My tiny project in sunny Ecuador

[bradw18]

did you get the controller off ebay?

[ecusolar]

Yup, search Ebay for "solar street light"

[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]

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).

[russ]

Look at www.builditsolar.com for DIY stuff

Joe (ecusolar) is Mr. Solar in Ecuador for all of us around the world.

Russ

[ecusolar]

Thanks for the flowers russ but in this forum are many folks that know much more than me.

I'm only taking advantage of the super dry clima with more than 7 hours of sun daily coming direct above us, at noon we don't produce shadow.

Others have to struggle with snow, heavy rain, huge daily temp cicles and stuff like sun trackers.

My only big enemy is dust, I have to clean the panels every once a while or the charge amps will be around 60% of normal production.

[2DegreesSouth]

Look at www.builditsolar.com for DIY stuff

Joe (ecusolar) is Mr. Solar in Ecuador for all of us around the world.

Russ

Thanks for the link, Russ! The content seems very rich and I'm sure I'll be busy reading through it in the next few days.

Thank you, too, Joe, for your encouraging words. I will be contacting you directly with some Ecuador-specific questions. I live in Cuenca at a higher elevation than Manabi and a somewhat different climate. But it really is spring-like all year just like the tourist sites say. Warm but not too hot during the day and cool but not cold at night. There is no need for either heat or air conditioning here and that alone keeps energy costs down.

In contrast to your situation, our electric supply in Cuenca is good and quite reliable. The only time we had cuts was during the worst drought the area had seen in 35 years. There was not enough water in the Paute River, source of our hydro power, to meet demand for a couple of months. But even then, the cuts were posted in advance by district, never affected the entire city at once, and didn't last more than 2 hours at a time. It was a minor inconvenience. It just goes to prove that you can't generalize about Ecuador! Not with 3 completely different geographic regions and hundreds of micro climates.

The concern I have for solar panels is that we are in the Andes and sometimes have very violent hail storms. I imagine that hail would destroy unprotected solar cells. I think I would need to put them under non-reflective glass. I was happy to read that Joe didn't see a power drop after encapsulation.

I'll be gathering information for the next few weeks but will be sure to post as soon as I have a plan. Thanks to all for this forum.

Ellen

[Mike90250]

There is always the simple Solar Monolith:
http://www.solarpaneltalk.com/showth...ull=1#post1690

[DeltaFox 25]

Thats real nice . good going

[don tomas]

yo la gusta

i like you prefer to build on my own,, then you know what you have.. good way to learn,,even if it costs more, the education contains some value.

my task
i run my generator 3 hours a day and want to charge as much battery as possible, is there a formula?

[ecusolar]

All fine till here

Hi all

I didn't post for a year or so, just want to leave a feedback.

The panels have passed two years in action now, there have not been a single problem with them - neither the used gel batteries I bought.

All in one it was a good investment and a lot of fun, I use no other electrisity for my small distillery, the heat source is gas.

http://www.destileriabonanza.com

Wish all the very best

Joe

[russ]

Hi Joe - Good to hear from you!

Glad all is going well with your system.

Russ

[DeltaFox 25]

Joe,
I'm glad everything is holding up for you. Have you made any more? It's good to hear from you.

[aqa204]

If it is useful LED 12VDC 5W bulbs in Ecuador

Hello I have done my OEM 12VDC 5W LED bulbs, locally in Ecuador, I am located in Guayaquil.
If you need help with DC LED lighting, I have now a lot of experience with LEDs lighting both DC and AC.
I will try to attach an image.

[Txtinner]

Thanks for details

Hi Ecosolar.

I'm just getting started with solar, and appreciate your project post.
I agree that building your own panels is not cost effective, but when your in remote areas, any power is better than no power.
I enjoyed reading your post, and can see the Engineering background in the details.
Hope your still posting here.

Txtinner