Any solar powered rigs out there? I have an idea for one, check it out!

[1905]

*Living matter not matter.

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[V4Vendettas]

I'm getting paid £0.44 per KWh just for producing the juice even tho I'm using every watt mining i still get paid.

What what whaaaat?!

Yep in the UK its called a feed in traiff but it really should be called  a generation tariff. Ace hey!

So any brits here want one ?

[SolarSilver]

Yep in the UK its called a feed in traiff but it really should be called  a generation tariff. Ace hey!

So any brits here want one ?

In other countries it's called green certificates, for each kWh you generate, the other (non-green) consumers electricity on the grid have to contribute to paying you a fixed fee, and it does not matter if you consume the generated power yourself or if you sell it back to the grid. For example, I'm getting from EUR 450 to EUR 300 per green cert (per 1000 kWh generated). Over subsidised, sure. But with a 20 year contract, profit ;-)

[legolouman]

Well a ratshack solar cell manages about 2.5 volts for 7 bucks, so If you invested about 336$ with those numbers, you could fool your PSU into thinking they are equivalent to an outlet. I actually see that working, if your rig is worth it.

[BombaUcigasa]

Yep in the UK its called a feed in traiff but it really should be called  a generation tariff. Ace hey!

So any brits here want one ?

In other countries it's called green certificates, for each kWh you generate, the other (non-green) consumers electricity on the grid have to contribute to paying you a fixed fee, and it does not matter if you consume the generated power yourself or if you sell it back to the grid. For example, I'm getting from EUR 450 to EUR 300 per green cert (per 1000 kWh generated). Over subsidised, sure. But with a 20 year contract, profit ;-)

Do you have to use contractors to build your installation to get this contract, or can you build it yourself then get it certified somehow? I ask because contractors around these parts charge a 150%-200% premium over the cost of materials, what should be a 5 years return on investment becomes 15 years, so even if you sell the electricity you make off completely it would take 7-10 years to pay off.

[SolarSilver]

Do you have to use contractors to build your installation to get this contract, or can you build it yourself then get it certified somehow? I ask because contractors around these parts charge a 150%-200% premium over the cost of materials, what should be a 5 years return on investment becomes 15 years, so even if you sell the electricity you make off completely it would take 7-10 years to pay off.

You can build it yourself but you'll need to get it certified (and use authorized equipment like the kWh counter). Getting that done means you'll have to run through all sorts of paperwork and you'll need to have some electrictian do the final hookup to the grid. Having it done by a specialized roofing firm is much easier and there is plenty of competition. And by law, they need to offer 10 years of warranty (sometimes extended to 20 or 25) which is worth the premium.

[V4Vendettas]

Hate to say it but the paperwork is shocking. I cant see how you could do it yourself and get the feed in tariffs but if you find a way please let us know. You must use MCS approved moduals and inverters and also be MCS acredited <--- this is epic good luck  or have a MCS acredited dude commision it and take responsiblity for it.

The Green energy certs are a nice little bonus but thats on top of the feed in tariffs we get in the UK. They are not the same thing they are additional and not easy to sell IMO in small quantitys to heavy industry.


Edit : er solarsilver whats stopping me buying up these certs here in the UK and selling them to you? since your subs are prob way better than here in the UK. Maybe the UK ones are not the same because we are not fully Euro ?  Not looked into this tbh.


@ BombaUcigasa  yep 150% sounds a little much. I will be aiming for around £4k per KWp thats around 100% mark up but also what MCS suggests is a fair price. I think you might be fogetting the overheads involved not to mention the labor involved (putting roof hooks in is a right bugger somtimes and involves some meaty powertools while working up on a roof. Which means horribad insurance costs also.
To be honest those roof hooks are the biggest pain in the ass. What we need is a company that makes a wide selection of solar tiles then its a simple refit...ow man how easy would that make my life...hhmmmm

[BombaUcigasa]

@ BombaUcigasa  yep 150% sounds a little much. I will be aiming for around £4k per KWp thats around 100% mark up but also what MCS suggests is a fair price. I think you might be fogetting the overheads involved not to mention the labor involved (putting roof hooks in is a right bugger somtimes and involves some meaty powertools while working up on a roof. Which means horribad insurance costs also.
To be honest those roof hooks are the biggest pain in the ass. What we need is a company that makes a wide selection of solar tiles then its a simple refit...ow man how easy would that make my life...hhmmmm

Not only that, but the queue for applications appears to be filled completely for this year. People usually get solar water heaters because they don't really need lots of electricity (0.14$/kWh).

Now about those costs, I know there is overhead for every Wh installed, but if I do the bill of materials myself, I get around 1$/Wh for panels, and about the same for wiring, mountings, inverters, controllers, etc. I am quite sure the companies that install these would get the same kind of prices, so that would be like £1.5 per Wp. Of course they charge at least £3 per Wp, but also include shipping, mounting, installations, tests, etc.

I will look into my options for both honest and bribe-enhanced applications for these kinds of subventions.

Now, I know that roof-mounting is a space-saving and simple installation layout, but if anyone else is interested, they should look into a tracking platform, especially one-axis horizontal trackers. You can mount the horizontal tracker on a manually controlled equatorial declination platform, such that you can obtain ~100% solar incidence if your declination is less than 1% (you only need to change it every week or so). Also for security and shade issues, you could mount the platform on a pole that reaches above the canopy, giving you 100% sun exposure all day long. And even though polymer panels are resiliant, polycrystaline and monocrystaline panels are more efficient per surface area.

[V4Vendettas]

Trackers are defo the way forward if you have the space.
Over here tho you have to face Planning permission for them. We're are all living ontop of each other, its really crowded so its always going on the roof  
Some really cool methods of tracking out there and one day I hope to have my own farm of them (if i can find some space/money).

To keep the cost down you could always check out some of the new pannels coming outa China ( I wouldnt but then I take the long term view in these things). Perhaps make your own roof hooks or even the tracker if you have a workshop/will etc.

EDIT:

m3 wise yep its Mono>Poly>Thin film/amorphous but check out the newish shiny HIT pannels that  are a Hybrid of sorts cos their are winning hands down atm.
Some liquid cooled ones about too that also act as solar thermal for your hotwater while bringing down the pannel temp which is win win when you look at the temp co efficancys on the pannel datasheets for mono and poly cells.


Soz bout spelling etc im dyslexic and too much effort to..

[superfastkyle]

I believe the 70-100w is the amount of heat a person produces doing nothing. Not how much work they can do. A professional cyclist can produce almost 2000w/hr. I would like to think I can make at least a quarter of that, lol

[/quote]

Just for math an average man can produce 70-100W, but the idea of the gym is fun
[/quote]

[SolarSilver]

The Green energy certs are a nice little bonus but thats on top of the feed in tariffs we get in the UK. They are not the same thing they are additional and not easy to sell IMO in small quantitys to heavy industry.

Edit : er solarsilver whats stopping me buying up these certs here in the UK and selling them to you? since your subs are prob way better than here in the UK. Maybe the UK ones are not the same because we are not fully Euro ?  Not looked into this tbh.

@ BombaUcigasa  yep 150% sounds a little much. I will be aiming for around £4k per KWp thats around 100% mark up but also what MCS suggests is a fair price. I think you might be fogetting the overheads involved not to mention the labor involved (putting roof hooks in is a right bugger somtimes and involves some meaty powertools while working up on a roof. Which means horribad insurance costs also.
To be honest those roof hooks are the biggest pain in the ass. What we need is a company that makes a wide selection of solar tiles then its a simple refit...ow man how easy would that make my life...hhmmmm

First of all, in some countries, small producers don't get any feed tariffs. Anything you put back onto the grid, and you don't consume later, you don't get paid for it. We only get green certs (but they are rewarding ;-) In France for example you can only sell your electricity to EDF which offers a low price. Netherlands is not very good either. Belgium and Germany are the opposite with green certs. Just take a cross country drive and spot the difference on the roofs.

As for the green certs, they are local as they are paid for by the other local (non-green) consumers. I don't think you can trade them outside of your region, at least not like things are setup here. It's not like you get a printed paper you can trade on to another party, you just fill in your meter value on a website (after registration and accreditation) and they wire you the money.

As for costs, most house insurance covers the pannels for free against storm damage (if they are fixed to the building, they are covered, just like your ceramic electric stove is covered against glass damage but your plasma TV is not). The going rate (without 6% VAT) for a large installation (say 10kWp) is EUR 0.28 per watt, so about EUR 30k everything in. You can get a loan @ 1.7% to pay for it. Pays itself back in 5 or 6 years, green certs for 20 years, warranty on the installation for about 20 or 30 years (80% capacity guaranteed). Oh and free electricity for that entire period, enough to run plenty of computer equipment

[SolarSilver]

Trackers are defo the way forward if you have the space.
Over here tho you have to face Planning permission for them. We're are all living ontop of each other, its really crowded so its always going on the roof  
Some really cool methods of tracking out there and one day I hope to have my own farm of them (if i can find some space/money).

To keep the cost down you could always check out some of the new pannels coming outa China ( I wouldnt but then I take the long term view in these things). Perhaps make your own roof hooks or even the tracker if you have a workshop/will etc.

In regions where there is over subsidising, trackers are not worth it:

0. you need planning permission,
1. they are more expensive,
2. they are complicated equipment, bound to suffer long term wind damage and need maintenance.

If you have enough room, just plunk down more panels. I have North-West facing pannels that give 30% less return but because we have room and we get free loans to pay for it, we just put double the amount of panels.

In Germany it's not uncommon to see buildings with panels on all orientations (not just south, also north).

As for the quality of panels, I've only bought European produced panels (not just assembled, but also produced here) because of the environmental concerns (it's really polluting to produce them) and the company should be able to guarantee me 20 or 30 years of use. Unless they go broke of course but good luck in getting that from a Chinese factory. Purchase price is not everything...

[Dinoking]

I live in Ohio where there's not to many solar bonuses. Was thinking a small solar array would still be good for emergency backup or just charging a laptops battery directly.

I do have a google chrome laptop that I got for free. So if the power ever goes out charge it and use the free   
100MB a month(yeas 100 MB ) satellite internet that that gives.

[indicasteve]

Teenage inventor, Peter Ash, has designed a way to put his pet hamster to good use - by attaching his hamster's wheel to a generator he is able to charge his cell phone off the grid.

    "I thought the wheel could be made to do something useful so I connected a system of gears and a turbine," he said. "Every two minutes Elvis spends on his wheel gives me about thirty minutes talk time on my phone."

His pet hamster, Elvis, does the legwork while Peter charges his phone in an economically and environmentally friendly way. Peter came up with the idea after his sister Sarah complained that Elvis was keeping her awake at night by playing for hours on his exercise wheel.


This is great idea and seems like a doable DIY - if it can work for a cell phone, it could also be used to power other small electronics such as an iPOD, lights, cameras, etc.


Unfortunately, Peter’s teacher didn’t appreciate the ingenuity of his project and he was only given a C grade for his project.

Source: http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/pets/green-power-use-the-hamster-wheel-062855

[lettuchi]

What if you hooked up the original idea to an uninterrupted battery backup? It's not totally off grid, though.

I'm in LIPA's jurisdiction, and in a condo, and I'm playing around with the idea of getting a little windmill to supplement my power usage.

[1905]

Peters teacher should be shot.

[Uhlbelk]

Not if he found the instructions on the internet. If he came up with a unique design using old step motors from printers or something, rock on!
I've been trying to figure out a way to get a battery array to charge from an array of potatoes and a joule thief.
Being from Ohio does not make sunlight a year round practical solution. And unfortunately steam and other outdoor fire burners don't produce enough to be cost effective.
Nothing I have checked out allows for anything shorter then a 3 or 4 year ROI.

Peters teacher should be shot.

[Dinoking]

Ya the whole getting a C for making a hamster charger is a little low. I used to make models of the solar system and get A's lol. Also tried to make a laser and test what would resist it best which didnt work quite as well 

[lettuchi]

Ya the whole getting a C for making a hamster charger is a little low. I used to make models of the solar system and get A's lol. Also tried to make a laser and test what would resist it best which didnt work quite as well 

And where did you get the ruby for the laser?

[us11csalyer]

My uncle has a homemade wind turbine on his farm. It puts out about 3.5Kw/h. (His assumptions) The best part is he built it for a few thousand dollars. I'd love to have "green" energy to mine with.