On Feb 13, 11:20*pm, Sjouke Burry s@b wrote:
"Ralph Mowery" wrote innews:aYOdndVEOPWeQIbMnZ2dnUVZ_vSdnZ2d@earthlink. com:











"Sjouke Burry" s@b wrote in message
. 12.10...
And you have to buy a new Solar DC-AC convertor, when the old one
fails after a few years.
Want to estimate the cost, when your original supplier is out of
bizness? My guessimate comes out at 4 to 8000 dollars/euros.
Not to mention, what replacing one or two failing panels costs.
25 years without maintenance costs is quite impossible....
You need panels with the same properties.........

There are now 'microinverters' that only produce about 300 watts and
are easy to replace. You do have about 24 of them per panel. *With
todays cost it only takes about 5 years for a payback when you factor
in all the tax breaks in the US.

Again look here for a real user.
http://www.kenclifton.com/wordpress/

My neighbour is a real user, about 16 big panels.
The panels are in series, and the convertor
converts high-voltage DC to 240 V ac.
I am an electronic engineer, and I know some high-voltage equipment
to fail on occasion.
Even if a salesman tries to convince me thats not the case.
Besides, the whole installation came from China, in a multi-customer
contract to a chinese firm, including installation and convertor.
It is not a simple convertor, a lot of smart control buildin.
Now where to find such an animal in about 5 years?????
A failng panel is easier, you can take it out of the loop, and keep
on using the rest. That just decreases efficiency.

Any make of panel can be used with any grid tie inverter. And panels
can be mixed so long as of similar specification. So no problems with
replace ments in that respect. Appearance might be an issue with odd
panels.

I too have an electric car. I recharge it on sunny days if at all
possible.
I have a 4Kwp array, the car takes 2.2Kw on charge.
All our domestic electricity is 240 volt here. (UK)