Archive for April, 2008
DIY Solar Panel (PV) Mount
On April 18, 2008 in Uncategorized
I got a 15w panel, a charge controller, and a pretty nice battery as a christmas gift this year, and now that the snow is gone I decided to put it to use powering the couple of compact fluorescent bulbs that we use throughout our part of the old farm house that we live in.
The first thing I had to decide was how to mount the panel. I didn’t really want to put in a form and pour concrete to do a pole mount just for a 15w panel. I also didn’t want to mount it on ground level as we have dogs, cats, horses, cows, etc, not to mention the amount of snow we get in the wintertime.
With these things in mind I decided to mount it on the house. However I also didn’t want to mount it on the roof as the house we live in is huge, making installation/service a real pain.
Of course, wanting to be able to save money was a big part. I could have gotten on the internet, pulled out a credit card, and bought some fancy several hundred dollar mount.
But this is a 15w panel powering some light bulbs..
So I tore a satellite dish off it’s mount and used that to put my solar panel on.
The satellite dish mount has elevation angles marked in degrees and is easily adjustable. It is not extremely sturdy, but I felt that it would do perfectly for what I need.
I decided to make the mount large enough for two of these 15w panels. I will get another one to bump this up to 30w. I also had another charge controller that will allow easier expansion than the one I got with this, so I have a spare/something for another project.
The good news is that I still have another one of these satellite dish mounts, so I can make another mount to hold another two 15w panels, for 60w total. 60w isn’t a lot, but it should power all the lights that we use in the farm house, with another battery the size of the one I have.
A large part of that though is reduction in use. For us, there is no need to have every light in the house on. Why have a light on in a room you aren’t using? I know there have been studies regarding the energy required to start a bulb vs. energy required to leave a bulb on, but I don’t feel this really applies to us due to infrequency of running around between rooms.
In total this project only took me a few hours from pile-of-junk to mounted panel. The rack for the panels is made of re-bar, some pieces of steel plate, a couple of pieces of pipe, a piece of angle iron, and some bolts.
This could be simplified greatly but I was literally trying to work with what I could find laying around. The pieces of pipe were used to space a cross bar of plate for mounting the panels off of the re-bar, in order to make it the same height as the strangely shaped piece of angle iron I used for the bottom panel mounting point.
Sometimes you really have to scrounge around to find what you need..
Sometimes your workspace is also messy, and your tools too small for the job..
I didn’t have proper stuff for attaching the output wires, so I used some fencing staples and had to leave them loose so as to not chafe the wire. I’ll fix that up later.
Total cost for this was $2.90 for bolts/nuts/washers, and $6 for beer to drink after I got it done. Everything else was laying around.
Theoretically that means most handy folks should be able to eliminate the cost of a mount for most small PV applications. This could be made to mount on a pole or RV pretty easily, and would also be easy to move around if you had more than one location. All you would need is two satellite mounts, then you could switch the panels between the two locations as needed.
This is, of course, assuming that you are on a limited budget like me.
Apologies for not making this more of a “how-to”, but I was trying to get it up before the sun went down. If you have any questions on how to install / mount a solar panel on a small satellite dish mount, drop me a line by email or a comment on this post. I also have higher res versions of the pictures if you would like to see the mounting points better or anything like that.
As always, I appreciate comments, so let me know what you think. I didn’t paint the mount yet because I didn’t want to spend money on paint 
this is low cost high effectiveness stuff here, not made to be pretty.
I should add a disclaimer in here as well. I’m not suggesting that you do any of this as it could harm both you and your personal property. If you do manage to hurt yourself or break stuff, don’t blame me. Not everyone has the aptitude or ability to dangle from a ladder with a big metal frame and solar panel above their head and off to the side.
Solar/Wind Tax Breaks in NY Without “Certified” Installers
On April 10, 2008 in Uncategorized
I was griping before about having to have some “certified” person install systems to get a tax break. Here is something I just ran across in my travels of dsireusa.org:
Solar, Wind & Biomass Energy Systems Exemption
Here are the requirements:
“ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
- Ownership Requirements: None.
- Property Location Requirements: None.
- Property Use Requirements: Property must contain a solar or wind energy system, an arrangement of solar or wind energy equipment designed to provide heating, cooling, hot water, or mechanical, chemical, or electrical energy by the collection of solar or wind energy and its conversion, storage, protection, and distribution. Solar or wind energy equipment qualifying the property for exemption includes collectors, controls, energy storage devices, heat pumps and pumps, heat exchangers, windmills, and other materials, hardware, or equipment necessary to the process by which solar radiation or wind is collected, converted into another form of energy, stored, protected from unnecessary dissipation, and distributed. It does not include pipes, controls, insulation, heat pumps, or other equipment that is part of the normal heating, cooling, or insulation system of a building. It does include insulated glazing or insulation to the extent that such materials exceed the energy efficiency standards required by law.Alternatively, the property must contain a farm waste energy system, an arrangement of farm waste electrical generating equipment necessary to the process of producing, collecting, storing, cleaning, and converting agricultural waste biogas into forms of energy such as thermal, electrical, mechanical or chemical and by which the biogas and converted energy are distributed on-site. It does not include pipes, controls, insulation, or other equipment that are part of the normal heating, cooling or insulation system of a building. Farm waste electric generating equipment includes equipment that generates electrical energy from biogas produced by the anaerobic digestion of agricultural waste, such as livestock manure, farming waste and food processing wastes with a rated capacity of not more than 400 kilowatts that is: 1) manufactured, installed and operated in accordance with applicable government and industry standards, 2) connected to the electric system and operated in conjunction with an electric corporation’s transmission and distribution facilities, 3) operated in compliance with the provisions of Section 66-j of the Public Service Law, 4) fueled at a minimum of 90 percent annually by biogas produced from the anaerobic digestion of agricultural waste such as livestock manure materials, crop residues and food processing wastes, and 5) fueled by biogas generated by anaerobic digestion with at least 75 percent by weight of its feedstock being livestock manure materials annually.
- Certification by State or Local Government: None required.
- Required Construction Start Date or Other Time Requirement: Solar, wind, or farm waste energy system must be (a) in existence or constructed prior to July 1, 1988, or (b) constructed after January 1, 1991 and before January 1, 2011.“
Sounds good to me, especially considering the example calculation they give:
| a. | Total cost of solar energy system: | $10,000 |
| b. | Incremental cost of system: | $4,000 |
| c. | Ratio of incremental cost to total cost [(b) divided by (a)]: | 40% |
| d. | Increase in assessed value of property attributable to addition of solar energy system: |
$6,000 |
| e. | Assessed value exempt due to addition of system [(d) times (c)]: |
$2,400 |
Here is a whole list of alternative energy incentives for New York and Federal incentives. They have a map where you can click on your state to see benefits available to you.
Fighting for space for solar panels?
On April 09, 2008 in Uncategorized
I was wondering when the day would hit that people would be squabbling over space for their solar panels, or at least unshaded space.. Apparently that day has already arrived. Here is some food for thought from independent.co.uk:
“
Thursday, 10 April 2008
Who wins the prize for environmental correctness – the California couple who planted eight redwoods in their Silicon Valley backyard over the past 12 years, or their neighbours, who drive an electric car and boast solar energy-generating panels on their roof?
One thing is certain: the couples will never have a civil conversation with each other again outside of a courtroom. When Mark Vargas installed his 128 solar panels, he realised the shade from the trees was interfering with his ability to heat and light his family home.
So he found an obscure California statute, a 1978 law called the Solar Shade Act, to embolden him to go to his neighbours, Carolynn Bissett and Richard Treanor, and ask them to cut down their trees.
Ms Bissett and Mr Treanor were furious. They turned down Mr Vargas’s offer to pay for the tree removal. In fact, they referred the issue to their lawyers.
Unfortunately for them, they lost and the judge ordered three trees cut down, because they obscured more than 10 per cent of Mr Vargas’s property.
They now have no money to appeal and have reluctantly called in the tree-choppers. Under the 1978 law, they could also have been fined $1,000 per tree per day of the by-now years-long period of violation.
A local state legislator, Joe Simitian, meanwhile, is promoting a bill intended to take the rancour out of such disputes. The bill, which has been introduced in the state senate, would safeguard trees planted before the installation of solar panels from the shadow of the axeman.”
So as neighbors squabble over whether there should be trees or solar panels, I direct the question towards you;
Does it make sense to cut down trees so that some guy’s solar panels aren’t shaded? I haven’t seen the property layout in question, but it seems as though, unless his lot is very tiny, he could simply put the panels where his neighbor’s trees would not shade them, thus negating the need to cut down any trees at all.
Crazy world.
Cheaper Water Heating
On April 09, 2008 in Uncategorized
I ran across some pretty cheap pool heaters:
4′x8′ Enersol solar collector with 15 year warranty $190 from solarcovers.com
FAFCO 2′x20′ solar collector with 10 year warranty $135 from poolproducts.com
Smarthome.com has a similar 2′x20′ collector with 5 year warranty for $130. They say it has a 40,000 BTU rating, and they also offer a 4′x20′ for $250. They have a good online pdf collector installation manual that has some good diagrams and info.
Interestingly enough while browsing through the manual I noticed that you will void the warranty if using mounting hardware other than what the manufacturer provides, so watch out for that all of you people that like to DIY.
I understand that these are intended for heating pools but since the prices on similar items not geared towards pools is quite a bit higher, this might be just the ticket for the DIY’er that doesn’t want to drop $700 for an evacuated tube collector or even build their own collector.
Sometimes time saved is money saved.
Butler Sun Solutions Double-Wall Heat Exchanger
On April 02, 2008 in Uncategorized
Just ran across this really cool double wall heat exchanger from Butler Sun Solutions.
This is not your normal heat exchanger though, it is made to be installed in an existing water heater. Here is the description from their site:
“1. Solar Heat Exchange Wand (Patent Pending)
The Butler Sun Solutions Solar Wand allows readily available, standard hot water tanks to be adapted quickly and easily for solar heating. The Solar Wand is a double walled heat exchanger that fits into any full size, 40 gallon and up, domestic hot water tank. It screws into the outlet port of a standard hot water tank. It provides a new hot water outlet and new solar collector fluid input and output connections. The Solar Wand has about two square feet of heat transfer surface inside the tank. The solar collector fluid, usually a mixture of propylene glycol and water, is isolated from the hot water by two copper walls and the space in between is vented outside of the tank. SRCC OG-300 Certification still pending.
The Solar Wand allows the solar system installer to use the existing hot water tank and a single pump to circulate fluid from the solar collector to the Solar Wand. Hot water tanks with built in heat exchangers are not usually available at water heater retail outlets.
When the hot water tank fails after many years of normal use, a new tank will be installed and the Solar Wand transferred from the old tank to the new tank during installation. Homeowners can install the Solar Wand and solar collectors themselves saving money. Professional installers will save time and effort. “
They also have collectors and will set up complete systems. I have no affiliation with them and this is not a paid endorsement 
Their website does have some good documentation and information so check this out if you have a chance.
It seems a little on the expensive side at $330 for the shorter version and $340 for the longer version, but it is a small family owned domestic business, that seems knowledgeable and also seems to have a decent product.
Please drop me a line if you have any experience with this company, as I’m sure others would like a review (both product and customer service wise)
Sierra College gets grant for solar installation training
On April 02, 2008 in Uncategorized
If SUNY Canton’s 4-year alternative energy degree (or any others offered by other schools) doesn’t float your boat, you might be interested in this:
(From bizjournals.com)
Sierra College has been awarded a $470,000 grant to develop a training program for solar panel installers.
The California Community College Chancellor’s Office provided the grant for the college to create a photovoltaics technician training program. The grant will allow Sierra College to educate future “green collar” workers for solar companies, contractors and local governments.
Through a partnership with the city of Roseville, the city’s corporation yard will serve as a hands-on classroom to train the region’s building inspectors and firefighters in photovoltaic technology. The goal is to streamline and standardize the inspection process and add to area firefighters’ basic skills to improve their ability to respond to fires in houses or businesses using photovoltaic technology.
I find the term “green collar” particularly intriguing, but really appreciate the fact that building inspectors and firefighters are being trained on the technology.
Any thoughts?
