Diy Budget Solar Tracker System, tracking vs no tracking.
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 มิ.ย. 2023
- I built this in 2014 and it has been served me well. Now, with a new tracker controller on it, I thought it is time to do a comparison between tracking and no tracking.
Here is a link from the other video where I explain all the settings I have done into the controller.
My new budget solar tracker controller on my diy solar tracker system, is it good?
• My new budget solar tr... - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
I would keep the trees. It would be cheaper to add a panel or two.
Absolutely, but I would love the extra hours of evening sun.
Thanks for your comment btw☺️
@@flyingtools there are enough trees arround growing. no one said anything as someone was removing trees to put a house there and a yard arround.
people think having trees is the soulution for everything. but trees are also only a co2, carbon and energy circle in the system. a realy not effektive one. if you can get 1h more solar out of your system ofer the next 20 years you will have use this many less co2 from grid power plants its worth hundrets of trees.
also you can just plant a new one or let one grow up you would otherwise cut down to still have the nature in balance AND have your more solar every day.
Great why dont you hold the panal and track the sun by yourself ;)
Yeah but the power still drops off precipitously during the even with a few panels won't make up for and you'll need battery storage to make up for that difference and batteries are more expensive than panels or even trackers
@@razawaheed7824 You should play Stationeers.
Good experiment and presentation of your data. Helpful to consider potential 30% increase using tracking. Your added text with numbers helps, and the graph was very useful. Cheers ! Vitality and Prosperity.
Thank you so much, sir.😃
Great video Agent Smith, I would definitely add slo-mo's to your videos here and there. They are fun to watch. People always ask me why I bothered buying the eco-worthy solar trackers, well your data with your trackers shows why. Thanks.
Thank you so much ☺️
If the space is limited trackers is the way to go.
Thank you so much for watching 😃
Hello I found this by accident and watched it all from start to finish! Well done Jamie from Port Hedland Western Australia ☀
Wow, thank you so much sir ☺️
Nice project there! Also what a lovely place to live! Waiting for the next video.
Thank you so much 😃
Nice work, it gives a lot of extra energy!
Very nice and clean setup 👌
Thanks 😃
Your Home/Property/ Yard are Gorgeous. I subscribed. Then went to look at your other 100's video's. HaHa. Keep it coming.
Thank you so much and you are so welcome😍
Very nice sun trackers, not too big or heavy but still producing some useful amount of power. There is also a single axis tracking option which might be less complicated but also there is going to be slightly less increase in energy. Best regards! Very interesting video!
Thanks for your comparison!!! 30% and an even power curve...
Great work! 👍👍👍
Great presentation! I will now avoid trackers and simply build more static due to frequency of extreme 80-100 Kms/hr winds in Newfoundland.
Thank you, so much 😃
That sounds like a good idea.👍🏻
Shade stops production.
This is why I use Tigo optimisers, and contrary to all those who criticise, I find I get excellent results as most of my shade is similar to your trees.
People get confused and haven't any real life experiance with larger pv arrays this is where the technology shines in larger systems like ours.
Unlike other optimisers they work with everything and although not relevent here can mix and match panels within reason and dependent on inverter spec.
The other relevent information that is often misrepresented by the poorly informed is that they mess with MPPT inverter management and this is not true.
Love the content. am considering adding something like yours to add another 4kw to my 9kw setup
In my case, I only have partly shadow on my panels for a very short time like 10 minutes . Therefore, I do not have any optimisers.
Glad that you like the content, and thank you so much for your comment .
That’s awesome. Thx for the test.
Thanks😃
And thank you for your comment☺️
Neat, you are getting about 2.5 hours of extra sun in the morning and another hour in the afternoon by using tracking. Both systems die at 19:00 hours, so the tracking doesn't really benefit an off grid battery system there. Meaning to need a smaller battery system given higher expected solar power. That 2.5 hours extra in the morning, effectively shifting the noon peak power is the most interesting. That gives the most potential for tracking to have a major benefit for a battery system.
In my own experimenting the totally flat plateau in solar output is mostly due to the temperature of the panels rising exponentially with the linear rise in light flux.
But the maximum power output is the same when they are aligned with the sun, the static power curve should be higher du you mean ? Right? Or maybe I misunderstand you.
Thanks for your comment anyway ☺️
@@flyingtools The morning and evening sun still go through a lot more atmosphere - but above a certain amount of light the panel starts to really loose a lot of efficiency due to heat. So it ends up making a flat top of output. At least that’s been the case with all my old polycrystalline panels.
Wonderful nature! I've seen video twise - nice place, good construction velding!
Thank you😃 im so glad that you like it ☺️
Thank you for sharing your tracker info. Can you give feed back on your east west drivers…how long in service…price?? Do you have battery storage?
Your attention to detail….and clean wire loom runs….nice to look at….
Hi, and thank you for watching. Those are linear activators that I bought from eBay pretty cheap. They have now been up and running for nine years and I have during that period change one of them due to bad waterproofing. I have a 68kwh Batterie storage. It’s make me happy that you did see my clean wiring. I have put some extra hours in it😉
Härligt med en till växelriktare! Growatt är vad jag förstått programmerbar för sälj och köp av el. Timelaps ja det vill jag gärna se. Allt got!
Denna enkla inverter kan bara sälja, men det räcker för mig. Timelaps är registrerat.😃
Tack för din kommentar ☀️
thats fun, i like that setup.
Thank you. I have done this most for fun. I off course.
Great video!!
Thank you ☺️
12:14 VERY impressive numbers!
I live in Spain and experimented with the idea of tracking for our 8kWp system. But we get a lot of high winds here so the mechanics of it meant they would need to be extremely well engineered and the cost would be very high. In the end the simplest and by far cheapest solution was for extra panels and a dual string inverter with one set of panels facing SE and another facing SW so creating a mildly flattened curve. And since we are fortunate to have an area ~8000sq all flat land with few obstacles casting shadows to put it on it meant we could ground mount it all optimally.
So, yes tracking can definitely be effective, but if you have the space more panels arranged optimally for your use case is much cheaper and less likely to get destroyed by weather.
Yes you are correct about that and i also have two fixed systems.
Here is a link to my complete system.
Thank you for your comment ☺️
th-cam.com/video/IM2jXbgr70A/w-d-xo.htmlsi=PiTpb0sjTgDGuDrF
Nice video!
Thanks😃
You are the MAN!👍
Thanks, glad you liked it ☺️
Hey, very interesting! thanks again for your video.
I have read somewhere that the difference is around 20%, but 30% is something that makes you think twice, in terms of leave panels static.
Hi, thank you.
I depends much on witch latitude you live on. The higher the better (in the summer)☺️
@@flyingtools I figure that, looks like your latitude almost doubled mine (Canary Islands). Thanks again for the value you bring to us.
@@cesaranzalone4797 thank you so much ☺️
yea but thats also only on a summerday with optimal clear sky and the right angle to the sun. count in the other seasons, cloudy days and an other angle? those 30,3% are droppinng down ny a lot.
lets half it for good messurement.. thats only 15% more solarpanels you would need to get the same amount.
he got only 12 panels up there. that would be only about 2 panels more on that 30% would be 2 per tower.. put up an additonal tower with 12 panels and you tripple this up to 6 times.. and you get better low light power with more collectorspace.
its realy more easy to put up a 3rd tower or install an more east or south panel system to gain more in the evening and mornings to susidice the tracking.
for example use the realy big roof you can see in the background to gain more as the tracking system is be able to ever gain.
@@Total_Egal I think you should se my other videos… 4kwp on the roof and 7,2kwp on the mountain behind the trees.
This tracking thing is mostly for fun, I guess I have to clarify that in the next video😅
Thanks for your comment and thoughts anyway.
I built my own tracker and was surprised that it did indeed harvest a little over 30% more energy. I have to say though, with the price of panels today, even a home made tracker it is barely cost effective.
Yes, I agree, this is more for fun, and it also depends a lot on which latitude the trackers are located.
It depends what the application is, if your charging batterys then simply more panels is probably going to be cheaper.....if your using the power directly then a tracker will give more time during the to day where there is enough power to use.....i know of a small wood pellet producer using a modified wood shaving mill and hammer mill directly running off solar with no battery's in the system, their solar panels are all on trackers that allow the system to operate for more hours in the day
@@unhippy1 Very interesting. The bottleneck in these systems is often battery capacity, not panel capacity. The ability to get consistent enough output to skip the battery completely is something I've never considered. I wonder what you could do with this. Maybe heat water?
@@caustinolino3687 heating water would be an easy way use the extra power altho if you were charging battery's you'd need a wind turbine type load diversion charge controller or something......all my hotwater in the summer is produced by solar panels wired straight to an element in my hotwater cylinder
@@unhippy1 just facing some panels in different directions would also give you more time during the day with enough solar production.
Great video! Just add 30% more panels. (They now so cheap) and avoid tracking unit manufacture and Maintenance, to achieve the same result!
I absolutely agree with you on that. I built this, mostly for fun and I of course have a lot of fixed panels also. Thank you for your comment.
Great video and information. Any idea what is the difference between a stationary panel laying flat on the roof of an RV for example, vs stationary but angled one?
Hi!
In winter time, the flat panel will definitely produce less energy. But in the summer, the kWh/day can be around the same where I live. It depends on which latitude you live on. Glad that you liked the video, and thank you for your question😊
Interesting stuff
Hi Nice video!!!
What kind of actuators use? What was the dimension?
Each tracker has own controllers, or you did it parallely?
What kind of angle what You can follow?
Greatings from Hungary!
Mycket intressant! Kul att se trenderna! 👍👍😃
Klart att vi vill se en timelapse på detta 🤩
Haha, tack, kul att det uppskattas.
Tack vare din kommentar i min tidigare video så påskyndade jag denna😉
@@flyingtools Haha, kul! 😃Alla med solceller skulle ju vilja att de flyttades på detta viset, så riktigt kul att se vad det verkligen ger!
I like your panel mounting frame and pole system. Did you make that yourself or purchase that from somewhere? If bought, may I ask where you got them from? Thanks
Hi and thank you so much. I have built this completely out of my head so sadly i do not have any blueprints or a link to where I bought it from. Thank you so much for your comment☺️
Nice work… Thanks for all the research … The counter discussion is to ask what is the extra cost for a tracking system versus 30% more panels … Assuming space is available and that the peak voltage does not require a bigger inverter … Generally if space is available I find extra panels are a cheaper approach … Again thanks for the video ..
The time of supply is alos important I guess. You want to generate more during peek demand when energy is expensive...
@@robertnorman7309 very good point - in most cases peek demand is early morning and late afternoon… which then says East and West static bias is more important than north / south - depending on hemisphere…
30% more panels will theoretically make up the shortfall in daily kWh, but your problem is that adding those panels may see the array exceed the controller's maximum voltage or current limits in the middle of the day, including the potential short circuit current limit. So ideally you would have the additional panels with a DC circuit breaker on a timer which brings them into the circuit in the morning and evening, but drops them out of the circuit at times of peak insolation.
Depending on the setup, this may only be a problem in summer, but it needs to be considered.
The tracker system doesn't have this issue.
@@nigelwilliams7920 The issue is cost. If having a tracking system is cheaper than adding more panels to get 30% more power then it'd be best to get a tracker.
Another issue is that it might be better for people who aren't home during the day and have no battery. Those people need more power in the morning and evening when they are home.
@thevidco it depends on. I have done all of the work myself and just paid for the iron bars, controller and the linear activators, so, in my case, I probably will go break even.
I built this mostly for a fun, and I don’t think that this is a way to go if you’re looking to gain more money out from it. I personally have a lot of fixed panels, one string to the east and the other string straight to the south, and for me that is the best and most economically way to go. Thank you for your comment.
Timelapse would be cool to see 😁
cool thanks alot for sharing info
Thank you ☺️
with an anemometer, Arduino and a couple of lines, u can set it to go to neutral position automatically when there's a strong wind
Hi, yes, Home assistant will take care of that later, but I will try to read out the wind and sun from the whether forecast.
At least the wind.
Thanks for your input 👍🏻😊
Very nice.
Thank you😃☀️
especially in summer in sweden......good results. would be interesting what results you have in winter. then in your location the difference must be nearly the same.
Hi, during the winter, I have them standing still,
I might have to do a test on that this winter. It would be interesting to see the difference. Thank you so much for your comment.
I would bet bifacial panels would be better in such tracking systems as opposed to ground mount or roof mount. Probably would gain you another 10-15%.
Would be interesting to do the same comparison in October and January.
Then the are fixt in south position. So not so interesting. Just like a normal system.
November-February.
Thanks for your comment 😊
It would be interesting to test bifacial panels with tracing and normal panels with tracing. You can do this because you have the rig already.
Nice.
That’s amazing! This is what I’m looking for. Do you have some data for me to do a similar construction in Belgium? What kind of single linear actuator and damper did you use? Any help is appreciated 🙂. Thank you in advanced.
Hi, and thank you so much for your comment. I have built this straight out of my head so sadly I do not have any blueprints on it. The activators and controllers did I buy on eBay. Hope it helps and have a fantastic day.😊
@@flyingtools Thanks for response. But what kind of damper did you use, 500N for example? And the single linear actuator is how long for turning your panels? Maybe 18 inches?
I'd like to see the test figures in mid-winter too (assuming you are in northern hemi). I think that it maybe more pronounced then and might make a big difference.
Hi!
Yes I actually have plans for that.
I just hope for some clear skies then.
Thanks for your comment ☺️
Cool!! Growat grid tied inverter has a sensor to limit Watts into the grid? Many thanks
Hi and thank you 😊
No not this one.
Thanks for your question😊
Good job! Want to see timelapse
😃 Thank you!
im planning on using similar setup at my house next year so this was very helpful video. I have a question, would 2 axis tracker make sense for winter sun? My plan is to heat water tank storage for heating and washing which in winter is more needed than in summer.
I have done some testings with a second axis, and it will not be worth the money at least not here where I live. In the winter time, I just have my panels fixed straight to the south. I have plans to do a test during the winter time to see how much the gain will be than, I think it will be very little to be honest.
@@flyingtools thank you for a reply. will consider the simplest solution probably
Nice place!
11:35 remove trees and put wind generators in the next summer!
Thanks, already tried wind generator, I have more videos about that, but I sold it when I changed my battery voltage from 48v to 450v.
Mantap Bro.. ❤
Thank you ☺️
wow impressive results! Will you cut only top section of the trees?
Thanks, 😃 I have not decided to take it down yet but if so, they will be cut down completely.
with your location, and sun angle, you might get a fair gain in spring and autumn with some reflectors in front of the panels....in winter, with very low sun angle, it could be quite an improvement ...
Even if the percentage increase would be huge, the overall irradiance in winter is so insignificant that it makes no sense to invest in it.
Do you manually adjust angle each season or do you leave it same and only track E to W? If you adjust angle, how much percentage improvement?
Yes that’s right. I have not done any tests to it but nowadays, I just leave them in spring position, but I can set them between winter spring and summer, but I don’t think that the power output will be so much of a difference. Thank you so much for your comment.
very cool
Thanks 😃
How would those standup to a windstorm of 40 - 50 mph or worse? I have a ground mounts where the panels are solidly mounted to the frame but one windstorm was strong enough to rip one of the panels from the frame. Amazingly even though the panel landed on the ground it wasn't damaged. The turning moment of those panels on that pole would be like that of a sail ship especially bad at the articulating joints.
I explain that I the video.
It has been standing like this for nine years and have already payed them self of anyway if the worst thing should happen.😉
Gärna en time-lapse ;-)
Men släng in spottpriset i grafen så får du ut 200% mer pengar med tracking?
Kul, då hoppas vi att fler hänger på😉
Ja, just nu är det typ skit samma men vanligtvis är det ju grymt mycket bättre på morgonen och kvällen, så du har helt klart en poäng där👍🏻
I want it!!!!
haha u got me with the skipping the video! nice work, thank you!
Haha, thanks😅👍🏻
Flying tools
I have always wondered, why people don't mount, mirrors or a mirrored surface, in the sunlight, so they can direct more energy onto the panel's, in low light conditions.
So at Dawn and dusk or cloudy days, you can double or even triple the amount of light hitting the surface of your panels... Obviously on full light days, this would make them too hot. But in a low light condition, this would keep them functioning at 100%
Probably because it’s too complex and also more expensive of course, but it is a really interesting idea. Thank you so much for your comment.😊
@@flyingtools If they can mount 10,000 mirrors in the desert and focus them all on one point to create a hotspot you can focus two mirrors onto your solar array lol
Come on. You're at least 1/5000th of the men they are lol
Mirrors in combination with Photovoltaic is not a good idea. The mirrors will also focus IR (heat radiation), thus heating the panels. PV efficiency drops massively with heat. So, in the end, the added effort may even be detrimental.
If done in combination with solar thermal set-ups, mirrors make of course a lot of sense.
@@klausdittmer1043 you read my initial comments I specifically said, you could only do it in low-light conditions, just to make the solar cell work at 100% efficiency.
It is one-hundred-percent possible because years after I came up with this idea I want a scientist actually do it and test it
There's plenty of light in the sky at very low light times if you concentrate that light
So monitoring temperature was included in that
But you would have known that if you actually had reading comprehension for what I wrote
@@klausdittmer1043 The "temperature Coefficient of Pmax" of most solar panels is about 0,4%/°C (it tells us how much power it loses for every °C that the panel is hotter than 25°C). Even is the panels would get like an additional 20°C hotter than normal when concentrating (a lot of) light on them, they would only lose an additional 8% of power (20°C * 0,4%/°C = 8%) (for an additional 20°C rise in temperature a lot of additional light would be needed).
The added temperature could potentially degrade the panels sligthly faster..
I'm curious -- why did you choose to wire all the panels in series instead of in parallel?
It is not easy or maby not possible to find a certified inverter that will work on low voltage in Sweden. There is also 20m distance between the inverter and the trackers so the power loss in the cables would be huge, or the cable all too expensive. Thanks for your question.
Yes, yes, yes to an all day tracking time lapse please,
😃👍🏻
+1 Would love to see it!
It's gonna be better in winter when the sun is coming in sideways, my panels are mounted shallow due to my shed roof and I see in winter the angle is way off.
In my case, during the winter, I have my panels fixed straight to the south.
The sun will just make it above the horizon.
Would be interesting to see bifacial panels in vertical east-west configuration, non moving. Anyways Thanks for episode.
Yes that would be very interesting.
Thanks for your comment😊
So what was the differential kWh - ie area under the curve added and what percentage additional did that represent over the baseline?
The difference between fixed and tracking is 3,6kWh in this set up.
It will be much less in the winter time.
Nice human made sunflowers! :)
The panels have black boxes installed on the non sun facing side - are these microinverters?
Hi, thank you. That’s only the connection box. They are all connected in series so no micro inverters needed.
@@flyingtools I wasn't sure if you did have them to offset any shading or to keep open circuit voltages low for safety... :)
Do you know how much power more do you gain in Winter? More than 30% or less?
Almost nothing, I actually use to have them parked during December and January
Do you think you could beef up the system to hold 12 panels?
Just wanted your opinion.
Not 12 at one stand, it will not hold up for a windy day.
great thanks!
Your welcome 🤗
Goid day sir watched every second of video.
I question whats the benefits of doing in series (higher input voltage) vs parallel on the panels
Hi!
The power loss is much lesser, and you can also have a thinner gauge of cable.
The inverter also does a much better job with higher voltage and less heat from it. The only downside is that it is dangerous for us humans, and of course, if you shade one panel, the whole string will drop in power.
Thank you for your question.
@@flyingtools thank yoy
Thanks!
Thank you😉
in small right spaces, this is excellent, but where space is not an issue, more panels are cheaper and don't incur the maintenance costs of tracking (and reduced risk of storm damage)
You are a spot on there👍🏻
I of course have more panels, 11,25kwp and a 62kWh diy 450v battery.
I have built this mostly for fun.
Thank you so much for your comment.
@@flyingtools fun is the best reason! and on really gloomy days, you'll still get a nice bonus.
How far apart are the posts spaced so that they do not shade each other. Thanks
Around 6 meters i guess, but one of them are much higher, but in the darkest weeks the south one actually cast a tiny shade on the rear one. I made it telescopic so I can raise it up even higher, but I don’t bother to do that anymore.
Thank you for your question☺️
Very nice place! Where in Sweden is this?
Thanks, yes I really love this place.
Hi, wouldn’t be cheirar to keep it fixed and just add 30% more panels, avoiding the mechanical parts that will have maintenance and are another potential failure point?
I of course have that to. This is more because it’s fun and interesting to se the difference. Thats the hole idea with this video.
Hello man. What a model you use a tracker engine/actuator and where you buy this? Tack
Hi!
I bought cheap linear actuators on eBay for this, 550mm 1500Nm if I remember correctly. I might do a separate vide about the parts I am using.
Thanks for your comment 😊
@@flyingtools This will be very nice about parts list. Thanks
Sunflowers? nice
Dont listen to the npcs saying 30% isnt a lot when its literally 20% away from 50% people are paid to detour good thinking.. Much love my brother.
Thank you so much ☺️
Interesting! -- QUESTION -- one issue, @11:50 you show power charts, with Power (W) on one axis, and time on the other. But the time scale is unclear. Why is it not showing solar on an hourly scale. It is not consistent from what I can tell. Can you show us the chart with the bottom scale in an hourly scale?
The screenshot was not taken exactly at the same so the timescale or a little bit of. Sadly, I don’t have any other photos of the chart.
I wish that the tracker would just work on your Latitude and Longitude and time of the day. You don't need no constant measuring when the sun movement can't be predicted year over year and probably with better precision. It's just the installation might be more tricky
I have done some test on that, and it is not worth it.
I might have to do a video about that to.
Spring setting vs winter and summer😉
Thanks for your comment.
@@flyingtools I'd love to see this.
Excellent video. I really like your honesty as well as engineering skills. Empirical data is so much more authentic than computer models which suffer from GiGo.
My mathematics skills are limited, but it seems that a mistake is being propagated about wind power...
The much repeated wind turbine formula is:
Pw= 1/2 p A V3
But the kinetic energy formula is.
KE= 1/2 M V2
In which, velocity is only squared not cubed!
What do you think?
For Kinetic Energy (KE) it is indeed 1/2 times the Mass (M) of the object, times Velocity (V) squared.
KE=1/2 M V^2
The difference is, the mass is referencing the entirety of the object. When talking about wind, you need the mass of all the air particles that pass by the turbine.
The Air turbine formula is 1/2 times rho (p) times area (A) times Velocity (V) cubed.
Pw = 1/2 p A V^3
You need to know the mass of all the air particles that pass by the turbine. To get that you need the air density, rho (p), and the volume of air. You have the frontal area of the turbine, so we just need the "length" of the cylinder to determine the volume. That length is the distance the air moves over a give time increment, generally 1 second. Thus:
M = p A V
substituting this into KE = 1/2 M V^2 gives:
KE = 1/2 (p A V) V^2
or
KE = 1/2 p A V^3
Hope that makes sense.
@@DeSahd thanks for the detailed reply.
But i disagree...
KE is in joules. Whereas power is in watts. This adds the element of time.
I agree that the length of the cylinder of air that energy is extracted from in one second is the same as the wind speed in meters per second. But that is to calculate the mass that is being decelerated. You don't get to multiply it again.
I have been studying graphs of measured turbine outputs from. The ones i can find conform to the V squared slope.
I think the ones published by vestas that look too perfect, may be computer generated from the dodgy V cubed formula.
@davebutler3905
Thank you so much. I tried to keep it as simple as possible.
Sadly, I cannot help you with your question.
What about making a system where you have two or three sets of panels (south-west+south-east or south-west+south+south-east) and either a passive diode system to isolate them or three micro inverters? I'm curious about making a system that has zero moving parts and that minimizes the cost of installation and electronics and maximizes the energy output during morning and afternoon. The maximum accumulated daily energy or peak noon power is often not the most important thing as many users can't use that energy, sell it to the grid or store it. The panels themselves are so cheap today that installing 30% area extra is no biggie. Might be much cheaper than a reliable tracking system. Vertical panels are also a thing when you go further north and have to worry about snow and fall leaves and such. Ease of installation and maintenance and cheapness above all.
I been thinking about est south west installation, but in a sunny day in the middle of the winter, 66% of the panels will pretty much just stand there, up north we’re I live.
How ever, that’s only my thoughts without even trying this myself yet.
Thanks for your comment.
Gärna time lapse. ☀️☀️
😃
What panels are these and what size steel tube did you use?😊
Hi, 160w each, ecoworthy, but they are 10 years old now. I don’t have the size in my head but I plan to make the video about that in the future.
not to forget: time for a time lapse before the longest day in sweden this year
Need plans on units!
Hi, sorry but I don’t have any plans on those units. I simply create them straight out of my head.
Thanks for the informative video. I’m a full timer camper in the US. I’d like to build a similar, yet portable, solar tracking system. Are you willing to share your schematic design with me? Looks like a tripod base, a grid of bars, a linear actuator, and some form of sensor/controller attached to a power source. I’m just learning and you seem to be heading in a great direction. I don’t have room in our camper for more solar panels so your solar tracking system makes sense for me, too. Thanks, again!
I doubt you will have space for the construction needed in your camper. This is a massive construction. The solar tracker is from china about 70$ at least that new one he had shown in his previous video. Then you will need the motors and all the metal bars. And these get expensive if you do not build them on your own.
But for a camper it will get really hard to find a solution cause we had tried so before and always had issues with the overall volume of the construction and panels cause you need to carry that in the camper or in a trailer which we did not liked. We then decided to go for a bigger Lithium battery we have to charge up once we are able to get power.
At the end it was easier for us to carry 3 simple high efficient panels than all the mess needed for a tracking solution. That would always needed a trailer and that is not what we had wanted. also camping ground can reject to use them cause you have to deliver the proof that they are safe even in strong gusts which means you will need a lot of weight we are not willing to carry along cause there are windsmaps showing the windload / stormload of regions which then provide the amount of weight per squaremeter in the wind direction.
But maybe the chinese have now an offer for mobile solar tracker incl. a foldable lightweight metal construction.
@@typxxilps, Thank you for the information. I have two Rich Solar slim 100w panels. I hope to create a much smaller scale system. We use the solar panels in US national forests. We don’t often stay in campgrounds. I’m interested in the basic design elements, such as linear actuator, sensor/motor setup, to best modify for my situation. My bracket will be significantly smaller than traditional solar tracker systems, yet the core components may be the same. Eco-Worthy sells a larger solution. No reason I shouldn’t be able to make one to move my two panels as the sun crosses the sky, right?
Hi.Sorry for my late reply I’ve built the system completely out of my head so I have no drawings on it whatsoever. I just bought a cheap tracker on eBay and two linear activators and start welding the iron pieces together. Hope you come up to something and thank you for your project .😊
@@flyingtools, I hope to build a small scale version with linear actuators, too. Not sure how/which controller to try. Using a time-based controller sounds good, but not as accurate as a sun sensor. I have more to read about.
@@LetsGo2WFALLS time based is the way to go. 👍🏻 that’s my plan to. When I’m finished with that I will post a video here if there is anything that can be interesting for you guys.😊
is it tracking the sun automatically, and changing the panel position automatically?
Yes, I have now even making it to track the sun via time together with home assistant instead of just seeking the sun.
Tracking should always be done on two axes, and then you'll see the real power of the system. The difference, on a clear horizon and tracking vs non-tracking, is actually about 54%. You should only install tracking if you have a complete clear horizon path. Other wise, the difference will be smaller, and in the monts before and afte summer, the results are gonna be bad. Of course, the investment for the tracking systems are small, so there's a bit of a good news.
Wow, that’s a very hi number. I adjust the second axel manually, 3 different settings, winter, spring and summer, and I have done some tests with 2 axis vs that type I already have and the difference is not that big at all. But it depends more on where you live. Closer to the poles, the better the numbers tracking versus no tracking will give you, during the summer.
to mention your latitude would be helpfull !
where i live i loose a Lot on using Single axis Tracking .
Sun here is not moving linear truout the day.
Sorry for my poor english!!
.. and thumb up;)
Sorry for my late reply, 57° north. Your English is just fine. Thank you so much for your comment.😊
I want to see the tracking time lapse 😊
Here it is😊.
th-cam.com/video/zZ1a4YIIZBU/w-d-xo.htmlsi=5D8zREPwl1TgTBIu
❤
How much energy the tracking system consumes?
Interesting question. I honestly don’t know. But it’s not much. It now takes the power from the grid using a transformer 220v ac in to 12v dc out. I have also used a 12 V battery on 51ah and that did last for around two weeks so maybe around 50wh/day?
I think I have to measure it up just for fun
Thank you so much for your comment. 😊
A timelaps would be much appreciated. 😎👍
Im working on it right now. I will post it in a few hours.😉
Thank you so much for your comment 😃
It all comes down to the cost though. That tracking device seem to need some hour of labor to put together as well as the parts. With that much effort and money, it might be cheaper to put a few more panels on the side.
Absolutely, I already have more panels and a 62kwh battery, you will find more here: th-cam.com/video/IM2jXbgr70A/w-d-xo.htmlsi=sb3XYXUw_GLmqo7U
But still i think it’s interesting to show the difference.
@@flyingtools For sure interesting. And if the space is limited, this is necessary. Thanks
👍
Where did you get the tracker?
I bought the linear actuator on and the controller on eBay, the metalwork have I built myself. Thank you for your question.
@@flyingtools l can't get the linear actuator to operate off the solar panel alone. Using the charge controller with it just runs the actuator continuously. It won't stop.
Time lapse of the tracking, please.
😃
Here it is:
Time Lapse Of My Diy Budget Solar Tracker System,
th-cam.com/video/zZ1a4YIIZBU/w-d-xo.html
The comments on this video show lots of interest in tracking technology. A single motor tracker needs to have the axis of rotation parallel to the earth's axis of rotation. Like an Equatorial telescope mount. This allows it to compensate for the earth's rotation and keep facing the sun. (Right Ascension)
But it can't move like clockwork... The eccentricity of the earths orbit means the length of a solar day changes throughout the year; consequently "the equation of time" is applicable.
Ideally the panels would also have to have a tilt adjustment to compensate for winter and summer. (Declination).
But if you are going to use two motors, maybe let the computer do the hard work and keep the mechanics to a simpler, azimuth and altitude arrangement.
A light sensor down a tube that is perpendicular to the plane of the panels might facilitate automatic calibration and machine learning.
Would be an interesting project...
Especially getting one pair of motors to control a line of similar panel mounts.
When I did build this nine years ago, I decided to adjust the tilt angel three times per year. I have one settings for summer, one settings for winter and one for spring and I have done some tests to it, and the angle does not have to be precise at all, so it’s more than enough to adjust it manually three times times per year. And it’s also a lot less complicated.
But the cool factor is of course higher😅
@@flyingtools You did a great job of it! Still working all these years later.
My projects seldom get beyond the plans. Building a battery monitor/inverter controller/dump load driver from an arduino at present. The electronics is interesting.
Yeah we wanna see that's moving and tracking, timelaps
Ah, you have gotten a MIC 3000 with 1 mppt I guess.
Be aware that if you are using the HomeAssistant integration that growatt starts to block accounts cause they do not like the amount of api requests cause the HA integration right now is based on the cloud service growatt provides and access the growatt server cloud , not your local inverter or the wifi stick.
BUT: there is an upcoming solution for HA at least for HACs user which will be based on GROTT. Grott is raspberry pi based service that will no longer access the growatt cloud and ask for data but act as a proxy between the WiFi Stick communication of your inverter with the Growatt Cloud. It is a kind of passive interceptor or listener in that communication.
This solution has already been developed and used in a different application you might also know, the EVCC surplus charging solution which allows to charge you car only while you have surplus power that you feed in . But this solution is working independently of your smartmeter (which measures what you feed in), your inverter and the wallbox you are using.
So that is pretty smart and can be configured to act as a proxy between your growatt inverter and the growatt cloud to get all the data and still have the access to the cloud without being blocked in the evening after x api calls on that day. I have 5 Growatt inverters which means 5 times the api calls from 1 account and growatt starts to block me earlier and earlier the longer the days get.
Then I can not get access via App nor browser login, only the single page report is working.
If you do not know what that single page report is : It allows you to share your system data with the world or friends what your system is producing right now, today or even in the past.
You could call it real time data, but it is not real time cause these cloud services usually send data in intervalls, so every 5 minutes the data of the past 5 minutes, but the growatt page will show you only 1 figure for the past 5 minutes so an average.
So, you can create a single web page report anyone can access without a login required to get the basic graph and data of your system. Growatt will give you a unique, quite long URL that works for anybody who knows that and you might feel uncomfortable but there is a option cause you can set an expiration like 2 weeks (for the beginning usefull), 1 months, 3 months, 6 months, a year and never.
Might be an opportunity for all those who watch and have no real idea what you are talking about and if your figures mentioned are real. But it is just an option you can use or not.
But there is even more cause if you create such single page (you can create multiple, different ones as you like it cause there are some more options) then this can be usefull for other use cases far beyond your current focus or scope for example to be used with an AMAZON ECHO device.
Amazon echo devices come with the silk browser and you can call such page from any echo show device or even AMAZON FIRE TABLET if that is running in echo mode or however it is called, cause every Amazon fire tablet can act like a ECHO SHOW.
What you will need is an amazon echo skill that will start for you the silk browser and the certain URL you want based on the command like GROTT.
Out of the box you could say Alexa, start SILK / Browser but that would be it, it would not be able to start a certain page like ebay for example
You need to activate the mypage skill and there you can save up to 10 keywords with 10 urls you want to call to get a URL shown for example the growatt single page report cause this does not require a login you would otherwise need.
You can say "alexa, open mypage and show me TRACKER" where tracker is the keyowrd for that url
Then echo show or amazon fire tablet will open the SILK browser and show to you the last url you had opened and then the webpage you want. If you had watched the last time the tracker then it will be there from the beginning otherwise it might take 1 second or 2.
Finally: Homeassistant also offers the ability to show a single page, so you could also use that one page report to be displayed inside HA without any need of a growatt integration.
Your system is only feeding in and I guess you will get the same rate for every kWh you are feeding in which then means that you can set the kWh price up in the growatt inverter configuration and you would get the value of what you have fed in in local currency like Ore in your report, not only kWh.
So a lot of opportunities and the key word to search for might be single page report or follow this path once you have logged into your account via browser:
if you are in the dashboard of that mic 3000 inverter you should see in the upper middle icons like Dashboard - energy - home energy - log - setting
You click on ENERGY and then a new site appears with 2 tabs on the upper left with
PARAMETER COMPARISON and PLANT MANAGEMENT
You choose PLANT MANAGEMENT and you will get a list of all your growatt inverters - in your case the one and only.
Now you find on the far right side a row called OPERATING TOOLS and a lot of icons there
Now try to hover over the first icon which looks like a screen with a youtube button - you should get a hint called 'DATASHEET LINK DEFINTION"
Yes, sounds weird and not like a single page report but if you click on that icon you will get a dialog box with a title called
POWER STATION SINGLE PAGE DISPLAY DEFINTION
And there you can create a single page report and its content. You will play with it and therefore choose Link duration 1 week cause in the beginning you will create far too many of those you will not use longer.
The most effort for me was to find out how to use the LOGO right ( remember I have 5 inverters with 2 mppt each so 5 times 2 fields of solar panels or strings and needed 5 pictures to identify each of them) and to upload the picture cause the server was not displaying every picture even though I had created a picture of the recommanded aspect ratio of 200 x 60
High resolutions or huge pictures did not work out at all, so be carefull cause the spot where it will be visible is tiny and a 4 MB jpg will not make sense for a tiny 2 x 1 cm picture on the screen.
If you have checked all your options (system diagram and PV Capacity are just 2 tiny options hard to identify where the difference is between with / without) and then press on "YES" you will get a link provided you have to copy with the copy action provided which will give you a really funny message "COPY_RIGHT"
I usually save this url cause there is no chance to ever get that again, you can only create a new one, no chance to edit it again or ask what was the last single page report I had created.
It is a fire and forget dialog - therefore you have to copy and save it yourself to use and share it later
If you analye the URL you will find singlepage hence the name singlepage report, which is the most convenient way to use for all those living with you and who are not solar addicted and want a fast quick access without an authorisation.
I like it a lot and I only found out about when I was aksing myself what these tools could be good for cause there is no further explanation or documentation about this feature even though very usefull at least for all those who want a fast access without login - for example usefull for an eINK display which does not need much power and shows the same state without using energy till the next update arrives, so every 5 minutes a tiny bit of energy to retrieve the data. The best would be a PICO W and such e-ink Display, but you would have to create a picture of that single page every 5 minutes cause the e-ink displays can easily update and display jpg. The browser on a raspberry pico would not be able to put such complex website together and therefore the way via jpg creation of such dynamic report page.
I know a lot of details but at least a good point to start from and what is possible and worth to check cause the singlepage report is a well hidden gem in my opinion no one talks about or has shown, but quite usefull for a lot of cases in my opinion, maybe even more for the usual growatt inverter with battery and loads from the house than a usual feed in only inverter you are running, but at the end you want to know how the tracker system had performed just by walking by without clicking anything like you have a look for the weather report.
The easiest way to start with e-ink and such data report is pimoroni product worth every cent called BADGER - looks like quite the opposite of what you imagine cause it was developed as a badge to wear on a shirt but offers a lot more and you do not need to code from scratch which can become very annoying with e-ink displays you can get for cheap from ali express. THey are useless cause they are missing a usefull driver integration which you can only get from those pimoroni solutions. THe badger W is the item you want to look for, not the usual BADGER without WLAN and not internet access which is far easier to get. BADGER W was about 35€ with all the BREXIT fees on top , lot more than the local offers which all had been sold out.
I like your projects a lot therefore the long comment about the growatt challenges I had faced in the past.
I’m not using Home Assistant with this inverter. Thank you for your information.
Timelaps would be awesome
Here it is😉
th-cam.com/video/zZ1a4YIIZBU/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for your comment😊