Sorry to take so long to respond, I've been a bit behind. 

I also don't know the answers to your questions off the top of my head. I do
plan to go read the meter and update the web page so I will add measuring
the size of the panels, jotting down the part numbers, and see if I can find
the ratings for them somewhere. 

Part of the loss in any power system is transmission and conversion, so I'm
sure I don't actually manage to sell all the electricity the panels
generate. Some goes up in heat from the converter box and the wires between.
Less from the wires I'd imagine, but the box does get quite warm.

In a cloudy area, mirrors can be used (carefully) to increase the
concentration of sunlight while not exceeding the ratings on the panels. 

--
James.

-----Original Message-----
From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of
Howard Winter
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 06:30
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: RE: [EE]:: Super-Safe, Small & Simple Nuclear Reactor

James,

On Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:25:23 -0800, James Newton wrote:

> I already did it. What about "all you zombies"?
> 
> http://techref.massmind.org/techref/other/solar/case1.htm

As you know, I'm dead jealous of your setup!  :-)  Having another look at
it, I have some questions:

You don't mention the Wattage rating of the array (usually espressed as Wp).
Doing the maths on the Rebate, it looks like 2.6kWp - is that about right?
That 
would make it about $8 per watt at full price.

Do you know the area of the array?  (Square feet will do, I can convert to
metres :-)

Looking at the figures, that comes to an average of 5.25kWh per day per kWp
installed - that seems low for SoCal - I'd expect that sort of figure here.
Your arrays 
is a bit "flat" for best efficiency, and I reckon they are facing about 140
degrees (if Garmin are to be believed) so not ideal either.  

Do you know what the theoretical maximum insolation is around there?  I'd
estimate that you're losing about 20% from that because of the aiming, but
that's just a 
guess.  What I'm trying to do is get a feel for the derating from the ideal
in a practical setup.  Experiments I've done here suggest that I could get
nowhere near 80% 
of maximum.  My "South" facing roof is actually about 125 degrees, so good
in the morning, but useless after about 14:00.

I just had a look at my experimental panels on the roof or my shed which is
at 90 degrees to the house, so better angled, at about 215 degrees.
Theoretically the 
panels are 4 x 15W, so 60Wp.  With the Sun around 20 degrees off line and
about 30 degrees off pitch, I'm seeing no more than about 10W at best!  When
the Sun 
goes behind a cloud, it drops to zero.  I don't know if it's that the panels
aren't up to spec. (although they shouldn't be - they were full price) or
just optimistically 
rated.  Either way, it doesn't bode well for a system like yours working
here, sadly.

Cheers,


Howard Winter
St.Albans, England


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