On Thu, 15 Jul 2010 10:25:28 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:


Did you put the array on you insurance policy?

I mentioned it to my insurance company, no extra premium.

You probably don't get
many thunderstorms with hail, but most of the rest of the country
does. I wonder what the insurance cost is for such an array?

The glass is rated for some pretty big hail. Very low risk of damage.
If any insurance company charged somehing extra, it shouldn't be much.

One of my customers builds computer driven mounts for large solar
arrays in array farms. They claim up to 40% increase by being able to
continually adjust the array to follow the sun from sunrise to sunset,
365 days of the year. Earlier this week one of their staff brought in
a circuit board prototype kit. I asked him if the company had ever
considered a similar product for the home type installation. Said he
asked the same question when he started with the company. Answer was
the support costs were deemed too much for the price they would get.
Too bad. A similar 40% increase would really boost the return for your
installation.

Trackers are harder to justify these days now that PV costs so much
less. http://www.wattsun.com/ I have 3 arrays here, all on trackers.
An additional benefit for my battery-based setup is that production
starts earlier and ends later, which means that less of my total
consumption has to make a trip through the batteries. I get a similar
benefit from having a wind turbine to supplement the solar. Since the
wind frequently blows overnight, the batteries don't get as much
cycling. Those batteries are already 15 years old. Without the
trackers and the wind power I might have needed to replace the
batteries years ago.

Grid-tied systems that don't need batteries will gain less advantage
from tracking.

Wayne