Projects With Everyday Dave
Projects With Everyday Dave
I'm a Mechanical Engineer by trade, but I love DIY projects especially DIY solar projects. My family and I built our own energy efficient ICF home. In the process I got hooked on solar production, and now I'm constantly expanding my DIY home solar system and testing new solar technology. Sharing my experiences with you give me the opportunity to explore all kinds of new and interesting things. Thanks for watching!
Пікірлер
I wonder how well these vertical panels would perform if you placed mirrors on either side facing the panels at a 45 degree angle. That should completely eliminate the mid-day dip in power.
Great video!
Very good!
Does the smart shunt lose historical data when removed from power?
Install these panels with the bifacial back to back with each other and see what you get. In other words stacking the panels together.
Thank you for this video. I'm one that debates whether or not to have a 12, 24 or 48 volt system for an inverter system to power my ac system in the radio shack. My radios use 12 volts. I may just use two different systems, a 12 volt for the radios and a 24 or 48v system for the ac system. From my limited understanding, you can take 12 volt from a 24 or 48 volt system if you wire correctly.
buy a few rolls of 48" reflectix and mount it at an angle to the backside of the south facing panels, to reflect sun to backside, like a mirror..
I didn’t know Liam Neeson did solar reviews, good job!
Glad to see some vertical testing. But I think you missed the greatest opportunity. Vertical building mounted panels. I’m up north in Maine and will be getting 8kw of solar for my roof soon. But my south facing wall can hold an additional 4kw of solar. For winter sun, this might be the perfect combo.
Question 🙋♂️ what happened after you payed all this money on an EMP protected device and a EMP hit. Your stuff is damaged because it didn’t work. Who are you going to call to complain 🤔
If that is a concern for you, there are other lower-cost brands that don't include a warranty you may want to consider such as this one: amzn.to/3Psk9h6
@@ProjectsWithDave A Warranty? Listen to what you just said. A warranty on something that’s supposed to work when an EMP hits. Omg🤦♂️ who are you calling for your warranty after an EMP attack? Wow! Just wow! You really think they will be open for business after an EMP to answer your calls. OMG 🤦♂️ You better not be holding your breath.
I do not remember in your videos about a tracking system. i know there are some more affordable version now on the market. It would be nice to see bifacial on a tracing rig vs normal ones. i've seen: "Dual Axis Solar Tracker " from eco-worthy it seems acceptable in price (they claim 40%more energy in a day)
I've seen that tracker. I have not tested it at this time.
Another idea would be -- swiveling panels. The same mounting (vertical - east/west) but with middle swiveling so the panels can be twisted from the middle. This would be a very easy thing to install and i think it would get much better results than full vertical or south facing?
They would shade each other when they are rotated.
YOU NEEED to make another experiment. Vertical rotating panels. Nice conclusions. The vertical version is much easier to rotate then the tilted version. At least the version you made can be easily transformed into a rotating version. I think a rotating vertical would outperform the south facing by far. This would mean we could install vertical rotating for winter and maybe gain as much as tilted in summer?...am i too excited about this? PLEEEEASE test this:))
Unless you rotate the entire row at once they would shade each other.
@@ProjectsWithDave Myea they would in the evening. So what remains is east west tracking. All at once.
I am thinking about doing a very similar project although I am using warehouse shelving any thoughts on that
Make sure you have it secured to the ground. Panels create a very large wind sail.
If you have an adequate number of solar panels on your home and you primarily charge at home, can this offset the cost of charging completely?
Yes, but you have to consider time of use. If you have monthly net metering, and no time of use charges, you could easily do that. If not, you would need a very large battery that would probably negate the value of the whole activity.
0606’24/1901h 🇺🇸 Roof assembly of PV panels looks neat and tidy. Thank you. Terminating cables could use ferrules thus avoiding Copper strands spreading and or injuring (breaking off) from the contact. Use of synthetic grease at all joints highly advised, avoiding future formation of Cu sulfation at the outdoor moisture areas.
Thanks, I have started using ferrules on all my connections. They do greatly improve the connection integrity.
SERIOUSLY???? You are going to make me watch a 5 minute ad before I watch your video? That is some bullshit.
Of course not, I take the time to include chapter headings that allow you to skip to the part that is most useful for you.
I have a bicycle I can ride for basically free, does that mean the bicycle is a better transport than my ICE car? You see, things have applications. Try collecting a few cases of hand towels on a bicycle when its raining and you need to travel 20 miles with them. A combination of convenience and costs are decider points not just each on its own.
The convenience part is more difficult to add to a spreadsheet. You'll have to factor that in separately.
with bifacial ground mounted panels would you see a big improvement if you added some sort of reflection outside of the panels shadow that can illuminate the backs of the panels more?
Yes, you do see some improvement. I just ran a test with large reflectors. Video coming soon....
I recently purchased this power station. Because I get limited sun, I would like to be able to charge the battery using a gas generator. One of my generators (listed below) only puts out 1000w, 400w short of the 1400w AC in port on the power station. Would it still work, but input at a slower rate?? Or, not work at all? 🤔 1000w invertor gas generator - (1500 surge)
I don't remember at the moment if that unit has a slow charge setting. If it doesn't, it will attempt to pull the entire load and likely stall the generator. It's very close, you would have to try it to see. If your generator puts out 110V instead of 120V it might work. Also, if the battery is mostly charged it will pull less power.
@@ProjectsWithDave The power station is a Pecron E1500 LFP. I contacted Pecron and they replied that, if your generator is REGULATED...it would charge the battery OK. (I would think that all generators would be "regulated" to prevent them from blasting off to the moon, but I don't know...so I have also contacted the manufacturer of the generator. Not heard back yet. The generator is 120v. There is no slow charge setting on the power station that I see.
What a excellent job Dave 👏
16:07 - the 20% unused or left over or "efficiency" that you mentioned is most probably not the inverters efficiency but the battery DOD or battery shutdown threshold setting in the inverter. Check the battery protection setting of the inverter, it may give some enlightenment.
Thank you, Dave. Wish our battery can help Judah go far. ☺🥳
He has been using it for a while now and I hear he is very pleased with the performance. Thanks!
Love this
In laymen’s terms your information is useless. You talk over what most people can retain at the speed you are talking. The only thing I got was that you got a free solar generator. Oorah!
Sorry, I'm allows trying to be as efficient with your time as possible. You can always go to the KZread settings and reduce the speed of the video.
25:%0 Aren't you literally pointing to "a couple of 120V outlets" on the accessory hub?? Weird/unexpected that //those// would be disabled.
The initial mismatch in voltages that you saw can be caused by a faulty neutral, so check your infrastructure for clues. Classic symptom is the two legs of your panel being +/- 1-3 V AC.
These make sense for ground mounts for two reason. First, wiring becomes easy as ground mounts can be used with string inverters without rapid shutdown(optimizers,micro-inverters). Second, one can add white gravel on the ground to get 20-30% extra power. On a roof mount, neither of these things are possible. Doing the math, ground mounts with string inverters and bifacial panels are the lowest cost/watt option, at least at the time I checked. Pretty much pays for the trenching and racking, a normal disadvantage to ground mounts.
Amazing! 👏 i am now 100% going to do a ground install. Looks fun!
I just talked to this company today and got a quote and the price is ridiculously expensive! I cannot see paying more for the racking than I pay for the solar panels themselves.
Yeah, that's why they don't publish their prices on their website. They want to talk you on the phone and try and convince you why you need their product. If the price isn't display clearly, I walk away. They can keep it.
@@majorhavoc9693 You're right about that. They're hiding something when they don't post the price. Yup, they need to give you their sales pitch. I'm moving to a new development. I'm going to see if I can get the builder to bury some metal posts for me for not too much money while they're building the house and then I can attach some racking to the posts myself after I move in.
Increase in insurance premiums 40% year over year should be added
Perfect explained!
8:20 are you getting some of the other side lit up in your single side tests through the lit up side? (i.e a fully lit up back side would not get the full 149%)
It was completely blocked with cardboard, so I don't think anything significant was getting through.
@@ProjectsWithDave I am thinking from the front to the back not through the cardboard.
How much battey do you have for 25kw I had 57.6kw of lead acid batteries was going well until Igot 2 bad 6V batteries putting out each 4v I am off grid and upgraded t0 a BYD LVS 4 with 12 Kw I have 3.4kw of panels is it big enough for 3 days overcast ? \
There are way too many factors to consider to be able to determine battery size. I need to work on a video for that...
From 6% of battery life, how long did it take for the batteries to be fully charged to 100% And how much power was used to charge them? Thank you!
If the charge rate is 30A, that is about 1.5kWh/hour. The battery capacity is 10kWh. To charge from empty to full: 10kWh/1.5kW= 6.7hours.
New sub to help you out. Great info
a ladder lift is the better way you can even make your own, great job guys
A lift would be nice...
I'd be very interested in temperature readings on each of these through the seasons too
I started logging some temperature data this month.
What rate of electricity are you using? It’s gone up slot in 3 years
Now, integrate mirrors into this idea! You could get rid of much of that mid day dip if the mirrors moved to follow the sun- at least that's what I think would happen. Wouldn't double sided panels cost about twice as much though? Since it has twice as many solar cells I figure you should be comparing 2 regular panels to 1 of these vertical panels. I can see how these are beneficial if you don't have the space but I kinda feel like the graphs are a bit deceiving- compare the amount of cells and their output for a real 1:1 performance test
Bifacial panels don't have twice the cells. They just allow light to hit both sides of the cell. I'm running some reflector tests. Stay tuned...
This is the only comprehensive, downloadable spreadsheet I have found that works! Thank you for sharing it.
good video 👍🏻
Thank you 👍
So has there been any testing for motorised panels that track the sun to maintain maximum output throughout the day? In the game space engineers it is a common method people build. It would basically be panels set up like your south facing but on a mount that rotate the array from east to west as the day goes by.
Rotating mounts add cost and complexity so I haven't focused on that method yet.
@@ProjectsWithDave Could be a really interesting approach. In the game, I mentioned it has become the favourite for mathematically proven benefits. It is yet to be seen if that would translate at all to the real world, but would be a very interesting and I imagine fun project to do and see. ( Eventually )
What about a 15° tilt bifacial instead of true vertical? Steeper incline, less snow stickage, but a bit more of the noon sun like the normal 30° panels, and a thinner horizontal profile than 30°, allowing more space at a slight sacrifice over true vertical?
If the panels are facing South a steeper angle can be a good solution for Northern climates that see a lot of snow.
Hi Dave, i have 20kwt solar system for sell electricity, and now building 6*580W jinko panels for my home with hydrid Usful 5.5 kwt inverter- thanks for your video. I want to share with you Ukranian dude’s video where he explain phisical process, why it is necessary to use East and West sites. Use google translate-it is on russian, so you do your own detail video about this effect
kzread.info/dash/bejne/rHZmqdKDYJythJc.htmlsi=R-2h_HwiVQxS_WzZ
As someone mention Mylar for a reflective surface would be interesting, but with the added maintenance of keeping it clean it adds a lot of work and a greater leap in cost than something like white landscaping rock. I would be interested in the performance of something more feasible like white gravel. If you have time to test it I’d love to see the results.
Although white rock is much more practical, Mylar is easier to test, so I plan to start there.
You should trim that small tree in front of the panels though to make a better comparison.
This panel design would be incredible in the northern latitudes in winter where the sun is always fairly close to the horizon. You’d definitely want to flip these up in a more traditional orientation during the summer though since the sun tends to track very high.
Thanks very informative 👍
Seeking: Build or DIY electric bike.