Ways to use solar panels, Can this be done??

[wrtner]

A grid tie converter is the way to go if your on grid already. No batteries just wire the panels to the inverter and plug the inverter into the wall. it will slow down your meter thus lowering your bill...

It should do better than that. In the UK, rates are between 7 pence and
15 pence per KWH. Other countries may well be comparable or better.

Click on the pdf file:

Feed-in Tariff scheme: Tariff Table 1 July 2013 - 30 September 2013 PV Only - More Document Information

[Kokomoj0]

Hello folks!

Anyway, I am open to any and all suggestions
Thanks for reading!

if you do not want to spend money the very cheapest way to put them to work that I can think of is wrap some thin nichrome wire around a form and drop it in a water tank to heat your water.

an appropriate length of nicrome is a couple bucks and you wont be buying a bunch of stuff you later have no use for.

[Mad Scientist]

If you bought solar panels that means that you probably have lots of sun light. If you have lots of sun you probably have lots of heat. If you have lots of heat you probably want to cool off. One way to do that is run a fan(s).

Assuming that these panels are 12 volt find some used automotive car blowers they should be fairly cheep to come by and they will happily run on just about any voltage you supply them with. Typically their low speed setting were achieved by simply placing a resistor in series with them..

[wpage]

Not certain if you have a power company in your remote area. If you do contact them about sharing your resources.
In my area the power company replaces the standard analog meter with a digital meter. This digital meter provides better accuracy on KVH sell back to the grid.


Good luck with your research. Google is your friend!

[dutchdivco]

Lots of good ideas here, but

SOME of you didn't read, or 'get' in his first post;
"We are talking off grid....no grid inverters."

So, no grid no sell to utility company.
Since you got such an amazingly good deal on the panels, sell some (to ME), at a smokin good price, and use that to buy what you need, to utilise the rest!

Seriosly, there ARE some good 'out of the box' ideas here. Those on the other forums who told you you "can't" were just not able to think outside the box.

Jim

[dutchdivco]

Heres a thought,...

PV panels are most efficient when the operating temperature (of the panel) is around 80 degrees F. (You can google this).
So, perhaps you could use your 'extra' panels to keep your primary panels cool, so they would be 'most efficient'?
Running fans, or Peltier units, or pumps than pump water thru a heat exchanger on the back of the panels? Just a thought,....Jim

[Danny B]

Azobenzine

Some day, you can use this;
Scientists Discover How to Generate Solar Power in the Dark - Todd Woody - The Atlantic

[mscoffman]

Super Capacitors are easiest, you can get a couple of these at
any automobile audio store. They behave just like batteries +/-
polarity. When you first connect the array on a sunny day near
noon make sure that your array voltage doesn't exceed the
working voltage marked on them, unlike batteries never exceed
that working voltage. And unlike batteries they never wear out or
sulphate. On youtube.com see lasersaber starting a car with e'm.

You will be able to use any old inverter but you will probably want
to wire a circuit with a relay to pulse the on off switch for when
the inverter goes off line due to supercap undervoltage. Usually adjusted
to 10.5 volts acid/lead battery minimum. Some inverters let you adjust
that on down, so set it as low as possible while the inverter is still stable.
Unlike other applications your supercaps will discharge at dusk unless
you have a more sophisticated ciruitry, so some sort of autostartup circuit
will be required.

:S:MarkSCoffman