Tag: solar power Posts

The $1 price point has long been touted as the holy grail for solar technology. At that price, it is basically comparable to fossil fuel based delivery of electricity, making it an economically viable replacement for current technologies. On Tuesday, that price point was finally reached. That doesn’t include the cost of installation currently, but it does show some real progress in that area.

Today I read an article about a unique solar powered community in Canada. The actual location of this community is Okotoks, Alberta. The residents there have created a solar array for their houses that manages to completely power 52 homes. The 52-home solar community has installed an array of solar panels on the roofs of their houses and garages. Glycol solution runs through an insulated piping system, or collector loop, that connects the array of solar panels. The solar panels absorb the solar energy during the daytime and heat the glycol solution. The glycol solution travels through the collector loop and reaches an underground heat exchanger within the community’s centralized Energy Center. The heat is then transferred from heat exchanger to the water stored in a short-term storage tank. The glycol solution returns to the solar collector system. The Energy Center has short-term thermal storage tanks and long-thermal storage tanks […]

I found this useful deep-cycle battery FAQ that included a rough voltage level chart which helps you determine how full your deep-cycle battery is: State of Charge 12 Volt battery Volts per Cell 100% 12.7 2.12 90% 12.5 2.08 80% 12.42 2.07 70% 12.32 2.05 60% 12.20 2.03 50% 12.06 2.01 40% 11.9 1.98 30% 11.75 1.96 20% 11.58 1.93 10% 11.31 1.89 0 10.5 1.75 While I haven’t blogged about it, I have a small solar panel setup on my patio which provides enough power to run a few lights in my living room each night for a few hours. This information lets me know how charged the battery system is. Right now my battery is at 12.75 volts.