Is this worth looking into???

[wynn]

I picked up this ad today and it hits the spot but seeing as I know nuffin and even less when it comes to electricity is what this guy claims real???

http://power4home.tv/?id=zanews40811

OK you are going to have to sit through the hard sell but at R400 is it a deal???

[AndyD]

Lol, are you earning money per click from that linK? 3 or 4 minutes in it got to the line 'All night I could feel little Abby under the blanket with me, shivering and shaking and wispering in my ear "Daddy make it warm again".' still no mention of a product or price I couldn't listen any more.

[wynn]

I said you had to sit through the hard sell and anybody trying to sell online could get a tip or two from his method but the idea he is selling is compelling.
He claims to sell cd's and books for R400 that show you step by step how to build cheap but professional pv solar panels (R1500 ea?) and a cheap wind turbine and save you up to 125% of your electricity bill, is this possible or is the cost of the plan too much?
Can we get the componennts for pv panels in the country at a good enough rate to make this viable?
OK I know you can't sell power back to eskom yet but if you could 100% get off the grid that would be huge!!

I saw Ed Begley on 'Living with Ed' has a lot to say about installing pv panels but the installation cost in RSA is horrendous.
I believe if this type of saving as claimed by the advertiser is possible, we should definitely look at it.

Murdock you are the Magyver maybe you should assess this idea for the rest of us? we can all contribute towards the costs and then share the results with us?

[Justloadit]

Snake oil!

[Justloadit]

To manufacture a solar panel requires some interesting types of materials. To start considering to make a solar panel, you require some basic physics about light, changing medium and filters.

So firstly you need a glass which does not have lead in it, as lead will filter the UV rays, which is the primary driver for the silicon wafer. Secondly the glass you use must be strong enough to take a beating from a hailstorm, and be able to handle the expansion and contraction of the glass due to the temperature changes that it is going to experience. Thirdly you require to have no air between the glass and the silicon wafer, as you do not want the light to be refracted by the densities of the materials the light has to travel through. So during manufacture you need to vacuum the system to ensure the glass and wafer have no other mediums between them. Fifthly you require a glue to hold the whole system together, and it must last for 20 years under the sun, beating it with UV and other wave lengths of light.

There are many requirements to make a solar panel, and when you are finished, if you can get about 18% efficiency, you pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

With China as a major manufacturer, at the prices they charge, there is no one else on the planet that compete. Purchase prices direct from manufacturers and landed, are around R16 a watt, which is about the best you going to get for a while.

[AndyD]

If you're looking at buying PV panels I would suggest you hold of for a month or so. The UK has just slashed their feed-in tariff structure which will kill their PV system market. so there may well be a glut on the market very shortly.

The other thing is in this country you can't export power into the grid so you have to store it in batteries. This adds a massive cost to PV installations here and makes their payback time around a million years or so.

[wynn]

These guys would be my heroes if the cost of their house could have been more realistic.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2011/11/27/eco-couple-keep-their-sunny-side-up