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Thinking about solar . . .


J.Miller

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I thought about it but I only have room for one vehicle. It would be fine for toodling around locally but there are very few charging stations in Mexico. That, the extra panels needed, the "charging" station and the higher price for the vehicle, all made me change my mind. IF I was going to consider it again, I would think a hybrid vehicle would be a better choice for Mexico. Anybody else thought about this?

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4 hours ago, MtnMama said:

I haven't seen Matt for a couple of years so no idea if he is still around. His father is pastor at the Abundant Life Church so you might contact him.

We've been contacted by several former clients of Matt's (they say he closed shop, left Mexico and is in USA now) and we are successfully assisting them with a number of things including ensuring warranty coverage continues.   Feel free to email or PM.

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I would caution anyone going with solar hot water to go to Simapa and get the hard mineral analysis of the well that serves your home. They will print it out for you, usually an annual report.

One of the several problems I have experienced is hard mineral buildup in the coils of the solar collector tank. That buildup can stop the flow of water from the roof to the rest of the house.

Basically, count on annual maintenance to have the calcium and other hard minerals blown out of the coils and pipes with help of a compressor and muriatic acid.

One solution is to buy a water softener (suavizador (electronic or the old fashioned kind) and insert it into the line so that the solar coils and collector only get demineralized of "softened" water. Then the annual maintenance of "blowing out" the calcified mineral blockages can be prevented.

I was not a happy customer of one of the companies (and an individual) being chirped up on this board, but I vented enough about that company a couple years ago. That horse is long beat dead. They sold me a poor fit and function, and left me with the expense of having to adapt it numerous different times. The owners of the company, behind the scenes, are Mexican, and from my experience do not believe in going the extra mile for the customer. It was in effect, "You bought it. You paid for it. It didn't quite work the way it was supposed to, but that is your problem now to spend the extra money to make it work, because in most instances, it will work, just not yours."

If I had to do it all over again, and I went solar hot water, I'd definitely spend the $500 usd for a water softener, or I'd come up with a way to filter out calcium at least.

Not to repeat, but any good solar hot water company should know the pozo (well) that serves your home, and should be able to predict whether you will or will not have mineral buildup problems. If they don't know off hand, then go to Simapa, get the water analysis report, and show the solar company the report, and let them analyze the hard minerals. Some wells are good, some are problematic.

Good luck.

 

 

 

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On 11/10/2021 at 6:21 PM, Mainecoons said:

I've had this thought it might be cost effective to get a small electric utility car and add sufficient panels to keep it charged.  Has anyone here looked at that?

 

Maybe a small utility car would work but a normal Tesla/Leaf does not work unless you got a whole pile of panels or do not drive much. It was much cheaper to buy a cheap small good quality city car like a March/Micra. But we don't drive much.  I guess the question is how much juice does your utility car take to figure out how many panels you would need. What works in Seattle with cheap dam power doesn't work here due to ridiculous electricity prices.  Friends added panels to established solar system and they still went to DAC with Tesla.  You got some calculating to do. And while  I don't count value of driving electric you might feel differently. 

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Driving electrically would be strictly local for us and we would keep our gas car.  It only makes sense to us if we can recharge with solar.  Otherwise you are buying mostly fossil fuel power from CFE.  I'm not thinking of anything at all like Tesla, more like a glorified golf cart.  

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Remember your solar installation will sell excess production during daylight hours to CFE and buy production back at night. The idea is to have enough in the day to pay for your use at night.

If you will be adding the number of watts consumed by charging batteries you only need to know what the average KWH use will be needed to charge the batteries and add the number of panels needed, based on wattage, to produce that extra amount daily.  

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The average EV is currently getting about 4 miles (6km) per kWh.      For solar electric system users, this means that each added panel (using 400 watt size panels here) would give them about 12 km per day of driving range, (84 km per week per panel) and stay at the same place with their CFE bills.      Many ways to play with this, as not everyone drives everyday, or for different distances, just a starting point for reference.

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23 hours ago, Mainecoons said:

Driving electrically would be strictly local for us and we would keep our gas car.  It only makes sense to us if we can recharge with solar.  Otherwise you are buying mostly fossil fuel power from CFE.  I'm not thinking of anything at all like Tesla, more like a glorified golf cart.  

Just buy a nice  motorcycle  mine gets 52 miles per gallon  😉

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Come see our installation of solar panels at Have Hammer Will Travel A.C woodworking school in Riberas next to S&S auto, our board of directors reviewed 11 different companies Opiere solar came out on top.

The students now can work several machines at once. tremendous savings, no problems, our convertor is installed inside our building. Opiere picked a great convertor for we can expand to more panels if needed.

They also were chosen by the legion in Chapala,  for installation of solar panels.

I refereed many persons to Opiere,  they agreed Opiere is the best.

Opiere have there own in house team for your installation, they can be trusted and are the most experienced solar team lakeside.

El Parque  Facc also chose Opiere solar.

 

 

 

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