Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Les, add a cordless drill to the "toolkit for AP newbies"

njh,

There was a solar panel that did that, had concentrating (two) mirrors and hot water loop on the back. Richard Perez of Homepower Magazine had one and did a review on it.....

I'll see if I can find it...

(off to rummage through old magazines)

Where is this toolkit for newbies?

jaymie and les have the list.......one of them should post it to the general banter section

njh - see what I can do

I started a thread called "Toolbox" back in the day, maybe this could be revived with good up to date info?

http://www.backyardaquaponics.com/forum ... ht=toolbox

oops started a new one!

I just ordered a LED3 Sun Tracking Module http://www.redrok.com/electron.htm#led ... I was thing the same thing NJH...Except I have a few stepper motors to use instead of the cordless drill. I have made a mount to hold one end of the threaded rod inside a bearing, and mounted so it pivots on the solar frame.

My four experiments will be as follows... (using 3 identical 60W PVM's)
1. Normal Solar Panel Mounted at 45 degrees facing north north west.
2. Normal Solar panel mounted at slight angle (practically flat)
2. Panel at a slight angle with active water cooling and mirror mounted behind panel.
3. Panel mounted at 45 degress with active sun tracker circuit. I will also take into account the current draw of the tracker, and actuator. Theoretically 12V 500mA, for a period of 5 seconds every 2 mins.

Go tim, some good old fashioned empirical data! keep us posted.

looking forward to it!

Gotta get the old mig out and wip up some well over due mounts for these suckers. The sun tracker mount will hold 2-4 panels but for the test I will only test the output of one of the cells...

I have to make any permanent mounts pretty professionally in order to apply for the government grant, which I need to apply for before June... This gives me an excuse to get some up. Hopefully my contact can sign off the install which is part of the application process. There is always a catch, the government never just gives away money...

I thought the preferred angle for a PV Array in the lower 1/2 of Australia was 37-38 degrees,
Doesn't really matter for you experiment as long as they are the same for comparison.

Cheers
Ron
p.s only 1 or 2 more posts and I'm no longer a newbie

go Ron

Ron's right, the sun swings lat +/- 22 degrees. So in Melbourne (38S) it swings from 16 degrees from vertical in summer to 60degrees in winter. The swing angle is the same as the two tropics (cap and can). If you want the most total energy, use around the most vertical angle, if you want the most even energy, use around the most horizontal angle.

Mine are set a bit higher because of some trees blocking the sun a bit during 10-11 AM. Plus the pole mounts I have on the 80's are mounted at 45 deg so I stuck with that. I can work it out using my latitude and a simple equation, but honestly can't be bothered...