In pursuit of a little more self-sufficiency, Sumac supporters installed at set of solar panels on the front of the building. A south facing wall that seems to get sunlight for most of the day.
They have already seen some service, and being of much older stock, it would be a shame to see such tech thrown away. So they have been polished up a bit and recyled in use.
The object is to provide sufficient power to recharge 12V batteries. Because of their age, there are a number of surface blemishes and thus, they are unlikely to reach their full potential voltage. To begin with, power can just be taken from the setup, 'neat'.
Eventually, they hope to include a control box in the wiring, to act as a cutout on the battery becoming fully charged. Also, being wired together in parallel, current will continue to flow, even if one of the panels should fail.
Now, I can see this is a pretty 'low-tech' project, but being so promenantly placed, an objective is to inspire visitors to the centre to give some thought on how they might do something similar themselves ..... to consider a variety of solutions.
Every little helps ...... !
Photovoltaic module - wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photovoltaic_module http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell ow do Solar Panels Work?
http://www.wisegeek.com/how-do-solar-panels-work.htm ____________________________________________
ALAN LODGE
Photographer - Media: One Eye on the Road. Nottingham. UK
Email:
tash@indymedia.org Collected Web:
http://tinyurl.com/ynttvo Member of the National Union of Journalists [No: 014345]
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"It is not enough to curse the darkness.
It is also necessary to light a lamp!!"
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wicked !
01.11.2007 08:19
john
Optimising output
01.11.2007 11:13
I am not sure if this is the best place for a technical question but perhaps the answer can be helpful to other readers.
I had understood, and found in practuce that to get the best, and in low light levels any useable, output from solar panels they should be oriented so that the sun's rays hoit them at 90 degrees. Of course the sun moves thoughout the day so to achieive this we'd need the panels to move, which is not practical/cost effective. As a compromise we find a best average angke for them and a rulw of thumb is to mount them at an angle equivalent to the latitude of the location. Nottingham is at 52 degrees.
So, does anybody know how much more efficient they would be if mounted at an angle as opposed to vertical?
Dean
A guess at an answer
01.11.2007 13:08
So it's getting 60% of the light. I understand that as well as output being proportional to intensity so is efficiency which would imply they'll perform even worse!
I've read about people using satelite disc mounts and their associated motors to track the sun.
Tom D
e-mail:
dexterdixon@gmail.com
Homepage:
http://v3power.org
solar panles at angles
09.11.2007 19:51
chan