ALTERNATIVE ENERGY FORUM - etc.

yah, we can't use any external inverter unless it is installed in our BC Hydro mandated fashion and approval; hence the 10K price tag

In the terms of regulation it seems like a self licking lolly pop - I guess you only have a couple of workarounds a) go off grid b) portable battery and inverter.

I don't think you need to worry about cooling; I get WAY more sun and extreme heat than you do and mine are 6 years and still going strong; paid a bit more for 5 year old solar farm takeoffs.
Here the micro inverters are illegal to use and to get them approved is about 10k worth of switches panels and if they're chinese made, good luck... I found out after I was using mine for a while and hydro threatened to pull the plug...

Well, I think there’s various levels of Chinese made, but I definitely didn’t buy them from Temu, AliExpress, Shein or any other version of Bennies bargain basement. A couple of summers ago we had a bit of a heat wave if you will, short lived but the UK went brown according satellite images (assuming the BBC didn’t edit the photos). I’m not sure how much hotter than the ambient temperature they get but I can’t touch my truck at high noon in the summer months.

Here’s the inverter model I’m using, I’ll have to cut the AC plug off and fit my own standard weather tight version as I’m not getting tied into ‘Voltacon’ cables as £30 for a couple meters. Pretty sure that’s how they make their money!

Whilst Solar arrays are boring to look at. I have no choice but to admit they are pretty effective. Even on dark and gloomy winter days the 8 panels on my roof are making electrons move sufficiently enough to get a little cash back from my energy provider. So today I decided to boost my generation with 6 secondhand 250watt panels. 10 years old but at £25 each I think I got a good deal.

My plan is to try hanging these vertically on the garden fence, the idea being they should run cooler by not pointing directly at the current bun and hopefully produce more power over a longer working life. I’ve got 3 600 watt micro inverters which will take two panels connected in parallel with the 3 inverters on a common bus. The bus will plug into a standard 240ac electrical socket (outlet) in the house or at least an outside socket. The connection needs to be down stream from the roof panels generation meter as I’m bound by a generation contract, additionally by not hardwiring into my fuse box/consumer unit I’ll avoid all electrical regulations etc and preserve my home insurance. This set up falls under the same regulations as any other plug in device, so pretty minimal regulation and fuss.





If the vertical set up proves not to be viable I’ll likely look into diy water cooling etc to get the best output though I imagine this could take a few years of fiddling AKA a longitudinal study. Unfortunately I don’t have the space for a gigantic sun tracking array 😕

I’ll definitely be sticking with VAWTs to get my kicks.

Yah, I ran across that out of the blue the other day when I was looking for something

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