Managing Energy

Small Scale Hydro Power

For many centuries water powered mills were part of country life. They provided a reliable source of power for grinding the grain grown in the nearby fields. ·Today their sites are perfect for the installation of small community based green power solutions.

Here in Australia water in consistent reliable volumes are not always available, however for the folks who live in the far north, there is the opportunity to take advantage of this as a clean, no emission power source. If you have a small stream that you are able / allowed to dam or divert then compared to the sun and wind’s variability, a stream’s flow is relatively consistent, making microhydro-electric system output potentially the most predictable of all the renewable energy electrical generation methods. To decide if a·microhydro system is suitable for your property you need to evaluate your water resource by measuring the head that is the vertical drop and volume of the flow of your stream. Hydro systems can work with as little as a meter of drop so they have more potential than the mainstream realise.

Planning for a Wind Turbine

Having established a Grid Connect Solar System and a Stand Alone solar system it is now time to look at adding our first wind turbine to power generation systems to make our power generation more consistent. Since we moved here we have been very conscious that we have wind, lots of it and on most days. We are located in a valley just below the peak of the nearby hills at about 850 metres, the hill peaks at about 910 meters. Being on the edge of the mountains our wind has 2 prominent directions, uphill or up the valley or downhill or down the valley.

Solar System Power Output Part 3

In Part 1· and Part 2 we looked at our first solar systems output and variables that effected the amount of energy solar panels produce. In this article we will explore how to use the power generated and alternate methods of setting up solar / wind powered system / systems.

Solar System Power Output Part 2

Let us now look at the variables that can effect the output of your solar system. For those of you who have yet to choose a system and have it installed it is worth spending a little time to come to grips with these basics. For those of you who have a system already you can use this to review wether you can improve your output and hence achieve greater savings.

The Solar Panels / Solar Cells
Solar Panels come in 2 main varieties, amorphous silicon or crystalline. The majority of panel used on roof tops are crystalline as they take up significantly less space per KW. There and two subtypes of crystalline solar cells. monocrystalline one big slice of silicon per cell and polycrystalline which is made up of many small crystals. You can tell them apart by looking at them, if the cells look speckly then they are polycrystalline. Monocrystalline are the the most efficient so if at all possible aim for a system that uses them.

Solar System Power Output

Often I read that people are disappointed with the output from their system, or question if they actually get the quoted systems power rating.

There are many things that will determine the peak and total output from your system. Before we look at those factors lets take a quick look at what our system is achieving for us. As I mentioned in our February update I have installed Pro Control software on my computer, and it enables us to log the systems output. Fortunately I work from home so my computer is on most days all day so I can get a fairly accurate picture of our systems output. Additionally I have read and recorded both the power meter and the grid connect inverter's since the system was installed, so I have a good handle on out energy consumption. Our energy consumption and situation is different to most people's in Australia. First we live on a small farm and run a web and graphic design business·from there. This means we have a substantial amount of power consumed in the generation of our income. Being a farm and being totally water self sufficient we also use power to transfer water for both us and our livestock and to provide water pressure.

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