How about a solar car port on a budget?

[RideJocky]

Do the panels have to be cleaned?

How do you keep birds off of them?


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[Crossy]

32 minutes ago, RideJocky said:

Do the panels have to be cleaned?
How do you keep birds off of them?

 

After only a week we have a visible dust layer (carp from the rain), once we get the monitoring system working I'll hose the panels off and see how much difference it makes.

 

The panels get 'kin hot, I saw a pigeon land, for about 10 seconds, before he hot-footed it out of there ????

 

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, RideJocky said:

Do the panels have to be cleaned?

Mine gets dusty, doesn't seem to make a lot of difference.

Wipe with a wet cloth every couple of weeks.

[RideJocky]

are they self-supporting? That is if I support them from the corners only?

Do they typically include a flange you can drill into?


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[BritManToo]

16 minutes ago, RideJocky said:

are they self-supporting? That is if I support them from the corners only?

My one is 2m x 1m, with two holes drilled 80cm apart on the longer sides.

Self supporting, I just put a 1m rail bridging the two sets of holes, and screwed them to that.

[Crossy]

35 minutes ago, RideJocky said:

are they self-supporting? That is if I support them from the corners only?
Do they typically include a flange you can drill into?

 

Have a look at my photos.

 

Ours are supported by two rails about 1m apart (determined by the roof tiles), there's a good solid aluminium profile all around the edge which does have mounting holes but ours are held by top plates and angle brackets at the ends.

 

Not exactly our panels, but you get the idea.

 

 

These are our panels from Global https://www.globalhouse.co.th/product/detail/3071812103381

 

[RideJocky]

 
Have a look at my photos.
 
Ours are supported by two rails about 1m apart (determined by the roof tiles), there's a good solid aluminium profile all around the edge which does have mounting holes but ours are held by top plates and angle brackets at the ends.
 
Not exactly our panels, but you get the idea.
 

 
These are our panels from Global https://www.globalhouse.co.th/product/detail/3071812103381

 

Thanks, the last photo shows front and back, correct?

How do you determine the optimum angle and direction? Thinking about using them to shade our flat-roof building. Should serve a double duty.

[Crossy]

2 minutes ago, RideJocky said:

Thanks, the last photo shows front and back, correct?

How do you determine the optimum angle and direction? Thinking about using them to shade our flat-roof building. Should serve a double duty.

 

 

Yes that's front and back. 

 

https://www.solarpaneltilt.com/ shows how to do optimum angle, point as near due south as practical.

 

Bangkok is about lattitude 13.7^o north so somewhere between Dakar and Caracas.

[Crossy]

New modem has arrived, of course it's too late to set it up tonight, job for Thursday (working late tomorrow).

 

Shipped by DPEX (https://dpex.com/ not an outfit I've used before).

Declared value = US $95

Duty = 0% (described as Data Aquisition)

Handling fee = 214 Baht ????

VAT = 218 Baht

Plus 50 Baht fee to pay on delivery.

 

Total 483 Baht (about US $15 or 16%) to the delivery chap.

[RideJocky]

People with an interest in this thread may have an interest in the “Smart Energy” show at the BITEC in October...

[Crossy]

Well, it worketh.

 

Typically of these things it suffers from under-developed software (still Rev 1.0) and a crumby manual.

 

I've only used the Android app and the browser based interface, there's also an iOS app.

 

On a positive note the help line at the manufacturer KaiDeng Energy http://www.kaidengdg.com/en/index.html is responsive and helpful with very good English even offering live chat although in the end I didn't need it.

 

There's apparently a new version on the way and I've sent them a list of the things I found wanting (they may even take notice of it).

 

The Android app runs reasonably well in the BlueStacks emulator (it works better than the browser version does on a PC) if you need a bigger screen.

 

The main screen looks like this:-

 

 

Note that the time is in China Standard Time (1 hour ahead of Thailand) and can't be changed, one of the things on my list.

 

"Profit" is in Baht, so on Friday we saved 17.6 Baht ????

 

 

 

[bankruatsteve]

Do you have a revised ROI?

[Crossy]

Assuming Friday was an average day then the investment of 25,000 Baht will be saved in 1,420 days = 3.9 years.

 

Quite acceptable.

 

[Crossy]

I am going to move the inverters further under the car port roof, not because of the rain but because the sun is shining directly on them (one shut down on overheat) cardboard sun shades are in place for now.

[RideJocky]

So you input the cost per unit and it calculates the savings?

Does it actually store the data or does it just accumulate? That is to say a year from now will it provide a chart of the daily savings?

Nice project.


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[Crossy]

1 minute ago, RideJocky said:

So you input the cost per unit and it calculates the savings?
Does it actually store the data or does it just accumulate? That is to say a year from now will it provide a chart of the daily savings?

 

Yes and yes, although at present the actual charting options are a bit clunky (British understatement), there's supposed to be an option to download the data as Excel or .csv but I've not located it yet. I'll drop the support chap a mail next week, don't want to hog the guy.

 

[Crossy]

Here is the output of our power monitor for Friday.

 

Minimum consumption from the grid was 74.4 Watts so we didn't quite go into export, things were a bit overcast mind.

 

If anyone is interested in the beast that generated this data the thread is here https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1022293-new-year-project-power-quality-logger/

 

 

[carlyai]

Two nice projects Crossy. I'll be revisiting the threads when I get my aquaponics all set up (can't rush these things).

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[Crossy]

11 hours ago, Crossy said:

I am going to move the inverters further under the car port roof, not because of the rain but because the sun is shining directly on them (one shut down on overheat) cardboard sun shades are in place for now.

 

Well that was interesting.

 

I flipped the inverters so they were horizontal (which is actually the prescribed orientation if under the panels) under the roof, out of direct sunlight and promptly got shutdown on overheat! Not what I was expecting (inverter was too hot to touch).

 

So I now have one in the original vertical orientation and one horizontal we shall see what occurs tomorrow.

 

I will email support next week, whilst we have been a bit overcast I am not seeing the conversion efficiencies advertised (not even close).

 

Plan B

I could locate them vertically with all round ventilation and no direct sun but it would need some extension of the panel wiring (and associated losses).

 

[Naam]

34 minutes ago, Crossy said:

I could locate them vertically with all round ventilation and no direct sun but it would need some extension of the panel wiring (and associated losses).

why not forced cooling with something attached like this?

 

[Crossy]

17 minutes ago, Naam said:

why not forced cooling with something attached like this?

 

They are supposed to be convection cooled, I am trying to avoid using some of my valuable solar to move air.

 

The spec. has ambient -40C to 60C, the beasts are shutting down with 60C as the monitored temperature. 

http://www.kaidengdg.com/en/center31.html

 

Yes, a fan or two is on the list, Plan C ????

 

[Naam]

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

I am trying to avoid using some of my valuable solar to move air.

what about a punkah walla?

[Muhendis]

2 hours ago, Crossy said:

 

They are supposed to be convection cooled, I am trying to avoid using some of my valuable solar to move air.

 

The spec. has ambient -40C to 60C, the beasts are shutting down with 60C as the monitored temperature. 

http://www.kaidengdg.com/en/center31.html

 

Yes, a fan or two is on the list, Plan C ????

 

Those inverters don't appear to have any finned heat sinks. Would it be possible to get some and fit them. If it can be done it would be better than fitting a punkah walla. All moving parts fail sooner or later.

[BritManToo]

3 hours ago, Crossy said:

I will email support next week, whilst we have been a bit overcast I am not seeing the conversion efficiencies advertised (not even close).

My 330W panel has generated 12 units in the past 14 days.

Even in the brightest of mid-day sunshine it only generated 250W.

 

My panel stopped working once, when I first tried it out and had it sitting on a table.

The rear of the frame was blocked by the table and the panel got too hot.

You gotta have the panel ventilated as well as the GTI.

[Muhendis]

4 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

My 330W panel has generated 12 units in the past 14 days.

Even in the brightest of mid-day sunshine it only generated 250W.

How are you measuring the power?

[BritManToo]

3 minutes ago, Muhendis said:

How are you measuring the power?

My Suoer has a built in display, grid volts, current into grid, power into grid, total power generated, total hours generation. It cycles through the 6 readings, and a reset button to zero all the totals.

[chickenslegs]

2 hours ago, Crossy said:

 

They are supposed to be convection cooled, I am trying to avoid using some of my valuable solar to move air.

 

Yes, a fan or two is on the list, Plan C ????

 

Power the fans without using any of your hard-earned solar.

 

Just suggest a new 'keep fit' regime for Mrs Crossy in her spare time ...

 

[Muhendis]

6 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

My Suoer has a built in display, grid volts, current into grid, power into grid, total power generated, total hours generation. It cycles through the 6 readings, and a reset button to zero all the totals.

So you're measuring the output load power rather than the input power from the panels. Is there a way to check efficiency?

[tifino]

not sure @Crossyfrom the photo, as to how much Fall there is to your roof? 

, but I am assuming the Panels are situated  more towards the Higher side? 

 - had that thought arise, due to the amount of recent rains, that the channels may have nearly filled?

-  and thought of just how close is the inundation allowed to be with the Panels? 

[ballpoint]

2 hours ago, Crossy said:

 

They are supposed to be convection cooled, I am trying to avoid using some of my valuable solar to move air.

 

The spec. has ambient -40C to 60C, the beasts are shutting down with 60C as the monitored temperature. 

http://www.kaidengdg.com/en/center31.html

 

Yes, a fan or two is on the list, Plan C ????

 

Install some small panels to shade the inverters, and use them to power the fans: