What a Resource This Is!

[aggie]

Lou and I are redesigning our solar system. Ours is a marriage of Mr Git'er'Done and Ms DoItRight. He's the practical mechanic/electrician/plumber. I'm the physics major turned BSEE. This time I'm involved. : )

I've read a couple of books, but they lack detail. Lou told me about this forum. I am almost awed to start skimming and immediately find Sunking's sticky posts which contain some of the info I'd managed to scrounge up elsewhere, and volumes more of the info that I need to do a design in which I can have confidence.

Thank you so very much,
Aggie

[J.P.M.]

Welcome to the neighborhood. Only keep in mind that none of us is as smart as all of us, not everything your read here is correct, and w/free advice like you get here, you'll often or mostly and usually get what you pay for.

Respectful suggestions:

- Set your goals.
- Forget off grid battery systems unless and until you know the limitations, impracticalities and cost. It'll help if you already have what's probably considered a very frugal and so probably a bit eccentric lifestyle.
- Get a copy of "Solar Power Your Home for Dummies". Lots of practical details. Most of residential PV is far form rocket science.
- Spend 20 minutes and get familiar with something called PVWatts. Read all the help/info screens a couple of times before any runs. Use 10 % system losses.
- If lower electric bills are one goal, reading/study, conservation, PVWatts, a sunny equator facing surface and some canny vendor evaluation can get you a turnkey grid system that can be safe, fit for purpose and, if done correctly, probably cost effective.
- Formal ed. can help, but don't get too cocky about it with respect to PV. Learn about the resource and particularly its limitations before you design anything. One of many possible sources for general PV: PVeducation.org. Not an endorsement, just a little intro information. For general solar energy, particularly resource evaluation and solar thermal: "Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes". That's the solar bible by Duffie and Beckman, similar to the ways Thomas was once the student's bible for calculus, or Resnick and Halliday was once the student's bible for physics.
- Don't waste time trying to make your own panels.
- Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make them all yourself.
- To that end, do your homework and, after that, use this resource to fill in knowledge blanks, find out what vendors or treehuggers won't tell you or are clueless about, or get verification/refutation for what you learn on your own. Get you own knowledge as much as possible first. The answers you get here will be better and will have more meat on them, and you'll have more knowledge horsepower and mental grunt to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Add: For off grid in southern AZ, if you don't have one already, get a batch water heater, maybe of the "breadbox" type. Cheap, reliable and easy to build. Fit the available means to the task with only as much entropy increase as necessary.

[Mike90250]

Thanks, and another gem is the "Solar Power for Dummies" book. covers a lot of the basics.

CORRECTION Solar Power Your Home for for Dummies

[J.P.M.]

Thanks, and another gem is the "Solar Power for Dummies" book. covers a lot of the basics.

Mike: I couldn't find that title. You sure about it ? Found "Solar Panels for Dummies". Got an ISBN # ?

Also, FWIW, I just downloaded a PDF of the old "Solar Power Your Home for for Dummies". Looks like the old version is back for free on some site called "The-Eye.eu" .

[Mike90250]

Here's a link at Archive.Org, so I think it's legit

https://archive.org/download/fe_Solar_Power_Your_Home_For_Dummies/Solar_Power_Your_Home_For_Dummies.pdf

[aggie]

JPM, thanks so much for the suggestion list, and Mike for the book help. Nice welcome.

- We 've lived off grid for 2+ years in a southern Arizona location where it would cost $50k to get the grid. Eccentric'R'Us. 600w of solar does it, with a little wind assistance..
- I've already read Off Grid Solar by Joseph O'Connor and Solar Electricity Handbook by Michael Boxwell. They're decent intros.
- Not financially feasible to do turnkey now.
- I learned from Thomas and Halliday & Resnick, so you got my attention there. I checked out the solar bible, but there's only one chapter on PV, so I don't think it's going to be worth $106 list price.
- Checking out pveducation.org in more depth.

Thank you for the invitation! I'm getting ready to ask, but some prep still to do....

[J.P.M.]

Here's a link at Archive.Org, so I think it's legit
https://archive.org/download/fe_Sola...or_Dummies.pdf

Mike: I got confused by your title reference which you corrected on the edit.

Thanx.

J.P.M.

[J.P.M.]

JPM, thanks so much for the suggestion list, and Mike for the book help. Nice welcome.

- We 've lived off grid for 2+ years in a southern Arizona location where it would cost $50k to get the grid. Eccentric'R'Us. 600w of solar does it, with a little wind assistance..
- I've already read Off Grid Solar by Joseph O'Connor and Solar Electricity Handbook by Michael Boxwell. They're decent intros.
- Not financially feasible to do turnkey now.
- I learned from Thomas and Halliday & Resnick, so you got my attention there. I checked out the solar bible, but there's only one chapter on PV, so I don't think it's going to be worth $106 list price.
- Checking out pveducation.org in more depth.

Thank you for the invitation! I'm getting ready to ask, but some prep still to do....

For anything I contribute, you're most welcome. Respectfully suggest you question everything everyone writes/says. There's a lot of B.S. around .w.r.t. alternate energy, particularly from those with skin in the game. Even if well meant, none of us is as smart as all of us. Sermonette over for today.

The Duffie & Beckman ref./point to was not meant as a bible for it's PV chap., which is good, accurate and basic as far as it goes, but perhaps a bit dated. I suggest the book because it's about the best and most concise reference for the solar resource itself in terms of solar availability and attenuation through the atmosphere, particularly the info in chaps. 1 & 2, and also for chap. 11 on process economics as that may apply to solar energy processes. Basic-basic stuff. The applications will make more sense with a good foundation in the basics. PVeducation.org is not quite as deep as some other sources, but it is more available and the info is pretty straightforward.

FWIW, used D.& B. are a lot cheaper. 1st ed. (1980) has same resource info as the later eds. for a lot less $$. Process economics as a discipline hasn't changed much either. Just sayin'.

Aside: My 2 vol. Resnick & Halliday (2d ed., 1962) with the mixture sweat & blood stains on the pages resides on a bookshelf in my office, as does Thomas. Both still get use 1X/awhile.

[aggie]

For anything I contribute, you're most welcome. Respectfully suggest you question everything everyone writes/says. There's a lot of B.S. around .w.r.t. alternate energy, particularly from those with skin in the game. Even if well meant, none of us is as smart as all of us. Sermonette over for today.

The Duffie & Beckman ref./point to was not meant as a bible for it's PV chap., which is good, accurate and basic as far as it goes, but perhaps a bit dated. I suggest the book because it's about the best and most concise reference for the solar resource itself in terms of solar availability and attenuation through the atmosphere, particularly the info in chaps. 1 & 2, and also for chap. 11 on process economics as that may apply to solar energy processes. Basic-basic stuff. The applications will make more sense with a good foundation in the basics. PVeducation.org is not quite as deep as some other sources, but it is more available and the info is pretty straightforward.

FWIW, used D.& B. are a lot cheaper. 1st ed. (1980) has same resource info as the later eds. for a lot less $$. Process economics as a discipline hasn't changed much either. Just sayin'.

Aside: My 2 vol. Resnick & Halliday (2d ed., 1962) with the mixture sweat & blood stains on the pages resides on a bookshelf in my office, as does Thomas. Both still get use 1X/awhile.

I meant to acknowledge earlier, and do now, your advice to question everything. I will.
Thank you for the tip on 1st ed.
I let my volumes go as part of my minimalism, but you bring multiple smiles to my face.

[J.P.M.]

I meant to acknowledge earlier, and do now, your advice to question everything. I will.
Thank you for the tip on 1st ed.
I let my volumes go as part of my minimalism, but you bring multiple smiles to my face.

Understood. When still working, I kept a complete set of ASME Pressure Vessel Design manuals with code cases, details and commentary. All that took up about 8+ feet of a bookshelf in my home office. Glad that expense and upkeep is gone.