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I need a turntable as well. Being an optimiser things are bad enough when positioning on a pitch to compute and weigh slope, sun, door opening, wind, view, satellite access and neighbours' orientation.
If I also have to fold-in solar output current with an elevated dish pointing the wrong way my brain will explode!
Dave
Hmm . . just what we were discussing at the Global rally, I'm more of a grass roots KISS bloke myself but I've a couple of ideas floating around in my mind for both the 'turntable' and the mechanical/electrical means of raising & lowering + revolving the unit through approx 270 odd degree's . .
Apart from wanting a unit that will work 100% my foremost concern is to keep the TOTAL cost down to the bare minimum [ie under £50odd quid] - [obviously excluding the panel itself] . . .
(a) I need a [working] 12volt drill or screwdriver [with or without battery] - anyone got one they no longer want?
Ordinary bicycle wheel hub & bearings [got one 'somewhere in the back of the shed]; some aluminium angle iron & a solid base plate around 16/18" square
- I'll check out [B&Q tomorrow] - Lastly [but most important I need suggestions for fixing it to the roof [unit in total will be approx 18" square base . . I don't [at this stage] want to drill holes in the roof so would 'Stikafix' type adhesive be strong enought to anchor it down ?
______________________________________________________________ Quisque competit mea sententiam
(I typed this but can´t remember what it means - that´ll teach me to be a Smarta*se)
I had a good chat at NEC yesterday with the techie owner of www.sunstore.co.uk and conclude that if anyone wants to do something along the lines of what we have been discussing in this thread they could do worse than give him a bell!
For solar, and for my own use, I would go one of two ways:
1) Have a large flat screen satellite antenna back-to-back with an 85W solar panel, nicely integrated and engineered, and both self-seeking. This is less a DIY solution but is something that could justify a marketable price. I've told MD Andy at Roadpro and they are on the case.
2) An 85W solar panel, on a turntable, with friction adjustment for manual fixed elevation. A controller and motor controls azimuth, sensing maximum light intensity. You need to have manual access to the edge of the panel, perhaps reaching through the Heki (that's how I clean the panel on my van). This mounting and controller is available from sunstore, but not as a "marketable" integrated product. Basically it all makes physics and engineering sense, but the market/price for a polished product isn't right.
The key point is that both solutions will make solar work for you throughout the year. Of course, if you are suffering a typical fortnight in the Scottish highlands, one area of dark grey cloud is as effective as pointing anywhere else in the sky, so forget it
I have at last got round to looking at this Solar Panel mount idea which I promulgated in my OP
Thanks again for all your contributions.
Many of you put your minds to an automatic system made up from various suggested components and you seem to have had fun thinking about the solutions, but that is all way beyond my capabilities.
Going back to the original idea of a manual rotation and elevation system I first started to evaluate the data posted by Frank, comparing a horizontal system with one at a fixed angle of 15 degrees (plus latitude) elevation
That comparison shows little benefit, but I was envisaging using the flexible elevation to suit the daily variation in one's pitch location and the daily elevation of the sun. Frank, in his notes to the table does agree that adjusting in this way would improve the results for an adjustable panel. Frank was constrained, in his professional consideration of Solar panels, by the need to have a fixed elevation
Various commercial products were suggested:-
Clive 1821 pointed to 'SunTracer'. This looked interesting until I got to the part of the Spec which stated that max wind speed was 130 km/hr !!! Where did they test that? And if it were correct I am sure that trying to rotate a solar panel in that wind would exceed the stated max torque for their motor. So I became sceptical about their whole spec. and product claims.
Gerald and others pointed to simpler manual elevation systems, but on none of them could I find any locking system, although I suppose a few drilled holes and split-pins could solve that problem.
However, one is still left with the rotational problem and how to mount it on a sufficiently robust base with an appropriate fixing to the MH roof.
Several of you have concluded that an increase in the area of horizontal panels is the solution and that may be my solution, but as yet have not entirely given up on the manual elevation/rotation.
As I suggested 3 posts above, you could do worse than contact sunstore. They have (but don't market) friction elevation and azimuth turntables. If you want to automate azimuth, they can supply the controller/sensor that does that too.
I've got 4 x 120 watt bp solars mounted side by side making 480 watt array. they're mounted on brackets welded on to a piece of pipe that looks like scaffold but thinner walled. pipe runs down center of long axis of array with panels on across it. This sits in landy roofrack and I've made a baby crane with a little block and tackle that lets me lift array of roof and swing it round. when partly lowered to ground I slide a 2 foot extension in one end of the pipe and have 2 legs made out of 2x2 timber slightly longer than the pipe which slide in under the array and stops it rocking when its on the roof rack. when its partly lowered these fit into the other end of the pipe. one leg has a piece of pipe about 10 inches long mounted at 90 deg on the end of it the other a collar made out of the same pipe as the central mounting pipe which slips over the 10 inch tube......when assembled this gives me a tripod with 4 panels mounted cross wise on the long leg. ..point the long leg south.. adjust the spacing between the wooden sheer legs to adjust inclination...hammer in pegs about foot long 3/8ths wide through holes in end of all legs.. hammer in 2 pegs about 20 inches long directly below apex of legs so that they cross at 90 deg and about 2 inches still protrude from ground.. tie clove hitch around these pegs with a loop spliced in the short end take long end up over apex and back down through loop, pull tight and tie of....the panels will rotate at the join to the extension in first tube and the join to the wooden legs... allows tracking dawn to dusk and elevation...this setup has vibrated a bit in gales when other arrays on site have bent. extremely stable ..have guy ropes from top outer edges of top panel to ground anchor to secure rotation for windy conditions.Poor photo of this array pointing away from camera can be seen on sams sauna facebook page (others photos) not the set mounted on the espresso machine that set is not stable in winds. mark
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