JiminDenver wrote:
West
When I first started looking I saw dual purpose panels with a wet side under the PV side. It's what gave me the idea for a coil of hose under the panel you have now. I don't think it'll add too much weight.
Jim, the hose thing might work, I'll test it out in the next day or so.
Since I have a diversion load output on my solar controller and the batteries are completely charged, I'm still thinking of how I can use that potential power. That potential could be 180 watts for 4 hours/day and less during the shoulder hours. If I was going to heat water with that diversion the formula is Kw= gals. x temperature rise (f)/ 375 x heatup time. On a perfect day, I'd probably be able to heat my 30 gal. fresh water tank by 10f rise. That doesn't sound like much but if the water in the tank started at ambient, that would be a lot of stored heat to augment the propane heater. Also, that heat is free, basically, just using the yet unused diversion load available.
Lots of ways to get feline fur. Hitech was investigating using his excess solar to run computers and trade processing time for $$. Not too bad an idea but the payback for the capitol expense was about nine months, in the best scenario.
