Yup, the successfully released a product for the years before ~2020. Which would not be bad if they did not release it in 2024. So all they have to do know is make a time machine.
$3,400 dollars is insane. That kind of money would buy a bunch more mounts and panels that would more than negate the minimal benefits of solar tracking. 👎
It’s just like anything novel - new products to the consumer market will always be steep in price. It’s not new tech altogether, but the implementation in a consumer-focused size is not something that being done at mass.
@@allenyoonWhat do you mean? If you are off grid doesn‘t mean you cant put out 3400 usd worth of panels and mppt - maybe on east and west angled positions
I have two of their River 2 pro's and I use them every day. Like, literally every day. They work great for me. But I don't know who their target audience is for this crazy solar tracker. If I had to guess, I would imagine their target customer base for this is rich people headed to burning man or something. I don't even know. I would just buy more panels like a normal person.
@@HolgerNestmann yes, my arrays are at 45-66 degrees. The steeper array doesn’t get as much on and sheds a little quicker. I need more power in winter for running heat pumps.
with $3000 you buy 16 x 415w bifacial panels. you could buy 4 panels and put them in an arc covering the solar motion thru the sky, like aim one for the best 9 am sun, aim the other for midday, the other at 15hs, and 18hs (adjust the times and angles to your latitude and time of year) you would get a LOT more energy for ~800
In Germany (I think it is VAT-free here), right now on mydealz, I see multiple posts with 435 watt, 36 panels for 2,000 euros (that's 15 kW!). The whole setup is so cheap nowadays that it makes sense to go off-grid completely and the system should pay for itself in less than 5 years. In summer, you should be able to make money by feeding back to the grid actually.
what makes more sense is a single axis tracker, which is far simpler mechanicly (it just adjusts the “tilt angle” of the panels to try and keep them at 90 degrees to the sun), that is a simply hydraulic cylinder that can move like 10 panels up & down and costs far less. with all of that said, panels are so inexpensive now, just buy more panels, trackers no longer make financial sense
Yes. Single axis without any of the sun sensors. Since the sun is predictable, it could just have a programmable track. This would reduce the complexity to a single axis and motor with simple controller.
Can you do the EcoWorthy Version of this? Its like 400 bucks and can hold a lot more solar. the only negative i can see is it looks a little complicated to assemble
yeah half the price for a 6 panel 1200 watt system. looks like the major downside is its a fixed install, where as the EcoFlow is mobile. Though honestly getting it up on pole is a benefit since that will help you clear ground cover. Still only really makes sense if you only have one spot you can put panels so you just need every watt you can get.
Genius analysis and very fair comparison. I also don't know why it would use an active tracking system, prone to error and power waste, rather than inputing local time and GPS coordinates. Even an approximately accurate, deterministic sky tracker would be significantly better without being prone to dead time. It only need be accurate to, say, 5 degrees to be a boost over a static array. Edit to add: If this syncs with a phone, the user doesn't even have to put in anything. It can check location and time during setup.
Trackers made sense when panels where expensive. But now panels are so cheap it is a lot cheaper to just hang panels everywhere in any direction. So gz they made product for the past.
using a PV Sensor to try and track the sun is a CURSED way of doing it. For 3400 bucks, it should just have a GPS antenna to do this calculation onboard...
This first came out years ago and was sold out for ages. As somebody said at the time, it made sense when panels were crazy expensive, but as the price has fallen through the floor recently, just make up for a shortfall by buying more. Unless, of course, you have super-limited space.
the eco worthy dual axis trackers (it just tilts 2 directions, it doesn't turn) costs around 500 euro. One of the reviewers added 4 x 430W panels on it. I have 4 430W panels (trina bifacials) just on the ground and they ocassionally do 2.3kW.. I am really thinking about buying it, because left or right, I need to set up my solar panels more permanently... Like 3x4 to get through the winter in an off-grid situation.
Hey Robbie, just found out this new channel, glad you found something new! I guess I have to become interested in solar things now since I've been following you for years on the other channels!
I have pole mounted panels I can rotate around if I want. Moving them every 30 minutes I can get 18% more watts a day. The problem is you must have a lot of open area east and west and the high humidity I have cuts down on production for the first two hours in the morning. I usually leave them alone unless it was too cloudy the day before or it is going to be cloudy part of the day and I need the power. I don't think trackers are worth while since panels went below $3.00 a watt.
I just hooked mine up to my lawn sprinkler, so as it moves, so does the solar panel. Problem solved for $29.95 (includes the cost of hardware and string). 😋
That's the price to cover a whole house in Germany! 36 x 435W Bifacial (57€/Modul) - 200€ delivery. With the other 1,000€, I'll buy the MPPT, inverter, etc. All I need to do is to add 2 maybe 4 more panels for about 150-250 euros to cover the losses.
That is perfect for picnics, camping trips and post disasters e.g. hurricanes where space, portability, rapid setup/dismantling is the priority. All it takes is 5-10 mins setup to start producing power with no need to readjust panels several times as the sun shifts. I believe it would be better to use supercapacitors instead of an internal battery to power the motor. The tracking failures you experienced leads me to believe the sun tracking sensor and or firmware has some bugs and can do with some fixes.
"The tracking failures you experienced leads me to believe the sun tracking sensor and or firmware has some bugs and can do with some fixes." The prohibitive pricing and followed rare purchases of this overpriced, bad designed item leads me to believe they have not sold enough to care about the customers enough using those to fix those issues with a firmware update.
@@JGnLAU8OAWF6 yeah, absolutely NO sense in this tracking stuff. more than half of the day a single slightly angled position gives you everything you can hope for.
I purchased the tracker bundled with a foldable 400W ecoflow panel for $3000 AUD (might have been a website glitch), that's a bargain for a hi tech camping toy.. but yes the price they are asking at retail they can go smoke.
It's for very specific case of minimizing how much stuff you're packing in somewhere, but maximizing your solar output. It's meant for their expensive fold-out lightweight panels.
Makes absolutely no sense, still! Why packing a huge tracker and frame, if you can go much lighter and smaller by just packing "only" panels with attached, foldable stands on it? Much cheaper, smaller and less complex, YET MORE OUTPUT!
Yeah, I don't buy it either. Their comparison to using just two panels is very fair and reasonable, even if talking about limited space. It's hard to imagine a situation where you can't squeeze in a second static panel rather than spend 10x as much money for a more complex, error prone setup that still needs some room to rotate.
data setting (like location, date input) + ANOLOG sun adjustment device + mechanical movement mount can make the price much lower. Plus center-oriented mirro with back side pannel will increase the efficiency to over 20% to 50%
One use for a solar tracker can be in "balcony" PV. In Germany, until recently, you were limited to a 600w panel and inverter if you wanted to install solar without an electrician and registering the panel. This however is getting changed to 800w inverter and 2000w of solar panels. So at least for the price it is not worth it.
Yes, I think a 400W tracker is a waste of money. I think you are one of the best commentator/educator on TH-cam. You know your subject and present it in a positive way. You are interesting and pleasant. And your smile is infectious. All of that keeps the viewer's attention.
lol, my second, small array was 2.5kW, 8 full size panels for only $2700. Generates enough energy for my to drive on every year. Microinverters for each panel so they generate independently too.
At that price just buy more panels and position them for different times of day. Arranging 3 panels in an arc to follow the sun throughout the day might not use much more space than the tracker although it would need a custom mount or three individual mounts but it should work almost as well in the early morning and evening.
The other place it might make sense is if you're extremely space constrained. For example it might make sense if the only place you've got to put your solar panels in an apartment or hotel room balcony. It might also make sense for a traveling demo setup. If you're having to fly your solar panel around with you it might be cheaper to fly one solar panel and one tracker. But for the vast majority of uses this is not a good idea as cool as it is.
I think it would be a heck of alot better to just have a mostly static array for peak solar and 1 or 2 pannels angled to catch morning and evening to get you over those troughs in production if you really need it. You could put up several kilowatts of pannels for the same price as that one 400 watt tracker. Heck just mount a pair of bifacials verticly faceing east/west to catch the morning/evening sun and let a normal array do the mid day stuff.
Yes, the extra energy by JUST DOUBLING THE PV PEAK POWER adds up very much, especially in the long run and with worse weather. On the other hand... it is still a lot cheaper than this overpriced, garbage tracker thing
if your handy(can make a lightweight frame for it), an interesting test would be to fill this with a bunch of super lightweight flexible panals. until your at its max weight limit
We saw some examples of the tracker spinning and doing seemingly silly things to find the sun in your video 7:10. Does this amount to any cable management issues?
The point of this product, to me, is for very small yards and mobile applications. I would LOVE to have this for my river 2 pro so I don't have to move panels all day in my tiny HOA back yard. However I could never find it reasonably priced. I have not been able to find a reasonable priced 'portable' solar tracker that I can take out and put into my backyard when I need to charge my river 2 in an emergency situation - Does anyone know of one?
I do see 3 valuable use cases for solar trackers, given they're developed correctly and don't have a moronic price like $3400: 1. Limited space. Whether all you've got is a tiny yard or perhaps you've got an RV and you're in a parking lot with limited spaces, this can help decrease your footprint while maximizing power potential. Also for an RV, fewer panels means less you need to pack. It could also be worth it for roof-mounted panels. 2. Portability - continuing the point about the RV, if you're expecting to mantle/dismantle the panels, having fewer of them is easier to deal with. 3. Last but certainly not least is the amount of shade you get. Some people live in areas where there's just not enough sunlight to hit the ground or roof, where adding more panels isn't really going to do much.
Feels like, at the very least, the tracker should have a less 'smart' system by setting up a GPS coordinate type deal, and having it 'auto track' where the sun should be, while maybe making corrections or learning a more direct track of the sun. Solar tracking definitely makes more sense if it was cost effective (both in money and power cost). Best possible use case for something of this scale would be an RV or trailer/hauler.
I would have thought a GPS and compass would be the best way to determine where the sun is.. and then use the other sensor to fine tune. Would be neat to see a version for caravans, but it would need to be super light weight and go low profile to handle driving at high speed.
You would think that after couple of hours of tracking, it could estimate sun movement, or as you said, just wait for a moment. If this is going on a moving platform, throw a $3 imu/compass on it and it would have a pretty good idea where to face.
If you want cheap even solar power over the day use two panels in parallel, one to east, one to west. You can even over provision your inverter that way, as no panel will ever reach it's full output, but the combination will deliver much higher output early and late. Panels are so cheap these days, it's a no brainer. Especially since aligning all panels to south is usually wasting a lot of power, or increases the cost for storage.
I heard the price and now I wanna make it myself, let me see, either 2 motors or 2 actuators, a photosensitive sensor module and a Arduino as the controller. For the base I saw a diy 4D motions flight seat. Using a similar gear set up and3D printed based should work. But more than anything I’m certain someone made a video on this
Let’s say they fix all those problems through firmware update… Still the price is too high, way higher than the cost of a nice set of batteries. Bests regards from a Venezuelan follower in Panama!
I wonder what the problem is in creating a panel coating made of a pimply transparent material that will collect light from any direction and refract the beam at 90 degrees to the panel. If they thought of using optics in road signs, why don't they do something similar where it is needed? Especially since the panels are already covered with various protective materials. By the way, this will increase the textured surface area, which increases cooling.
Not sure why there are sensors. Celestial mechanics are not going to change. Sunset, sunrise and direction of the sun's travel across the sky are (relatively) easy to calculate if you know where you are and when. Orient the unit directly south, then use an app to enter a zip code, date and time. Or put a small GPS unit in it. It doesn't need to be crazy precise.
Would you guys test out using solar panels as a replacement for a fence panel? I looked through your channel and didn't find anything like that yet. I found a few videos showing this in Europe, but nothing in the USA yet. I just found Jaksun Solar Fence Panels but I wanted to consider the cost of using used solar panels in place of the standard fence panel like you have in your yard.
I have a dream of a clock based mechanical solar tracker for 1-4 panels for $100. Point it at the sun and it does a full circle in 24 hours. Maybe powered with a weight or spring you reset every day... It must be harder than that or someone would have made one.
If its advantage of Tracker is the ability to provide electricity in the morning and evening, why not point two panels 40 degrees to the east and west? And at midday they will be half as efficient together.
Correct - or put together a few small arrays with their own inverters if needed. Maximize for time of year, time of day as needed to make the most out of your generated energy.
If it knows the latitude, date, and time of day it should roughly know where the sun is. I don't get why it has to spin around when the cloud comes over?
Sadly, in many places, and especially places where people can afford solar panels, land is just ridiculously expensive and it's only getting worse. For example, garden apartments in my area are starting at ~$500k and all you get is just a 500² feet garden and if you want to buy a bit more land, it's extra ~$500k for a tiny plot.
"What were they thinking?" Profit. Profit. Profit. What pretty much every other business exclusively thinks about all of the time. The real question here is what were YOU thinking?!
The funniest part of this is the thing having an app but insisting on manually tracking the sun. Just have the app pull gps & input the suns position for the year lol
Time to make an open source solar tracker system. They're actually rather simple, I would imagine. Basically, you get those light sensors... they're like a solar cell, but they no power... it just triggers a relay. So, if you get 4 of them and funnel the light directionally, you can figure out which direction to move until all 4 sense light. No app needed.
The position of the sun is a solved problem. If you can install a good clock and the right parabola function it could just run on its own with no external sensors.
@@wiltse0 It changes daily, though. It is easier to track with sensors than make an algorithm that has to keep track of the time of the day and the day of the year… and then account for DST when you’re focused on a clock.
@@dus10dnd No, its actually much simpler to follow a "static", well known point in the sky than "finding" the sun visually to be honest. I have much experience with tracked (simple pre-programmed movement) as well autoguided (visually by an additional guiding camera) astrophotography. There is only a single damn reason to use guiding.... for the "ultimate" precision for long exposures beyond 3 minutes per image, otherwise you could track with still very high precision ANY point on the sky, including the sun. Only reason for a little bit "more complicated" light sensor i see is to check if its cloudy, and if so, so the panel can go flatter for more efficiency than it would need for cloudless times. It doenst matter anyways, we all know this tracker is overpriced, bad designed and the software or whoever has written it sucks.
@@dus10dndas mentioned though, where the sun is is a solved problem. If you know the time, date, and location, the sun's arc is very deterministic any time of year. Even if you're off by an hour or fifty miles, it'll still be plenty accurate to see a big improvement over a static array.
The solar tracker components should be limited to the tracking mechanism. Post/stand should be owner supplied. Then, the cost can be reduced to just the tracker/mount. I'm seeing tracking mechanisms under $600.
Be nice to play with that tracker but as you showed in your test, not worth it compared to the cost for installing a stationary set up with a few extra panels 👍
Imagine how much more power you can generate from $3400 worth or bifacial solar panels.
but than, EcoFlow much so much less money...be fair 🤣
In the UK you could probably get a 2kw system fitted on your house for that money. Near enough anyway.
12-13 kw of solar batteries or something around. Like 1 Risen solar panel for 400 w costs 100$
Yup, the successfully released a product for the years before ~2020. Which would not be bad if they did not release it in 2024. So all they have to do know is make a time machine.
*if you have space
Even if you absolutely need the early/late power, you could just buy 2 more panels and face them towards sunrise/sunset.
and you could also buy a ton of battery's along with panels for $3400
Place them in a circle, you now have coverage the whole day.
@@dubious6718 That would only apply for a flat earth. The sun does not go in a circle across the sky.
@@eugenes9751 Watch the video, yes it does.
@@dubious6718 semicircle.
$3,400 dollars is insane. That kind of money would buy a bunch more mounts and panels that would more than negate the minimal benefits of solar tracking. 👎
wow thank you for repeating what he said
Unless you are off grid
It’s just like anything novel - new products to the consumer market will always be steep in price. It’s not new tech altogether, but the implementation in a consumer-focused size is not something that being done at mass.
@@allenyoonWhat do you mean? If you are off grid doesn‘t mean you cant put out 3400 usd worth of panels and mppt - maybe on east and west angled positions
Could just DIY something like this for 50 bucks using a linear actuator.
I bought one too and it walked by itself from the Netherlands to Spain.😀
I’m convinced EcoFlow’s entire customer base is fictitious rich outdoors types which marketers all simultaneously imagined
I have two of their River 2 pro's and I use them every day. Like, literally every day. They work great for me. But I don't know who their target audience is for this crazy solar tracker. If I had to guess, I would imagine their target customer base for this is rich people headed to burning man or something. I don't even know. I would just buy more panels like a normal person.
For that price, I can get soooooo many more solar panels. But I have to give EcoFlow credit for trying to cover the entire segment.
Nothing good in trying to cover the entire solar segment but all GARBAGE and BAD
Most of us really appreciate when you provide links to products you use even if you were not testing the exact product.
If you’ve tested a lot of panels, you will find that laying the solar panel flat does better in cloudy winter weather. that’s one reason it lays flat.
unless its covered in snow and ice. Angled panels shed the snow quicker
@@HolgerNestmann yes, my arrays are at 45-66 degrees. The steeper array doesn’t get as much on and sheds a little quicker. I need more power in winter for running heat pumps.
I'd like to see you review the Eco worthy solar tracker. It looks legit and it's way cheaper.
Nice honest review . I am sick and tired of people praising every ecoflow product.
Because most Ecoflow "Reviews" are "paid by" Ecoflow by giving the "Reviewers" the products for free (aka the product is the payment)
with $3000 you buy 16 x 415w bifacial panels. you could buy 4 panels and put them in an arc covering the solar motion thru the sky, like aim one for the best 9 am sun, aim the other for midday, the other at 15hs, and 18hs (adjust the times and angles to your latitude and time of year)
you would get a LOT more energy for ~800
In Germany (I think it is VAT-free here), right now on mydealz, I see multiple posts with 435 watt, 36 panels for 2,000 euros (that's 15 kW!). The whole setup is so cheap nowadays that it makes sense to go off-grid completely and the system should pay for itself in less than 5 years. In summer, you should be able to make money by feeding back to the grid actually.
what makes more sense is a single axis tracker, which is far simpler mechanicly (it just adjusts the “tilt angle” of the panels to try and keep them at 90 degrees to the sun), that is a simply hydraulic cylinder that can move like 10 panels up & down and costs far less. with all of that said, panels are so inexpensive now, just buy more panels, trackers no longer make financial sense
Yes. Single axis without any of the sun sensors. Since the sun is predictable, it could just have a programmable track. This would reduce the complexity to a single axis and motor with simple controller.
Can you do the EcoWorthy Version of this? Its like 400 bucks and can hold a lot more solar. the only negative i can see is it looks a little complicated to assemble
I have 2 of these, its just amazing... I want more :U
What is it?
@@JonOvalle Ecoworthy Solar Tracker
yeah half the price for a 6 panel 1200 watt system. looks like the major downside is its a fixed install, where as the EcoFlow is mobile. Though honestly getting it up on pole is a benefit since that will help you clear ground cover. Still only really makes sense if you only have one spot you can put panels so you just need every watt you can get.
The tracker "laying down" is probably the best thing to do when there's cloud cover.
Wow. That was the most valuable ten minutes of listening in my morning. Thanks!
Don’t worry. It will be 60% off during Thanksgiving sales
I got it for 75% off with a secret discount code 😉
still overpriced at %60 off 😂
Genius analysis and very fair comparison. I also don't know why it would use an active tracking system, prone to error and power waste, rather than inputing local time and GPS coordinates. Even an approximately accurate, deterministic sky tracker would be significantly better without being prone to dead time. It only need be accurate to, say, 5 degrees to be a boost over a static array.
Edit to add: If this syncs with a phone, the user doesn't even have to put in anything. It can check location and time during setup.
Trackers made sense when panels where expensive. But now panels are so cheap it is a lot cheaper to just hang panels everywhere in any direction. So gz they made product for the past.
It is interesting that you cannot use the app to input your GPS location, date and time, and have the tracker just track the Sun.
using a PV Sensor to try and track the sun is a CURSED way of doing it. For 3400 bucks, it should just have a GPS antenna to do this calculation onboard...
that would make sooooooooo much more sense
This first came out years ago and was sold out for ages. As somebody said at the time, it made sense when panels were crazy expensive, but as the price has fallen through the floor recently, just make up for a shortfall by buying more. Unless, of course, you have super-limited space.
It never makes sense until the Electricity costs is way above 1$ or 1€ per Kwh. I guess.
I think 4 solar panels facing in four directions would take up about the same amount of space.
Even with limited space, a 2 axis tracker needs so much clearance for spinning that fixed panels might end up taking up less effective space.
the eco worthy dual axis trackers (it just tilts 2 directions, it doesn't turn) costs around 500 euro. One of the reviewers added 4 x 430W panels on it. I have 4 430W panels (trina bifacials) just on the ground and they ocassionally do 2.3kW..
I am really thinking about buying it, because left or right, I need to set up my solar panels more permanently... Like 3x4 to get through the winter in an off-grid situation.
Dont overload the tracker imagen what happends when it is windy.
For that same price from Signature Solar, you could have got an EG4 5 KW rack battery, an EG4 3 KW inverter and a couple of 400 watt solar panels
Thank for your work❤
Hey Robbie, just found out this new channel, glad you found something new! I guess I have to become interested in solar things now since I've been following you for years on the other channels!
I would've liked to see how much more power a panel with a tracker provides than one without.
I have pole mounted panels I can rotate around if I want. Moving them every 30 minutes I can get 18% more watts a day. The problem is you must have a lot of open area east and west and the high humidity I have cuts down on production for the first two hours in the morning. I usually leave them alone unless it was too cloudy the day before or it is going to be cloudy part of the day and I need the power. I don't think trackers are worth while since panels went below $3.00 a watt.
This channel deserves to have at least one million subscribers, too much valuable information.
I just hooked mine up to my lawn sprinkler, so as it moves, so does the solar panel. Problem solved for $29.95 (includes the cost of hardware and string). 😋
Water cooled solar panel lol
@@How_To_Drive_a_TARDIS - Not cooled, rotation by water power. 🤣
how does that rack the sun
@@reuven2010 - it doesn’t, LOL! Just moves it around, back and forth. 🤣
@@Erin-Thor keeping it cool too, which is a good thing.
Very cool idea, but a big waste of hard earned money. Appreciate you guys doing the testing on this unit and showing the pros and cons as always!
Outstanding Test!
That's the price to cover a whole house in Germany! 36 x 435W Bifacial (57€/Modul) - 200€ delivery. With the other 1,000€, I'll buy the MPPT, inverter, etc. All I need to do is to add 2 maybe 4 more panels for about 150-250 euros to cover the losses.
That is perfect for picnics, camping trips and post disasters e.g. hurricanes where space, portability, rapid setup/dismantling is the priority.
All it takes is 5-10 mins setup to start producing power with no need to readjust panels several times as the sun shifts.
I believe it would be better to use supercapacitors instead of an internal battery to power the motor.
The tracking failures you experienced leads me to believe the sun tracking sensor and or firmware has some bugs and can do with some fixes.
"The tracking failures you experienced leads me to believe the sun tracking sensor and or firmware has some bugs and can do with some fixes."
The prohibitive pricing and followed rare purchases of this overpriced, bad designed item leads me to believe they have not sold enough to care about the customers enough using those to fix those issues with a firmware update.
Placing solar panels on the ground takes even less time to setup.
@@JGnLAU8OAWF6 yeah, absolutely NO sense in this tracking stuff.
more than half of the day a single slightly angled position gives you everything you can hope for.
I was gonna get this but I realize it's $3500 🤕😴😓☠💀 Just get 8 panels and put 2 panels on all sides.
I purchased the tracker bundled with a foldable 400W ecoflow panel for $3000 AUD (might have been a website glitch), that's a bargain for a hi tech camping toy.. but yes the price they are asking at retail they can go smoke.
It's for very specific case of minimizing how much stuff you're packing in somewhere, but maximizing your solar output. It's meant for their expensive fold-out lightweight panels.
Makes absolutely no sense, still!
Why packing a huge tracker and frame, if you can go much lighter and smaller by just packing "only" panels with attached, foldable stands on it? Much cheaper, smaller and less complex, YET MORE OUTPUT!
Yeah, I don't buy it either. Their comparison to using just two panels is very fair and reasonable, even if talking about limited space. It's hard to imagine a situation where you can't squeeze in a second static panel rather than spend 10x as much money for a more complex, error prone setup that still needs some room to rotate.
태양광 트랙커 방식은 20년전에 실리콘 가격이 미쳤을때나 유행했던거고, 그 가격으로 중국산 n타입 염가형으로 대량으로 사서 후면 백색시트를 매칭하여 양면 발전을 극대화시키고, 스트링 인버터에 접속시키는게 b/c ratio측면에서 더 낫습니다.(from rok)
data setting (like location, date input) + ANOLOG sun adjustment device + mechanical movement mount can make the price much lower. Plus center-oriented mirro with back side pannel will increase the efficiency to over 20% to 50%
One use for a solar tracker can be in "balcony" PV. In Germany, until recently, you were limited to a 600w panel and inverter if you wanted to install solar without an electrician and registering the panel. This however is getting changed to 800w inverter and 2000w of solar panels. So at least for the price it is not worth it.
Yes, I think a 400W tracker is a waste of money. I think you are one of the best commentator/educator on TH-cam. You know your subject and present it in a positive way. You are interesting and pleasant. And your smile is infectious. All of that keeps the viewer's attention.
lol, my second, small array was 2.5kW, 8 full size panels for only $2700. Generates enough energy for my to drive on every year. Microinverters for each panel so they generate independently too.
At that price just buy more panels and position them for different times of day. Arranging 3 panels in an arc to follow the sun throughout the day might not use much more space than the tracker although it would need a custom mount or three individual mounts but it should work almost as well in the early morning and evening.
The other place it might make sense is if you're extremely space constrained. For example it might make sense if the only place you've got to put your solar panels in an apartment or hotel room balcony. It might also make sense for a traveling demo setup. If you're having to fly your solar panel around with you it might be cheaper to fly one solar panel and one tracker. But for the vast majority of uses this is not a good idea as cool as it is.
stacking even 4 solar panels uses LESS SPACE than this overpriced, overrated tracker
I think it would be a heck of alot better to just have a mostly static array for peak solar and 1 or 2 pannels angled to catch morning and evening to get you over those troughs in production if you really need it. You could put up several kilowatts of pannels for the same price as that one 400 watt tracker. Heck just mount a pair of bifacials verticly faceing east/west to catch the morning/evening sun and let a normal array do the mid day stuff.
The extra energy it produces adds up alot over time.
Especially in the long run.
On the other hand, it is still alot of 💰.
Yes, the extra energy by JUST DOUBLING THE PV PEAK POWER adds up very much, especially in the long run and with worse weather.
On the other hand... it is still a lot cheaper than this overpriced, garbage tracker thing
if your handy(can make a lightweight frame for it), an interesting test would be to fill this with a bunch of super lightweight flexible panals. until your at its max weight limit
So what you just said is one panel on a tracker max wat was just over 300 and 2 panels static 700/2 is more than one on tracker? Nice testing
It’s more efficient to just mount vertical panels. The fact that it’s not tracking and vertical adds back efficiency by lowering heat.
Honesty on your face 😎
I assure some DIYer already have a tracker made with plywood, gears and weight
The funniest part is that because of the rotation of the 1 panel, it still has a similar footprint to 2 panels.
We saw some examples of the tracker spinning and doing seemingly silly things to find the sun in your video 7:10. Does this amount to any cable management issues?
The point of this product, to me, is for very small yards and mobile applications. I would LOVE to have this for my river 2 pro so I don't have to move panels all day in my tiny HOA back yard. However I could never find it reasonably priced. I have not been able to find a reasonable priced 'portable' solar tracker that I can take out and put into my backyard when I need to charge my river 2 in an emergency situation - Does anyone know of one?
Thanks, definitely would not work in Buffalo, NY cloudy a lot here.
If you have very limited space and when the price of these drop considerably there will in fact some use cases for these small systems.
I do see 3 valuable use cases for solar trackers, given they're developed correctly and don't have a moronic price like $3400:
1. Limited space. Whether all you've got is a tiny yard or perhaps you've got an RV and you're in a parking lot with limited spaces, this can help decrease your footprint while maximizing power potential. Also for an RV, fewer panels means less you need to pack. It could also be worth it for roof-mounted panels.
2. Portability - continuing the point about the RV, if you're expecting to mantle/dismantle the panels, having fewer of them is easier to deal with.
3. Last but certainly not least is the amount of shade you get. Some people live in areas where there's just not enough sunlight to hit the ground or roof, where adding more panels isn't really going to do much.
Feels like, at the very least, the tracker should have a less 'smart' system by setting up a GPS coordinate type deal, and having it 'auto track' where the sun should be, while maybe making corrections or learning a more direct track of the sun.
Solar tracking definitely makes more sense if it was cost effective (both in money and power cost). Best possible use case for something of this scale would be an RV or trailer/hauler.
I would have thought a GPS and compass would be the best way to determine where the sun is.. and then use the other sensor to fine tune. Would be neat to see a version for caravans, but it would need to be super light weight and go low profile to handle driving at high speed.
You would think that after couple of hours of tracking, it could estimate sun movement, or as you said, just wait for a moment. If this is going on a moving platform, throw a $3 imu/compass on it and it would have a pretty good idea where to face.
If you want cheap even solar power over the day use two panels in parallel, one to east, one to west. You can even over provision your inverter that way, as no panel will ever reach it's full output, but the combination will deliver much higher output early and late.
Panels are so cheap these days, it's a no brainer. Especially since aligning all panels to south is usually wasting a lot of power, or increases the cost for storage.
I heard the price and now I wanna make it myself, let me see, either 2 motors or 2 actuators, a photosensitive sensor module and a Arduino as the controller. For the base I saw a diy 4D motions flight seat. Using a similar gear set up and3D printed based should work. But more than anything I’m certain someone made a video on this
What items were used for th e 2 panel setup?
Thanks
Scat
Please can you share a link to the Amazon stand you are using.
Hey where did you get that ground mount?
Let’s say they fix all those problems through firmware update… Still the price is too high, way higher than the cost of a nice set of batteries. Bests regards from a Venezuelan follower in Panama!
Are you actually getting Maximum Power Point Tracking ?
I wonder how se+sw or e+w system would compare. It would lose on max output but give more at morning and evening.
Pretty sure you could build one of these with a rasberry pi and some stepper motors for for like $500.
expensive, but looks cool ngl 😅
I always wondered about the tracker. Thanks for the video.
I wonder what the problem is in creating a panel coating made of a pimply transparent material that will collect light from any direction and refract the beam at 90 degrees to the panel. If they thought of using optics in road signs, why don't they do something similar where it is needed? Especially since the panels are already covered with various protective materials. By the way, this will increase the textured surface area, which increases cooling.
Not sure why there are sensors. Celestial mechanics are not going to change. Sunset, sunrise and direction of the sun's travel across the sky are (relatively) easy to calculate if you know where you are and when. Orient the unit directly south, then use an app to enter a zip code, date and time. Or put a small GPS unit in it. It doesn't need to be crazy precise.
This is how I find out Robbie has a side channel for solar related sttuff when he's not cruising in his BRZ with the hotdog dash?
This was interesting, I'd be curious to see it done with a 'smarter' tracker
Link or name of the stand you used?
Just to follow the sun it is much easier and reliable it to use GPS location with time. And just calculate the sun's location on the sky.
The weird thing is, that it doesn't even have it as an option on the app.
Would you guys test out using solar panels as a replacement for a fence panel? I looked through your channel and didn't find anything like that yet. I found a few videos showing this in Europe, but nothing in the USA yet. I just found Jaksun Solar Fence Panels but I wanted to consider the cost of using used solar panels in place of the standard fence panel like you have in your yard.
Are there any solar panel stand that can leave outside all year long that has moderate wind resistance?
Pi pico, two sensors, two stepper motors. Hell, I can dump the pico and use an analog circuit.
This made so much sense in 1985
It seems that 2 vertical bifacial panels would be the better solution for early and late sun.
I have a dream of a clock based mechanical solar tracker for 1-4 panels for $100. Point it at the sun and it does a full circle in 24 hours. Maybe powered with a weight or spring you reset every day... It must be harder than that or someone would have made one.
If its advantage of Tracker is the ability to provide electricity in the morning and evening, why not point two panels 40 degrees to the east and west? And at midday they will be half as efficient together.
Correct - or put together a few small arrays with their own inverters if needed. Maximize for time of year, time of day as needed to make the most out of your generated energy.
might be good for a camping scenario
Great video
I feel you could DIY a solution all by yourself. You should do a tear down of it.
You could, but should you?
If it knows the latitude, date, and time of day it should roughly know where the sun is. I don't get why it has to spin around when the cloud comes over?
You cant extended it?
I hope someone on aliexpress sells one for $150
It'll break during the first light breeze but knock yourself out...
*Absurd: The price for another 400-450 W panel and a static ground mount is now only approx. 80-120$!*
Nice review. Could a bifacial work if eco tweaks the back maybe ?
two panels pointing in morning and afternoon directions is the way to go. Don't make them face the same direction.
love the sic 'tent bro
Sadly, in many places, and especially places where people can afford solar panels, land is just ridiculously expensive and it's only getting worse.
For example, garden apartments in my area are starting at ~$500k and all you get is just a 500² feet garden and if you want to buy a bit more land, it's extra ~$500k for a tiny plot.
Use roof then?
@@JGnLAU8OAWF6 doesn't make sense, rent's more expensive than paying for extra electricity.
"What were they thinking?"
Profit. Profit. Profit.
What pretty much every other business exclusively thinks about all of the time.
The real question here is what were YOU thinking?!
The funniest part of this is the thing having an app but insisting on manually tracking the sun. Just have the app pull gps & input the suns position for the year lol
Time to make an open source solar tracker system.
They're actually rather simple, I would imagine. Basically, you get those light sensors... they're like a solar cell, but they no power... it just triggers a relay. So, if you get 4 of them and funnel the light directionally, you can figure out which direction to move until all 4 sense light. No app needed.
The position of the sun is a solved problem. If you can install a good clock and the right parabola function it could just run on its own with no external sensors.
@@wiltse0 It changes daily, though. It is easier to track with sensors than make an algorithm that has to keep track of the time of the day and the day of the year… and then account for DST when you’re focused on a clock.
GPS for position and clock, then servos. Finding the sun given any time of day and location is trivial at this point.
@@dus10dnd No, its actually much simpler to follow a "static", well known point in the sky than "finding" the sun visually to be honest.
I have much experience with tracked (simple pre-programmed movement) as well autoguided (visually by an additional guiding camera) astrophotography.
There is only a single damn reason to use guiding.... for the "ultimate" precision for long exposures beyond 3 minutes per image, otherwise you could track with still very high precision ANY point on the sky, including the sun.
Only reason for a little bit "more complicated" light sensor i see is to check if its cloudy, and if so, so the panel can go flatter for more efficiency than it would need for cloudless times.
It doenst matter anyways, we all know this tracker is overpriced, bad designed and the software or whoever has written it sucks.
@@dus10dndas mentioned though, where the sun is is a solved problem. If you know the time, date, and location, the sun's arc is very deterministic any time of year. Even if you're off by an hour or fifty miles, it'll still be plenty accurate to see a big improvement over a static array.
It looks like they have another version that sells for only about $1,100 now. In Europe at least.
Still too expensive but less insane.
So just install 3 panels in 3 different directions if you need the morning to evening power direct
The solar tracker components should be limited to the tracking mechanism. Post/stand should be owner supplied. Then, the cost can be reduced to just the tracker/mount. I'm seeing tracking mechanisms under $600.
Be nice to play with that tracker but as you showed in your test, not worth it compared to the cost for installing a stationary set up with a few extra panels 👍
Great video, but the flickering effect makes it hard to watch.