idea on making solar tracker

solarvic

Just wandering if anyone here has tryed to make a tracker? I have been thinking of an idea. Got a toyota I want to junk. Thinking of taking the rearend out of it. I could cut one end off it below where the driveshaft connects and get that part welded to end of pipe that will go in ground. Get a short piece of pipe welded on the brake drum to mount a solar rack too. Either connect a motordrive on the end of driveshaft or else use a satelite arm to turn the dish on its axis. I have some old satelite receivers that you can program to move the rack 4 or 5 times a day and back to east after sundown. I already have most of the parts except the rack. I don,t have to have any quick answers but thinking this to be a summertime project. guess i will have to get the watts meter out and see how much power it takes to keep the satelite receiver fired up. I do have to take 2 of my racks down and change thier poles as 1 shades the other a little while. What happened is I put 2 racks next to the end of my garage. and 2 more racks in front of them as the ground level is about 6 feet lower. I had trouble getting a rack and got the first one I could get and I needed a landscape rack but ended up with a picture frame rack. So now I got to put the picture frame rack in back and the landscape rack in the front. So I have a rack I can try. If that works I might buy a rack that will hold 6 panels as I still have 4 panels to install. Vic

westbranch

Re: idea on making solar tracker

solarvic there are a couple of good thrreads discussing the amount of increase one can get from a tracker, max ~ = 25% at best. they're a good read. for me another panel is cheaper to get more power.
A manually moved rack is a good idea from my perspective.

HTH
Eric

BB.

Re: idea on making solar tracker

Here are a few threads (just a quick search--I have not reviewed them):

RedRok Solar Tracker
New Solar Tracker Company
Solar Trackers for PV -- Worth it ?

-Bill