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from the musk-sells-solar-cells-by-the-solar-shore dept.
Trump administration imposes tariffs on imported solar cells and modules at 30% and certain washing machines up to 50%:
This new determination sets tariffs on imported solar cells and modules at 30 percent with a gradual decrease of that tariff over the subsequent four years. In years two, three, and four, the tariff will be imposed at 25 percent, 20 percent, and 15 percent, respectively, of the value of the import. The first 2.5 gigawatts of imported solar cells imported are exempt from the tariff (but it seems that a similar provision was not made for solar modules). Though the executive branch has broad authority to impose whatever tariff it wants after the ITC finds that an industry has been harmed by imports, this tariff decision closely matches the middle-ground recommendation made by two of the four-person ITC's commissioners. Those commissioners recommended a 30-percent tariff on modules and a 30-percent tariff on imported solar cells in excess of 1GW, with declining rates after the first year.
Whirlpool shares rise after Trump tariff on washing machine imports
The new tax is expected to hit Trump's desk on Tuesday. The administration is imposing 20% tariffs on the first 1.2 million machines imported each year, and 50% on those after that. There will also be a 50% tariff on washing machine parts.
Naturally South Korea and China are upset and plan to argue their case at the WTO. From the articles I read this morning there should be a boost to US manufacturing but the gains may all be offset by the losses with people not wanting to pay more for solar. I think regardless of price people will do solar for solar's sake, but there is sure to be some impact on sales and installation jobs.
Guess I should have bought that 30% off washing machine at the Sears going out of business sale.
(Score: 5, Informative) by fyngyrz on Wednesday January 24 2018, @06:56PM (16 children)
You can put a small 12 VDC solar system in place quite inexpensively; small enough that the 30% isn't a huge hit.
You need one (or more, but one is actually a fun start) solar panels.
You need a charge controller.
You need cables.
You need a decent 12 VDC battery - a car battery will do. The charge controllers know how to deal with them.
Then you just need to start adding 12 VDC "things" to your household, and wires, and sockets for things like light bulbs.
I have several small systems running that are built just like that. 12 VDC LED lighting is inexpensive now, and you can get all manner of other stuff, including inverters, quite easily and without breaking the bank.
IMHO, it's worth doing just to learn the ins and outs of the tech. You're looking at about $200 to start counting the battery (handwaving) and from there, you can add up to about three more panels and quite a few batteries if you want to expand. About every 4 panels, you typically will need another charge controller, at least, if we're talking about the inexpensive, small charge controllers.
Here is a starter including everything but the battery [ebay.com] for about $100.00 US. Add a battery, you're probably looking at $200 to get it all running. Then small additional costs as you add 12 VDC devices. Light bulbs [amazon.com] are a fun way to start.
And yeah, batteries: totally a fan of batteries, because one of the main functions of these things — for me — is that when the mains go out, my lights, radios, fish tanks and furnace don't.
Solar is fun. Don't let the administration's tariff activities turn you away from it if you've been wondering what it's all about. If you can spare a couple hundred bucks, just dive right in. :)
Also: If you're a ham or a fan of AM/SW radio, watch out for RFI. It definitely requires some more effort to keep these things RF-silent. Be prepared to invest in a nice assortment of wire-through ferrite cores.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 24 2018, @07:17PM
thanks for this post.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Adamsjas on Wednesday January 24 2018, @07:18PM (6 children)
Great for an enthusiast with a modicum of electrical knowledge.
Not so easy for the guy off the street. And keeping it up to code for insurance purposes as well as safety is important too.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Wednesday January 24 2018, @07:41PM
Actually it's about at the ridiculously easy level right now. LEGO-easy. And there's plenty of help online.
The rest... varies with your location and what you're trying to do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 24 2018, @07:45PM (3 children)
I'm not so sure that 12 volts is covered by code. Is it? I thought you could pretty much do what you wanted with low voltage wiring.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday January 24 2018, @09:14PM (2 children)
While 12V is safe from electrocution, the chances of fires due to insufficiently thick wires and/or improper connection leading to shorts are higher.
Because 12V will require higher currents - a 10W@12V led bulb replacement will suck almost 1A (vs 0.1A on a 120V main with an incorporated down voltage adapter). The 10W LED itself is mounted on a radiator, it gets quite hot; also keep in mind the LEDs are quite prone to thermal runaways [wikipedia.org].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Thursday January 25 2018, @01:18AM
Just to follow up on that a bit, these all-in-one small systems do come with the appropriate cables for panel to controller and controller to battery.
After that, you're on your own. And sure, like any electrical system, you can do it wrong.
Buuuut... again, there's tons of help on the Internet, and cable advice features prominently.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Thursday January 25 2018, @01:23AM
Also... just like the mains... proper fusing and loading is very easy to set up. If you're running a charge controller (and if you don't, you're nuts), they usually have a properly current-limited output you can use, too. Which also provides usage monitoring and the like.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday January 24 2018, @08:25PM
True dat.
Remember Ohms law? Watt-for-Watt, the lower the voltage, the higher the current must be.
With 200W worth of solar panels @12v - which means something like this [ebay.com.au] at 1.5mx0.7m - the safe connection cables have the same thickness as one able to safely power a 2000W appliance on an 120V main (a decent-powered blender, I think. Definitely a good cooking hotplate. Almost 3HP). They'll need to be capable to carry 10A without breaking a sweat.
If you want to know what may happen if you fail to use appropriate cabling thickness, do the following experiment:
- take 4x1.5V new alkaline AA cells
- put them in a 4-series battery holder
- put on your protection goggles**
- take a 20cm jump wire [wikipedia.org] (if my memory serves, they are 22AWG, 0.6mm in diameter) and short the 6V battery group.
- observe how fast that plastic insulation starts to smoke and melt
After that, think how good you'd feel towards the nature when you get to live day-and-night in close contact with it; this for the case your (still under mortgage) home burns down due to your feel-green-without-proper-care fooling around with 12V.
Especially if you are tempted to think on the line of "Yeah, man, it's only 12V. Not like I'm gonna die electrocuted if I'm not insulating those connections to perfection".
---
** the batteries will get how too. The protection glasses are just in case the batteries lose the race with the jump wire, start to boil and explode in your eyes before the shorting wire melts down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday January 24 2018, @07:22PM (6 children)
If you are going with lead-acid batteries, stay away from the car batteries - they are optimized for power density (heaps of amps for short time to start that damn'd SVU tractor) and don't take deep discharges very well.
Search for "marine battery" or "deep cycle battery" - will maybe add you some $100 in cost over a car battery but you won't mourn the death of it after 6 months of use. Prefer large Ah capacities, you'll get to discharge them less and this has huge impact on the lifetime of the battery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Wednesday January 24 2018, @07:38PM (3 children)
That's good advice (+Informative for you), though my vanilla-ish (~100 AH) car batteries have been in service for almost three years now... OTOH I have not ever discharged them all the way, so there's that.
Still, to start, I'd just go with a cheap battery until you have more serious plans. But whatever floats your boat and doesn't sink your wallet.
I have one system that is all ultracaps - that's eventually going to be the way to go, because they simply don't wear out in any practical sense but the space required at the present time is pretty horrible compared to a battery. Plus they need their own special electronics for charge / discharge. Sigh. They aren't quite there yet for most practical systems. But it was fun to build. Lots of challenges.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday January 24 2018, @08:32PM (2 children)
Price-wise too.
My latest foray into "back for your buck" in electrical energy storage (how much Wh for $1), still shows something like:
- lead-acid (deep cycle) - best Wh/$
- NiMH
- LiPo
- ultracaps - worst Wh/$
At least when considering consumer prices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Thursday January 25 2018, @01:12AM (1 child)
Sort of. But the ultracaps probably won't need to be replaced in my lifetime. Batteries, at least with available battery tech thus far, just don't last. And batteries waste a lot of energy when charging.
No doubt! I bought all mine surplus off of EBay. A generation or two back tends to be very inexpensive compared to new. And the tech is still improving, so there's hope yet.
Hey, and you can probably will your ultracaps to your kids / grandkids because they'll probably still be working when you go nipples north. Batteries suck. :)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday January 25 2018, @03:09AM
That is, if everything you can account for getting outside the spec-ed range is enough and really taken care off and durable for the duration of you life.
Depends on you charging current/cell.
Neither ultracaps are that immortal.
Only considering that the outer layer is still plastic (most probable, LDPE) - won't degrade for centuries while protected by the tons of garbage on top inside the dump, but letting you down after some years due to temperature variation, some ion-rich air, good forbids to keep them in the Sun's light, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday January 24 2018, @08:42PM (1 child)
https://www.westmarine.com/marine-batteries [westmarine.com]
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday January 24 2018, @08:51PM
Depends on where you live - 'tis why I didn't provide a link.
I know I'm not gonna pay S&H for a ton of lead with "fragile/dangerous goods" classification from US to Australia, I suspect won't make sense for European soylenters too.
---
** that acid, even if as a gel? certainly dangerous it the enclosure breaks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 25 2018, @01:35PM
i am looking for a 12V timer: lights on at 7 pm and off again at 6 am.
once i find this, i can stop worrying about emptying ( and breaking) the battery.
the rest should be easy.
watch for insulation and cable thickness, less voltage means more amps which require thicker cables.
everything car is 12V so can be used too... including the fuses.
another way is to go 48VDC ( 12VDC x 4 serial) and then using that on a invert to get 220-230 Volt AC ... and you're back >:D