Solar panels

[windshock]

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up ko ani nah thread...hmmm mahal sad jud diay ang mga solar panels nuh..nindot unta gamiton ni sila for personal use bah....

yup mahal2x jud bro, investment npd ni if mka acquire tah labi na cge brownout ron.

[tonioyantao]

guys i have a question hoping you can enlighten me on this.

we have a resthouse in davao. its located in between the border of davao city and bukidnon.
no power.
question is. we usually go there maybe once or twice a week to unwind.
and were planning to invest a little on a solar power set.
will it be ok to buy 3 100watt solar panel and just upgrade the controller, inverter and add more batteries to increase my stored power?
since we don't stay there everyday. is it possible to stock on more deep cycle batteries the panels will just charge it right?
and by upgrading a higher watt controller and inverter we can probably power say a 1 hp water pump for 2 hours while having enough power to run some lights and little electronics without worrying that we will ran out of juice the next day?

is it possible?
thanks in advance!

[volker]

Hi Ton,
Actually you just need more batteries as the solar controller size depends on the panels but not so much on the consumers. So, buying just a few panels is ok in your case. Inverter size also just depends on your maximum consumption at once, not really on amount of panels or batteries. It should be kept as small as possible, as small consumers have otherwise large losses.
A perfect solar system doesn't use inverters at all, due to it's conversion loss, but runs everything on 12(or 24)Volts. For lights, laptop and most electronics with external power transformers (cellphone etc), or car lighter adapters that's doable.
The 1hp water pump is anyway a killer, normally pumps need to be special solar-capable (yep, that will be very expensive), meaning they don't need a peak surge to get started - a benefit would be that they also run on 12V then. Possibly you could use a smaller pump that fills a tank over days. The tank acting as your battery
Better look (google) into Ram-pump, Rainwater usage and sand filtering, low cost Ferro-cement tanks (2,5m³ cheaper than a solar battery), American Windmill and reinspire the idea
Do you have a solar-shop in Davao? Address? We have one in Malaybalay, btw, but Cebu is mostly cheaper.
Greetings from Bukidnon,
Volker

[vipvip68]

Question lang... how long do the batteries last until they need replacement?

3 years?

Ako lang gi calculate.. murag mahal pa man kaayo mag solar... initial investment is pretty high unya you need to keep replacing batteries every few years... i don't know when ang break even point ani.

[sanlinux]

Naa to na contact nako ani saona nga namaligya ug Solar Panels dri...pero ang blema ky nawala akong contact number...Barato ra to iya baligya...

[volker]

@vip: Yes, 3 years is realistic, although I am not sure if they can be reconditioned at a good price. If there was a break-even point for a solar system, then EVERYone would be using one and we can stop building new power plants...
In other countries (think Japan, Germany or such) there are break-even Solar systems, that can amortize after 10 years, but this is due to two reasons:
1. Solar power is not stored in batteries, but inverted and sold to the local power company. Technically not yet an option in the Phils, although I do remember that somewhere they were experimenting on it.
2. Buying of a solarsystem, or selling solar power is subsidized by the government, so it can reduce CO2 emissions.

In ton's case where he is at a remote location, solar power can immediately amortize if it saves you from building a power line to connect your house to a grid. Also a generator is quite costly, if you install it properly with noise protection and such.
With solar you are always safe from future energy price increases.

[tonioyantao]

Hi Ton,
Actually you just need more batteries as the solar controller size depends on the panels but not so much on the consumers. So, buying just a few panels is ok in your case. Inverter size also just depends on your maximum consumption at once, not really on amount of panels or batteries. It should be kept as small as possible, as small consumers have otherwise large losses.
A perfect solar system doesn't use inverters at all, due to it's conversion loss, but runs everything on 12(or 24)Volts. For lights, laptop and most electronics with external power transformers (cellphone etc), or car lighter adapters that's doable.
The 1hp water pump is anyway a killer, normally pumps need to be special solar-capable (yep, that will be very expensive), meaning they don't need a peak surge to get started - a benefit would be that they also run on 12V then. Possibly you could use a smaller pump that fills a tank over days. The tank acting as your battery
Better look (google) into Ram-pump, Rainwater usage and sand filtering, low cost Ferro-cement tanks (2,5m³ cheaper than a solar battery), American Windmill and reinspire the idea
Do you have a solar-shop in Davao? Address? We have one in Malaybalay, btw, but Cebu is mostly cheaper.
Greetings from Bukidnon,
Volker

thanks volker your such a big help!.
actually im living in cebu but go home to davao as much as i can. my family stays at the resthouse fairly regularly. say once or twice a week.
yes sophilcor are the cheapest still. i havnt had a chance to visit them here in cebu. but looking at there home solar sets i reckon i can get away with the 80k set up or lower and just buy more deep cycle batteries to compensate our power needs. im also contemplating on making the house a bit of a hybrid. since we have a 5kwa generator maybe i can use it to run the water pump and as a back up and the rest would be solar.

i really hate running the generator because it too noisy and takes up a lot of fuel per hour we only use it on welding during the construction of the resthouse.


another concern a battery only last 3 years? even d deep cycle ones?

[volker]

It depends very much how often and to what extent you use a deep cycle battery. Or if you have accidents like overcharging or running them completely empty.
In your situation of weekend use it might be up to 8 years, but some records are near 20 years I believe. I am using the motolite 'Solar Master', due to the popular brand maybe you could even order it through your local car part supplier.

[solarstar]

solar star location please!!!!!!!

Solar Star Marketing
97 F. Ramos Street
Cebu City, Cebu
Philippines 6000

Contact Person: Corazon Janet Canga
Contact No.: +63 9192099301

Solar Star - Best* Solar Power in Philippines
sophilco@gmail.com

[tophat]

@volker: so u r in malaybalay. do u have info on the large solar installation at cepalco in cdo? i heard it is in the megawatt range.