<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by jwax: That's a deal, sundancer87!
Our insolation is about half of yours, so I guess my goal is to build an array that gets the same output/sq ft as yours! AND affordable.
Are your arrays tracking, or fixed? Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the dollars spent be better put into a larger fixed installation, than a smaller, movable one?
Also, do you "sell back" any power to the grid, or are you not part of "the grid"?
Shine on!
John<hr></blockquote><p>Hey John,
There is isn't any grid power here on the beach. The closest electricity is in the next fishing village about four miles away. Since the country owns the electrical utility it doesn't have any compitition to make it want to serve everyone. The price to bring electricity into my house would cost 1500 bucks per mile. My system has paid for itself and it doesn't have spikes, brownouts or blackouts.<p>When I first set the system up the 8 Hoxans were on a tracker. The tracker worked great, was a simple operation but it wasn't cheap. The more expensive one made from stainless material was over my budget so I went with the powered coated, mild steele version. I was able to keep it rust free and operational for about ten years. After that time I had to throw in the towel. I couldn't keep it operational anymore. It cost me 80 bucks in R-12 refrigerant to recharge the system each time. I finally mounted the on the patio cover.<p>I expericenced a small loss in gain because I coulnd't track the sun anymore. That was when I decided to add the other four modules. I have a two module array on each end of the patio. The eight module array is facing due south, the two module arrays are facing east and west. I've reclaimed what I lost with the tracker and even gained a little more production throughout the day. They've survived through the last two hurricanes so I expect they will be one the patio roof until the patio roof isn't there.<p>Too bad we can't post pics here or I shoot you a pic of my battery box and control center.
sundancer87- There's a few ideas on posting pictures under the thread "What's everybody working on".
Or, e-mail them to me, and I'll post them if you like.
John
Try a dime store thermal resistor. The hotter it gets, the more the resistance increases. <p>This is tied into a resistor divider network, [one resistor, one thermistor] which is center tapped and this controls the base of a transistor or the gate of a Fet to be more on, as it get hotter.
<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Chris Smith: Try a dime store thermal resistor. The hotter it gets, the more the resistance increases. <p>This is tied into a resistor divider network, [one resistor, one thermistor] which is center tapped and this controls the base of a transistor or the gate of a Fet to be more on, as it get hotter.<hr></blockquote>
Another idea that I can try while I'm waiting to get my parts.
Thanks
Thanks to Engineer 1138 for the simple and effective circuit to control fan speed.<p>It has been completed, installed and tested. There was a minor alteration and the addition of an LED to finish off the project.<p>It works just the way I wanted so it's a good design.
