-2 panel system it's (almost) a no brainer, even with no electronics experience.
Nothing practical, and as Krime pointed out it would be a very dangerous thing to work with, very few people have the expertise to work with such high voltages, most of your tools, multimeters etc would blow up or cause an arc.
I used to work with neon signs, and 15,000 volt transformers were pretty common. They had almost no amperage, but needed the voltage to excite the particles in the gas tubes. The single conductor wire had a thick rubber like coating, and you had to take care to run it so it didn't touch anything by using insulator stands and glass tubing. We used to joke that getting hit won't kill you as the amperage is so low, but the reaction from getting hit will get you when you fall out of the bucket or off the roof.
I still hate getting shocked more than just about anything else! I remember walking with a young girl when I was about 14, she reached over and took my hand in hers, and I'm diggin it, thinking she really liked me. Then she reached over with the other hand and grabbed the hot wire on the horse fence and lit me up! So much for young romance.Yeah that sort of HV will cause your muscles to react and that can be fatal if you're on a roof or whatever as you say
Did you guys have those perspex wheel things at school? The teacher would wind it up and the static charge would reach about 20kv IIRC, he would get the entire class to hold hands and the two end guys would grab the thing. We all tried to get in the middle of the string thinking it would hurt less. It doesn't
For that matter I'm guessing that most of us here have been zapped by HT leads on a petrol motor with spark plugs. All good fun but no current, you just bash your head on the bonnet.
It's a modern fridge, with led lights and all, but is really large and has an extra large freezer and thru the door everything. I'll put an amp meter on it and see what it actually pulls, but the label is 10amps. I don't care much about appliances normally, but like to cook a lot so I got a really nice fridge. Now that I want to get it set up with solar I am kind of questioning that! Yeah my math did the same thing. I do think I could do with 4 batteries, but the fifth should make them all last longer from over cycling. I'll check my freezer and see what it pulls and may start with it. I have mostly led lights in the house so it wouldn't be too hard to get them on a circuit as well. The fridge or freezer is what is most important to me though. Yeah, 3500kwh is a lot.
forgive me, but just cuz one is an electrical engineer doesn't mean they know how to wire a dang thing, but im sure you can draw one hell of a blueprint cant you? I could simply pull out my NEC code book where it states volts are the flow if you like, I believe its in section 100 definitions. theres a huge difference between an Engineer and an actual electrician. one of the sites he gave me actually had 1000v panels, which made me laugh a bit too cuz 245w 1000v panels would give a .245 amps which would give you virtually nothing. heres another site just for you though from about a year ago.
