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Ty Gwyn
Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4613
Location: Lampeter
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 Posted: Mon Aug 17, 15 9:43 pm Post subject: Wind v Solar |
 
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Thought this might interest a few of you with knowledge of generating ones own electricity,
Recently we have been doing some testing as our roofing division supplies and installs solar panels, our market isn't the domestic market but the industrial market where the companies know the real facts which are that they will pay out more to have the solar panels then they will make in savings and are prepared to offset this loss against tax and by claiming the subsidies, they want them more as a part of their corporate environmental policy.
I do a lot of off roading and have built my own expedition vehicle using all my engineering experience and it was built to a high specification to meet our requirements rather than down to a price and it was all home built with its super insulated Kevlar double skinned body, enough water, fuel, gas, and food capacity for 4 weeks totally off grid and more importantly its two massive battery banks with a capacity of 3750 amps each and they were free, yes free courtesy of our nuclear submarines and still under warranty.
One day when I was in the office all day I went to work in it to give it a run and circulate the fluids and one of our directors saw it and asked how I powered it and I showed him the twin 320 amp engine alternators and he said no, I thought you didn't run the engine when you stopped, so I showed him the two portable wind turbines I use; one is a 12 volt X 1500 watt portable unit which fits to the back of the vehicle and is assembled and erected in around 2 minutes and fixes into dedicated clamps while the second unit has clamps at the front of the vehicle and a base and guy ropes so it can be attached to the vehicle or used as a free standing unit and when he saw the output they provided compared to a solar panel he became interested in them.
During July and August (not finished yet) we have been doing some testing and this is like for like to compare solar panels and wind turbines in a side by side test; the reason being that due to the downturn in the economy we are fitting fewer solar panels as companies know they will never recoup their costs (initial investment) and aren't having them installed and he is looking for an alternative but he originally dismissed my idea of small wind turbines as they were not in the peoples minds due to the heavy promotion of the solar industry and its inefficient solar panels.
To conduct fair and accurate tests we installed a solar system of a specified wattage on the test rig in the middle of a field and an equal sized wind turbine about 5 metres apart so they were run under the exact same conditions, and we managed to get some of the latest development solar panels which are currently state of the art and are so new that they won't even be on sale for about 12-18 months and will be very expensive. Testing was done over a full 24 hour period on three separate occasions for each test to give an accurate reflection of performance under normal UK conditions, albeit summer conditions. While we have tested numerous outputs of both solar and wind systems the results were remarkably similar across them all so instead of putting up lots of technical data I will give the results of the 300 watt systems. WE decided that in terms of efficiency we would use them at 12 volts as this is the most efficient use of both systems as opposed to mains voltages.
300 W at 12 volts = a maximum output amperage of 25 amps and over the three 24 hour periods of testing the solar panel tested averaged 1.21 amps per hour and even during optimum conditions it couldn't hit 15 amps output for above 1 minute and only hit above 10 amps for about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, the wind turbine despite being a portable, compact item averaged 11.74 amps per hour over the same three 24 hour periods and regularly ran above 20 amps for sustained periods of over 15 minutes and hit its peak 25 amp output on several occasions which makes it viable for charging 12 volt batteries or charging other sizes of battery packs such as 24 or 48 volt systems as it delivers plenty of power to charge sufficiently large battery packs for inverter use.
Now we can look at costs, the solar panel is not currently on sale and will cost �1000's when it goes on sale and in our testing it provided 29.04 amps total average output; compare this with the portable wind turbine which was a 14" (350mm) diameter unit and cost a massive �140 including charge controller which delivered an impressive average of 281.76 amps over the same 24 hour testing periods.
From a cost perspective it stacks up as we used an average wind turbine unit anyone can buy and set up themselves, at 14" diameter (this is the blades) it isn't obtrusive, it can be mounted on a shed, barn, or garage roof as a permanent fixture, it makes no noise in operation unlike the large units dotted (blighting) the countryside, and it can be run with a variety of battery pack voltages. It provides sufficiently high outputs to charge massive battery packs and in industrial use it can power anything which can run off 12 or industry standard 24 volt systems which are generally used around European factories, you can incorporate 12 volt LED lighting or even run most laptop or base station computers directly from 12 volt.
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Read more: https://coalmine.proboards.com/thread/1455/solar-wind#ixzz3izORq42j |
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Mistress Rose
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Pilsbury
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vegplot
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Hairyloon
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vegplot
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Ty Gwyn
Joined: 22 Sep 2010
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Location: Lampeter
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vegplot
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RichardW
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Ty Gwyn
Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4613
Location: Lampeter
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vegplot
Joined: 19 Apr 2007
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Location: Bethesda, Gwynedd
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Ty Gwyn
Joined: 22 Sep 2010
Posts: 4613
Location: Lampeter
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| Posted: Tue Aug 18, 15 10:08 pm Post subject: |
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Considering he has converted his house/smallholding to be completely off grid,doing the work himself,
Considering he work`s for the solar company that has dealing`s with the supplier of these new panel`s,he`s hardly going to post the details before they come on the market,
I guess the guy know`s something about what he does,
Considering he posted this on a Mining forum,frequented by electricians,he must also be brave or daft,lol.
If you disagree with his calculations,you could always log into that forum and debate the issue`s with him. |
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RichardW
Joined: 24 Aug 2006
Posts: 8443
Location: Llyn Peninsular North Wales
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