Solar panels are making people sick?!

[Rob Beckers]

Solar panels are worse than coal, oil, and nuclear:

http://otherpower.com/solar-panel-syndrome

-RoB-

[Ralph Day]

I know Rob! I've had more aches and pains since I put in solar, and horrors, a wind turbine! The microFIT has made me just sick all the time. Now I have to take a vitamin D supplement because it sucks so much of the available sunlight up there's none left for me. Maybe it's just that I'm getting older?

hplaR

[Rob Beckers]

I feel your pain Ralph!
Lately I've taken to self-medicating with 40% ethanol of the aged variety. Works well, highly recommended...

-RoB-

[Andy Rhody]

All right you guys. I had a really hard day at work today and tonight I'm already all whiskied up and I saw this post and started to buy right in. I'm so naive, for example, I drive a mass transit bus and a handicapped girl got on today and said, "Andy, your shoe's untied" so I kneeled right down and and checked my shoes. Then she laughed, "APRIL FOOL"! Now you guys got me again tonight.

I'm really glad we're all friends but I'll tell you something, solar is also looking better all the time!

[Rob Beckers]

Glad to hear you got a chuckle out of it Andy!

Solar is looking better and better: Prices are really getting so low that it starts to make sense for everyone to put some solar on the roof. I've been selling hundreds of kW's in the last few weeks of Canadian Solar panels that were going for 60 ct/W (or less, depending on quantity). They were getting rid of their inventory of lower-Wattage panels, 230W or less, for a great price. Customers were snapping it up! At those prices you can make your own electricity way cheaper than you can buy it from the power company (even after adding racking/inverter/installation into the mix, the payback time for net-metering is not bad at all).

And that's no April-fool's joke! :cool:

-RoB-

[Andy Rhody]

Last year for me it was wind. Now I'm eyeing solar but there's so much to learn.

Rob Said:

They were getting rid of their inventory of lower-Wattage panels, 230W or less,

So Rob, what exactly does that mean? Are they making panels with higher efficency or just a larger size or what?

Thanks.

[Rob Beckers]

Same size panels, but larger Wattage (higher efficiency cells). The norm these days for those panels (about 1.65 meter by 0.99 meter, I'll let you do the conversion) is around 250 Watt, while one of our suppliers (Silfab) makes those in 280 Watt. They cost a whole lot more than 60 ct/W though!

Solar is easy compared to wind. Very boring compared to wind too. It's more like watching the paint dry than anything else: It doesn't move.

-RoB-

[Ralph Day]

solar doesnt' move , unless you've got trackers! Then it's like watching paint dry and the minute hand of a clock move.

Unless it malfunctions. My small home 4 panel tracker is still off line. The old satellite actuator motor died, so the array is held at 180deg with some ratchet straps. Once I get some spring weather (above 5C for highs) I'll get the spare actuator assembly on it and try to repair the motor on the latest fatality (magnet in the motor "can" broke off and tried to ride around on the armature, nasty noises leading to lackaworkin):cry:

Ralph

[Peter Klaassen]

Ralph,
This may not help but I had to replace the armature on my tracker last year when the wind blew the panels sideways and damaged the mechanism. I still have it and thought it might be good for parts. You could have it if it is any good to you. The new one is more robust. I am out on the ship at the moment but I'm home around the middle of May.
Pete