» MAKE: NOISE — Discuss this article

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• Price/Configuration confusion
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  First of all, great article. Solar projects are fascinating, so I encourage Make to include even more articles such as this one in future issues.
  
  I'm confused about the pricing/configuration of the DIY20W solar panel kit from Silicon Solar Inc. The price of DIY20W is listed as about $49 in the article -- the price of DIY20W, according to the Silicon Solar website is actually $85 with the 8W version costing $49.
  Solar Power Products - Solar Panels - Solar Panels by Watts - 11 to 20 Watts
  
  Any idea if these prices changed around the release of the current issue of Make, or was the wrong price mistakenly quoted in the article?

  Posted by geobarefoot on November 19, 2007 at 13:41:26 Pacific Time

• Price/Configuration confusion
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  You are correct about the price problem related to the 20Watt DIY kit from silicon solar. The price is 85 dollars, and it was a misprint on the article. I originally submitted the article with the correct price, but somewhere in the conversion the price changed.
  
  -Parker Jardine

  Posted by mtnbiker on November 20, 2007 at 10:45:03 Pacific Time

• Price/Configuration confusion
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  They say if you buy 200W or more, they'll sell for 2.95 a watt. That's $59 for 20W, so if a few people want to go in on a group buy that would be a good way of saving money. After shipping the 20W are like $97.
  
  I'm just disappointed because I got all excited for this project then found out it's going to cost me twice as much...

  Posted by Gskellig on December 01, 2007 at 20:13:28 Pacific Time

• Price/Configuration confusion
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  You are correct about the price problem related to the 20Watt DIY kit from silicon solar. The price is 85 dollars, and it was a misprint on the article. I originally submitted the article with the correct price, but somewhere in the conversion the price changed.
  -Parker Jardine

  Posted by mtnbiker on November 20, 2007 at 10:45:43 Pacific Time

• Solar cell concentrators
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  Great article. Wondering about the use of concentrators with this design? I understand over-heating could be an issue, but could possibly increase the efficiency/output of the cells.
  
  Looking through Forrest Mims Electronic Sensor Circuits & Projects, Volume III, pp. 112-113, four types of concentrators are described: parabolic, Fresnel lens, trough concentrator, and box concentrator.
  
  Anyone have any experience/ideas on concentrators?

  Posted by Pierson on December 31, 2007 at 05:30:41 Pacific Time

• Panel orientation
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  That was good advice to adjust the panels 4 times a year. I have a web page that shows the best angle to use to capture the most energy in each season: http://www.macslab.com/optsolar.html . It's more specific than the solpath program (which by the way requires a plugin that my Macintosh couldn't find).

  Posted by CLandau on December 31, 2007 at 12:13:15 Pacific Time

• DIY Solar Panels
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  Can we get a preview of the first update of this article?

  Posted by Pierson on February 17, 2008 at 07:35:44 Pacific Time

• 20-Watt Solar Panel
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  Were you plannning to follow up on the 20-Watt Solar Panel in the next issue (13) ?

  Posted by thalamus on March 18, 2008 at 22:09:03 Pacific Time

• Follow Up Article Update
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  The follow up article for the 20 watt solar panel will actually be in volume 14. The Make editors did not have enough time to make some changes that I had wanted before volume 13 was released. The next article will discuss items such as solar arrays, pv combiner boxes, charge controllers, inverters, batteries, grid connection etc with some really good links to various documents that you should find very useful.
  -Parker Jardine (Author)

  Posted by mtnbiker on March 19, 2008 at 09:47:29 Pacific Time