My tiny project in sunny Ecuador

[ecusolar]

Hola pana

Hi there

Your post title says sources of solar cells in ECU, there are none but I can get them for you in ebay if you dunno how. I'm also working in a spanish instruction of "how to".

To the hot water: I have electric showers but I should not, so you see that my goal is another than economy and eco thinking (at the very beginnig it was but the objective changed).

We have an awful electric service and almost every day the grid fails for at least some minutes until complete days and I need an electric bridge for that cases.
I have a micro distillery and the cooling pumps of the stills are working with solar energy, not only if the grid fails.
For night time I have the battery backup that gives me about 6 to 8 hours without getting lower than 12V with one pump but I rarely work at night.

I also made recently some panels for the hotel area; those feed the cash register and audio/music system, at this moment only when the grid fails but will have it done continuously soon.
Those will give another tourist attraction as like you said, here is almost no info available.

I live in ECU but I’m German and the only 3 shops I know that deal with solar hardware in ECU are Germans as well.

To the hot water: you can start with just a black plastic hose on your roof or go with hot water vacuum systems. There is a lot of info in the net.
I will think about that maybe in the end of the year but not just for home application, I would like to pre-heat the to be distilled wash to about 60C before pumping it to the stills which is not as difficult as it sounds I guess.

You can PM me if you like to talk by phone or if you would like to see in “real life” what I’m doing (you should try the cassava vodka, it’s delicious).

[2DegreesSouth]

Sources of solar cells in Ecuador

Hello, Forum Members,

This thread is what led me to find the forum after a web search. I live in Ecuador too and am very interested in installing solar panels on my balcony. At least enough to provide hot water for my one-person household. Presently, like nearly everyone else here, I burn LPG gas for both cooking and hot water. It seems a shame when we've got all that sunshine just waiting to be used but as far as I can tell there is very little solar expertise here and few sources of hardware.

Any and all recommendations about basic equipment needed to produce hot water will be welcome. And my apologies if I have missed another thread that already has that info!

[ecusolar]

Yup, search Ebay for "solar street light"

[bradw18]

did you get the controller off ebay?

[DeltaFox 25]

Hello , it would be nice if you could take some pictures and show us. It's still cold here and I'm kind of slow getting back into making my panels. just waiting for the warm sun. I might even start a different project doing melting metel in my back yard.and learn how ot do some metel casting.

[ecusolar]

Solar triggle charger

I just finished to buid a small panel with 3x2 inch cells.

I used 6 x 6 rows config for that panel.

It's only used as a triggle charger for my genset battery.

The 10A controller I bought from a China seller, it's used normally as a solar street light controller, you can set the load to turn on at dark and turn off at dawn, also power save config like 6 hours full power and 2 hours at half power for instance. It's good to have some LED light at night closed to the genset, especially if grid power fails.

Was pretty cheap, hope it will last a while

If wanted I can make some pics.

Add: I forgot to mention that the panel supposed to be in the 20W range as it's a third of the normal 6x3 cells which make around 60W.

[russ]

You are correct!

[axis11]

Pardon?

Wire length I agree on but the perimeter part must be new math - square area is square area.

Im sorry about the AREA thing , you're right, but the perimeter is correct. I'll give a more simple example. If you have 4 square sheets with 1 square meter area each, all sides 1 meter each. Arrange the four sheets in a staight row and you get 10meter of perimeter. Now arrange the sheets in two columns with 2 rows, you get 8 meter.

[russ]

Pardon?

Wire length I agree on but the perimeter part must be new math - square area is square area.

[axis11]

I'm still not sure what will be the best panel size:
1. the 3 by 12 cells
2. the 4 by 9 cells

Did someone read about that or have experience with both designs?

Actually I'm using 3 x 12 strings but need to use a cable to get pos and neg closed together.

A square design or nearly squared design will occupy the least surface area and the shortest length of frame with all four sides combined.Also you will have the + and - terminals closer to each other, shorter wire.

[ecusolar]

How is the alcohol production going?

Bobby

Pretty well Bobby, hick.

I'm happy that you like the forum, take in account that I have a favorietable clima which makes things really easy. In snow or heavy rain countries things would change a lot.

The country I'm living in is still in the Ice-age when it comes to alternative energy, a 200W panel cost about 1K USD here, beside of installation and other needed stuff like controllers, batteries etc.

I see the DIY as a bridge till there are companies which offer reasonable prices for a good industrial made system.

Joe

[Bob_man069]

I am new to the forums as well as DIY solar panels. I am very glad I took the time to read all 11 pages of your thread as it has some very good information. I just finished tabbing 36 of my 3x6 cells as well as put together my aluminum frame.

How is the alcohol production going?

Bobby

[ecusolar]

Hi Ray
I'm living direct under the equator, you will not have any shadow at noon, that means that I don't need any inclination for the panels.

The porch aluminium roof of my distillery has only 3% inclination, the panels are just laying on top of it with some aluminium L screwed to the roof.

Each panel might have a weight of 30Kg, enough that a wind can't lift them. We never have strong winds but we have earthquakes and with a 7.1 they didn't move a cm.

I wouldn't suggest to do that in most other countries but here there is no more need.

Clima is tropical dry, that means that it doesn't rain at least 8 month with strong 7 hours sun most days.

Joe.

[raydias]

How are the panels holding up

Just curious on how the panels are holding up

[fatihdogan]

good job