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SOUTHERN SOLAR Academy
United States
Registrace 13. 08. 2023
We are teaching ourselves solar energy and off-grid living! Follow us as we learn, and teach you in that slow Southern way. Our main homestead channel is Tony's Tractor Adventure Homestead
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Tony's Tractor Adventure
230-B Tyson Ave. #386
Paris, TN 38242
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Packages to
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Tony's Tractor Adventure
230-B Tyson Ave. #386
Paris, TN 38242
AC Pros Don't want you to know! DIY AC Heat Pump Install
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HOW TO INSTALL A MINI SPLIT! The HVAC Pros will hate this video too! I debunk some HVAC procedures that are commonly charged for. I hope this helps. TOSOT: tosotdirect.com/TONYSTRACTORADVENTURE
Sungoldpower All In One 3000W 24V SOLAR INVERTER CHARGER
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All-in-one solar charge inverter: 3000 Watts Pure Sine Wave Inverter Combined with 80A MPPT solar charging and 40A AC battery charging All in One Inverter Charger: shrsl.com/42b7y
Off Grid Power - Solar Power - Know the Questions to Ask
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Solar Panel Sun Tracker. Don't "math" a real-world problem to death without all the facts. Solar Trackers work! Tracker Info: www.eco-worthy.com/?ref=Tony5
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We are growing our solar capability again by installing another Eco Worthy Solar Sun Tracking system. The first two worked great, but the installation was not without its difficulties. Eco-Worthy has made installing a new solar tracker for your solar panels so much easier, and they have beefed up the entire build. It really seems as if they are listening to the customer. Eco-Worthy has offered ...
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In a world increasingly teetering on the brink of unpredictability, darkness isn't just a metaphor-it's a looming reality. The fragility of our power grid, intertwined with both natural and man-made catastrophes, paints a chilling picture of vulnerability. Remember the silent streets during blackouts, the disconcerting hush when our bustling world stops, the unease of nights plunged into an eer...
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Upgrading our Solar All-In-One Inverter by PowMR. There are so many choices for solar power nowadays. It can get confusing and expensive. This is why we took a measured approach. We built this smaller system to run for a year while we build out our Homestead. By the time we really need off-grid power, we will understand a lot more about the process. We thank PowMR for letting us test this unit....
Can Harbor Freight 100W Solar Panels Be Wired in Series? | Thunderbolt Solar
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All in One Inverter Charger: shrsl.com/42b7y Prepare for a potential power grid failure and the uncertainties of a SHFT scenario as we guide you in securing an independent and sustainable energy source. This video will help you establish your own solar power fortress, starting with the installation of a vital piece of equipment - the SunGoldPower 3000W 24V Solar Inverter Charger. This video is ...
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The power grid is more vulnerable than ever, but you can stay ahead of the chaos with our guide on installing an automatic sun-tracking solar array! ☀️🔌 Learn how to harness 40% more power from your existing solar panels by enabling them to follow the sun's path across the sky. Watch our step-by-step tutorial to assemble, install, and optimize this innovative solar system for maximum efficiency...
Don`t mean to push you down, trackers make panels more efficient. Low tech is usually better on the long run, though. With the price of couple trackers you could get more panels and no fuzz with self made mounting from wood that you can use to dry firewood or grow stuff that enjoys shade. I would use trackers too if installation space would be scarce for me. You don´t seem to have need for space either that could make trackers more reasonable than bigger installations. Hope there is spare parts available for the next decades that those panels will work. Otherwise they are not usable.
Solar trackers are more efficient than fixed...no doubt about that at all. But about 15yrs ago when panel prices dropped trackers became losers as far as ROI is concerned. Some of the really big installs out west (lotsa sun hours) are single axis trackers...they seem to have economically sound business cases...tho many are use gov grants/funding. They move MANY panels with minimal hardware. That's the trick. If your tracker hits 25% increase in production vs fixed in your area (this number has to be an average for the entire yr...for multiple yrs) than the tracker has to cost less than adding 25% more panels to a comparable fixed mount. So if you have a 4 panel tracker...the tracker can't cost more than 1 extra panel (25%...so 5 panels fixed with racking) or your going backwards. Back when panels were $6-8/watt it was much easier to justify trackers. Now not so much...
Great video. You left out the part when the copper lines exits the house was it hard to bend down to a 90 degree?
What would you prefer, the line set run on the inside of the wall or the the lines in a plastic cover up ? When you pull a vacuum you hook up the lines to the low and high side , then after the vaccum you close off the gages handles, then you open the allen screw ( valves ) then you can close the 1/4 inch allen valve ,then wait for the pressure to go down to 3 PSI then close off the low side allen valve , thern install the 1/4 inch caps, then open both allen valves . you can also add a little 4/10 A for what you lost when you cut the lines. Back th the line set , your house say can be sold for 500,000.00 so are you and others going slop that line set down the side of the house? ( inside of the sheetrock on the inside of the house)
I prefer to have the lines on the outside in the decorative. There is always a chance that the lines could sweat inside the wall causing mold and mildew.
Let's brag about the high PV voltage.... But we won't actually tell you what it is.
Thanks COOP ...
You are Welcome
If you don't mind me asking, what breaker is that you are using between the inverter and the bus bars? Excellent video!!!
I honestly don't remember. It is in the manual provided by the manufacturer.
just curious why you did not add the 2nd inverter to gain 220v instead of just replacing 1 with the other. you could have put the powermr where the sun gold is and ran the PV into just it. then added the sungold and just run battery lines. AC in and AC out to your 2nd leg.
These units are not capable of working together
There is 1 simple way to look at this also... 6 195 Watt Bi-Facial Eco-Worthy solar panels cost about $780.00 That's for 1.17 Kw of power (max) which is what the dual axis tracker supports. You're saying that the Tracker raises your Energy Generation by 40% (let's use that). The cost of the tracker (just the tracker, not including installation) is $459.00 on sale. To increase your output to 1.17kw * 1.4 (additional 40%) = 1.688 Kw Energy. You could just buy 3 more Bi-Facial Panels instead for $390 and increase your Energy by 50% (6 + 3 = 9 panels). Spend less.... increase more without having to deal with the complexity of the installation and maintenance. So... bottom line... look at the potential increase in energy... calculate what it would cost to increase your number of static solar panels by the same amount... which is cheaper?
Your argument and does not take into account that what you were talking about is stationary panels which are highly affected during cloudy times. Stationary panels are at their peak efficiency at a specific time of the day. If clouds are over the units during the specific time of the day, they don't make much power. With a tracker, it doesn't matter what time of the day, the panels are always facing the Sun at peak efficiency. You can calculate this thing to death but in real life, a solo tracker is always a benefit.
After building a much larger system that tracks only East West holding 10x415w panels & watching your video I decided to buy one of these I think total cost with tax at around $430 my reason is to make another larger tracker for additional 10 panels based on this design & to use this one for shed fan & to vent the main house & my 1200 sqft detached garage attic, it's obvious a system with tracker produces at least 30% more power & could prevent roof usage. My detached garage is holding 28 of the 415w & by shed is holding additional 17 past mid day my 10 panels with the tracker produce more power than the total of 45 roof mounted panels. I am also planning to build much larger tracker at least single EW axis & free the detached garage roof. Thanks for sharing.
I have run the math for my particular system and it is definitely not worth it for me. This is probably very worth it for your setup because you have a relatively small solar array with what looks to be between 600 and 900 watts per station (guessing... could be wrong). I have a roof mounted 8.5KW 34 Panel system (335 Watt Panels) that I have already determined the Eco-Worthy tracking system won't support (according to their documentation) and a custom or large scale solar tracking setup would be way more expensive for me and likely most people who tell you it's not cost effective. For a small setup like that... sure, it's easy to install... you can use the less expensive Solar Tracking system and get your pay back. For large array's, it's not worth it. Also... for those who have large ground mounted arrays, it may be worth it if you mount a few panels on a tracker and have a lot of trackers (I would need about 8-10) but I don't have the room to mount anything on the ground... and you can't mount these on the roof. So... again, for me and a lot of others with roof mounted systems, it's not worth it.
I'd go 2 axis like you have done. 3 minute adjustment seems a bit too frequent compared to the gain achieved on each - I'm curious if the controller allows you to vary that timing increment through the day - both ends of the day it'll be more critical to do it more frequently and provide greater flow, where mid-day it's not quite a important. You didn't post any watts used for the actuators to fire, so hard to get real finite. Many areas hail will be an issue - not sure how simpler systems like these could benefit though as your motion is so restricted and you really wouldn't want it flat like for wind. Nice job - that 30% figure is going to probably be very accurate over an entire year with all the factors considered, that's what I'd read on a Los Alamos 2 axis tracker report already a couple decades ago.
Are you still finding this to be a optimal functioning? Any issues? Fixes? Tips?
LOL no. It is better to buy more panels. You are criticizing people who use math? Really? Calculating things out makes us stupid? 🤣
Your array is tiny. I dont even know where to start with this video lol is he trolling us? I hope he's joking
Thanks for taking the trouble to do this video. I learned a lot. One very important thing for me is the ease of installation.
I can place double the amount of panels and put them east/west instead of tracking. I'll get more output than with trackers. A few years ago when panels were 500$ per panel, I would have gone with trackers in some cases. But now we have 450w panels for less than 100$, and trackers are just not worth the hassle and investment.
Thanks
Thanks
Can you set them to "sleep" at night tilted to a programed position? (Like away from the road.) Thanks!
Yes you can
My tracers work great for about 7 months, then they started to not retract to neutral position when sun goes down. Called echo worthy , emailed them no response back, does anyone have a suggestion to solve my problem with trackers , thanks.
Tracker with 6 195w bifacial bundle is 1400 USD. Which could buy 10 of the Bifacial 195w not in a bundle. The 10 would be 10*195=1950watts while the tracker would be 6*195=1170, you said the tracker is 42% more efficient, someone else said 30%. That is 1170*1.3-1.42 = ~1521-1661 watts, for it to be equally as effective it would need to be 1950/1170 = ~67% more effective. Which means its still less watts for the same price. Pros Better for when there is cloudy midday (looking at you, UK) but with a bigger battery pack things will average out Space saving, could use the land underneath looks badass Cons Not as effective Harder to install Repair Shorter lifespan Heavy wind? maybe
Tony, sorry to wear you out with questions but here’s another one, lol It seems you upgraded your inverter because the Sungold had limited solar input? I checked on the newer Sungold 3,000 24 volt and the solar input appears to be 4,000 watts now. My question is, if that is the case, would you use the Sungold or PowerMr? I’m leaning toward the Sungold because they have a California phone number where many companies are only email and/or text, thanks. Are most of the similar inverters made by the same manufacturer with different boxes, labels?
Stop stealing people videos. Hack!
@dotsllc 5 days ago Dotsllc Trucking Really bad company buyer beware i am fighting with the company now got 3100. worth of junk been from the first day they want me too pay to ship it back Reply
@dotsllc 5 days ago Dotsllc Trucking Really bad company buyer beware i am fighting with the company now got 3100. worth of junk been from the first day they want me too pay to ship it back Reply
@dotsllc 5 days ago Dotsllc Trucking Really bad company buyer beware i am fighting with the company now got 3100. worth of junk been from the first day they want me too pay to ship it back Reply
@dotsllc 5 days ago Dotsllc Trucking Really bad company buyer beware i am fighting with the company now got 3100. worth of junk been from the first day they want me too pay to ship it back Reply
@dotsllc 5 days ago Dotsllc Trucking Really bad company buyer beware i am fighting with the company now got 3100. worth of junk been from the first day they want me too pay to ship it back Reply
@dotsllc 5 days ago Dotsllc Trucking Really bad company buyer beware i am fighting with the company now got 3100. worth of junk been from the first day they want me too pay to ship it back Reply
Could you please share the brand/size of your circuit breakers both DC and incoming solar? I looked in yiur drop down, so if I missed it, sorry
I really like the AC connections on this inverter. So many 3,000 watt inverters are so cheap, and the screws to connect are tiny, but on output you need 8 gauge wire in those tiny, tiny screw connections
I just subscribed. I’m looking to build a portable power station and this seems to be perfect for that, because it accepts solar, AC input to charge batteries, monitor included. Awesome it can run off Solar without batteries until someone can upgrade.
I have two issues: 1 - Its not large enough. I need to be able to put 10 * 455 panels on one and the trackers I have seen for those are $2k - $3k. 2 - I would really like to know how they perform in 80mph - 110mph winds. We actually do get hit with these winds where I am once a year. Still an awesome video though, thank you for sharing
You are soooooo right! The glass on top of the panel reflects some light and the more angle to the sun, the more it reflects. The rest refracts down to the PV cells. It's not just cosine of angle in real life. Them tree shadows, if the post could extend when there's no bad wind and geddown when there is, could getcha more time is all. Scissor-jack legs? A DIY tracker done right will cost less but might not do all that this one does.
What is the maximum weight limit of all panels? Can I use 400 watt REC panels?
This is advantageous too because you end up very close to 100% production as soon as the panels can point at the sun. The "just add more panel" requires buying a bigger inverter as well as more panals, racking, etc. A tracker lets you fill in more of a smaller inverter's capacity without needing a bigger system to avoid clipping. These are quite economical now.
good morning Sir...upon seeing this interesting video of dual axis tracker..I started my own small project... thank you for tutorial video...from Philippines... czcams.com/channels/rTYPM-Hn25aPecmbSfnqng.html
Just got mine in. Getting ready to hook up my system. The main reason i got this one is do to the high vdc input. My panels in series is making 140 vdc. And tracker system is 1200 watts. Thanks for the help
what is the expected cost of wind damage ? if you can lose shingles you can lose these big things, and thats 6 panels to replace. i keep insurance on a car thats worth less than a set of your panels,
Question? Your system looks awesome. I want the 3000 watt model, and like always I always download the manual first. In the manual it reads PV operating range 120v-450v. Do I really need at least 120v from my solar panels for the system to operate? It's kinda cloudy alot up here in Northern PA. I have panels wired in series already for when it's cloudy or morning hours, it does reach 80 volts when it's sunny. Wondering about the 120v-450v in the manual?
yes, you need to be inbetween the min and max for the mppt to kick on or not fry the inverter. you will have to series up panels to meet the min.
Thank you ✊
What about snow protection? Anything on that direction?
I do not know how winters are there but in the winter time this pays up big time. Another concern for winter is the flat rest position. I think it should be vertical when snowing. Does it have that posibility?
a lot of inverters are made by same people
How has your footings held up? I like this method vs concrete.
I can never understand why these trackers use photo sensors to track the sun. A GPS module and position sensors should work far better.
Great work, I have now also bought the system. greetings from germany.
trackers are especially beneficial for batteries, because they smooth and prolong the power output from panels. there is not rapid increase, peak at the noon and then drop of power output. that can be replicated with several fixed panel fields facing different directions, but i think, tracker is more elegant solution.
I'd say the advantages of having a correctly sized inverter, and a broader production curve and a lot of value people aren't calculating in.
I like the way you explain things.