Hi guys for those of you that didn’t subscribe, my name’s Alex and I live in his van with Marcela and our two dogs, but currently in tarifa, where I’ve been for the past three or four Months, chillin out here doing a bit of kite, surfing, etc, etc, but soon we’re, going to be going into different jobs for the ski season so anyway, today I am adding more solar panels to our roof, mainly because I’ve.
Had to remove one of them that was damaged, it’s left as a little a little short of power, so I & # 39. Ve got two more panels to go on the roof today that the semi-flexible type, which I know this – is kind of mixed reviews on Selena’s semi-flexible or the rated, which one’s better.
Well. For me personally, I prefer the flexible ones, some reasons for that. A lot lighter and obviously that weight as well as with the rigid ones, is going to be right. High up on the roof, which is the worst place to have weight, you can’t, see them, so you maintain as much of our staff look as as possible.
I know you guys love your stealthiness. I mean the rigid ones originally were a lot more efficient and have a longer lifespan, but I’ve, seen it’s, flexible ones. Now, with up to 25 % efficiency, which I’ve, not I’ve, not actually looked in depth, but I haven’t, seen any rigid ones up to that sort of level of efficiency.
I’m sure there is, but the point is the flexible ones are catching up with a rigid ones. On the lifespan yeah, I mean to be honest that the ones I have on the roof now they are deteriorated a lot and you can see a previous video on that.
I’ll, put a link up here for that video on a way to to fix or to at least to get the most out of deteriorated panels, but the newer ones they’re doing some with a ETFE coating on which apparently Meant to last a lot longer, who knows, but another reason I like the flexible ones, is them.
I’m a fan of Technology and they’re kind of a little bit more. It’s. The way things are going – and I kind of like to try and stay at the front of it, even if sometimes as some compromises that anyway enough of all that stuff, let’s, get on to fit in the pants.
We’re, going to be fitting some solar panels today. Are you gonna help me soon? So the first thing you’re going to want to do is test. Your new panels actually work. I’ll go outside now. It’s, a bit windy, so I’m, not sure what the sounds going to be like a la, so just got the panels out here on the floor.
Okay, so you just wanted to say: multimeter to volts, obviously make sure your blacks in the calm for comment on the red V for volts [, Music ]. These panels are 18 volts, so you should get a viewing of about 18 volts.
A reading of about 18 volts, I don’t. You can see that on the camera plus, I can’t even see the screen on the camera, but it’s. Reading, actually, 19 volts is coming up there. We’re lucky enough here that in tarifa today it’s, nice and sunny.
So we’ve got this one. It’s, easy enough to check the panel’s, but if you haven & # 39, t got the Sun. If you’re in the UK, for instance, maybe get your mate to sign a torch. So here’s, my setup at the moment – and you can see that I’ve, had to remove one panel here and the problem with that one panel was they actually had a hole burn in it? I’d seal, see you can see where I & # 39.
Ve took the tape off actually here I could probably show you an old picture now and you can see how it’s sealed all around the sides, and I even sealed in between each panel. All this was sealed. I’ve got a little bit of it, a bit excited with it.
Basically, one theory of what’s happened. Is that I put these panels on the UK and that there’s, moisture trapped in here and then as soon as you got to Spain and it’s like nice and hot here, and the moisture tried to escape it actually got Through, like maybe a micro crack is already in the panel I made it worse or or even just cracked the panel and and caused a short circuit.
The other theory, of course, is it just overheated. I put these unnecessary blocks of wood there and then I taped all around it as well, so there probably were really hot. So this time I’m gonna do things different anyway.
First of all, I’m going to remove this wood because it doesn & # 39. T need to be there and obviously you shouldn’t really use wood unless it’s treated as well. So it’s going to last, but I think we should just be able to put sick effects along these ridges and set the panel on it, and that should suffice.
No problem. So this time guys, we’re, going to make sure there’s, plenty of ventilation for moisture and heat to escape. The cooling panels run the better they’ll, be as well overheating panels can reduce a lifespan and also reduces the efficiency of them so remove most of that old wood.
I’m going to leave these these two just a little bit. Support cuz, obviously the panels in the comfort here. This is an 80 grit, sandpaper quite coarse, so I’m just giving it a light rub just a roofing nut surface up a bit.
Well, I’m just going to give these a real light rub they’ve, obviously been done before when I put the the previous panel on, but just freshen that roughness up a bit this bit here could probably do being a bit Better, but I’m, actually gonna be taking these panels off again, maybe next year upgrade the whole system.
So these these are just cheap, temporary. Ten panels. For now here I’m just using a cleaning solvent to clean the back of the panel and the whole area that’s, going to be in contact with the sick, blacks once the area is all clean.
I’m. Adding the Sikaflex don’t be shy with it nice thick beads to get that good adhesion. Then I put the panel in place and you can move it around a little bit on the sig next to get it just in the right position.
Apply light pressure on the contact points, wipe off any excess Sikaflex via the rag for the front panel after sand in the area lightly, as I did with the back, I clear again with the cleaning solvent and then apply the Sikaflex.
The length of these panels falls just short of the corrugations, so as with the back ones, I put some little pieces of wood here to act as the contact points. The main difference with installing this panel on the front is that it & # 39.
S got the head-on wind to contend with while driving, so I used some extra wide Gorilla Tape to bend the panel round a little bit over the front of the van. I also use a little bit of Sikaflex under there, so the table pull the panel down onto the stick of flex and a deer to that.
If it takes ever to fail. Okay, so that’s, all the dirty work doing all the Sikaflex endured it’s, a bit messy this black stuff for holding down anyway. So now I’m just moving on to the wiring, which these are all wired.
In parallel, so nice and easy just join these two into the circuit, I might need some extensions for this one. I don’t have any mc4 connectors. So I’m just gonna I’m gonna solder them all together, which I’ve heard you shouldn’t do actually because apparently the solder can melt or I really don’t.
I can’t, see that happening with it. So just extended these cables, I’ve. Just put this down temporary for now, just hold them in place. These cable tie mounts are a good solution for a permanent holding of the cables.
Although I’d, advise not to use the adhesive backing, that comes with them, used a nightstick effects to hold them down. You can find these on my kit comm, where there’s, a link to in the description I & # 39.
Ve got some extensions here, and this is copper, solar, cable, which you know. I recommend getting the copper over the alley. Just for efficiency reasons, and then I’ve got some joins some previous joins here, and here, where I’m just going to tap into that, I just think is gonna be a little bit awkward solder and a beer today for The blow torch because windy, [, Music, ], okay – guys if you found that useful, is obviously not really fully in depth, but to be fair with these flexible solar panels, we’re going to attach them like that.
It’s. It’s, pretty simple stuff. You can use the the eyelets at each corner of the solar panel and you can use you know screws or bolts, but you know if you & # 39, ve got the option to just sticks in theory.
If you don & # 39, t really want to be drilling holes and screwing stuff into every. For no reason, I’m, actually going to do a video on calculate in your system requirements. I’ve, been learning a little bit extra about solar panels and this sort of stuff.
Recently, I do have some calculate calculators at the moment which they’re available in my e-book, but I think I’m going to make them available free on my blog. So I’ll, put a link to that below and then I’m just gonna add another, maybe one or two calculators, but the video will be in depth on exactly how to calculate your requirements of your solar panels.
Your batteries, everything yeah anything you’re gonna need, okay, guys all right see on the next one, alright guys thanks for watching. I hope you liked it if you did give us a thumbs up subscribe. If you haven’t already and dig my bail cuz, you won’t even know.
If I’ve uploaded the video, otherwise cheers guys is he on the next one, [ Music, ]
