Posted 02 February 2014 - 12:29 PM
Solar Liberator, Frequently Asked Questions:
1. What kind of setup does it require?
Solar Liberator does not require any setup at all. It is fully integrated and functional straight away out of the packaging. You can simply place it where sunlight falls and it will start generating power. Connecting the 500W Solar Liberator to your home is as simple as plugging it into a wall socket.
2. Does it work in gloomy weather?
On overcast days where there is reasonable cloud cover, the power capacity can drop but with the battery backup it could sustain a consistent supply.
3. What happens on rainy days?
On rainy days the solar irradiance is much lower than on a sunny day, and hence the amount of energy generated by your Solar Liberator will be much less than normal. Nevertheless, depending on the capacity and charge level of the batteries of your Solar Liberator, you can continue drawing power from it as normal.
4. Can I use it at night?
The battery pack that comes with the unit will be sufficient to keep it functional for up to 2 hours at full capacity. If the power being drawn from the unit is less, it will last longer.
It is also possible to add more battery units to enhance the use of the unit at night, in gloomy weather, etc.
5. Why is Solar Liberator different from other solar power solutions?
Most of the solar power generation units out there are commercial solutions for which you need to hire a contractor who will assemble the system at your premises and wire it into your house! These systems will cost you anywhere from $15,000 to $50,000 upfront. These solutions are sometimes a good choice if you think you will need over 10KW of power.Solar Liberator is designed to be the right choice if your needs are below 10KW (which is the vast majority of households) or if you want to slowly transition to solar energy one step at a time without committing to a large system upfront.
Further, Solar Liberator’s portable, flexible and extensible design and fully integrated packaging makes it the most sensible choice if you want to add solar power to non traditional living spaces and vehicles such as boats, caravans, mobile homes, sheds, etc..
On the other end you have small DC only low power solar panels that sometimes succeed in charging your phone etc.. but generally these are nothing more than toys or junk that gets thrown away or forgotten after sometime.
6. What about warranty of the components?
The high grade poly-crystalline PV cells come with 25 year warranty from the original manufacturers. Each Solar Liberator unit will carry a 5-year materials and workmanship warranty which includes the electronics. The minimum design lifespan for the electronics is 10 years, but should last much longer. The included Li-ion batteries are designed to last 5 years by the use of advanced software optimized charging cycles and thermal dissipation control. They are warranted for a minimum of one year.
7. How can I claim Federal and state benefits for renewable energy when I get a Solar Liberator?
With the 500W Solar Liberator, you should be entitled to claim the 30% federal tax credit and also may be eligible to claim various other state and federal benefits for renewable energy. Prior to delivery, we will convert your Indiegogo contribution into a purchase and provide you with the necessary invoices and documents that will enable you to claim these benefits.
Solar Liberator, Frequently Asked TECHNICAL Questions:
1. Do Solar Liberator units work with European and other international electrical systems as well as the US?
Absolutely. The portable units (25W and 100W) have a voltage selector switch to select the output voltage/frequency. The socket panel in these units will come with appropriate A/C sockets according to your delivery address. For example the units shipped to the US will contain Type B (NEMA 5-15) A/C sockets, whereas units shipped to the UK will contain Type G (BS 1363) sockets.
Similarly, the 500W unit will be supplied with a plug that is compatible with your local standards. The grid-tie capability in the 500W unit detects the voltage/frequency of the grid supply it is connected to, and outputs power to your home’s electrical network with the exact same voltage/frequency/phase (from 100V -250V and 50/60 Hz).
2. What precautions are taken to prevent the 500W unit from reverse feeding power output when the grid supply is down?
In grid-tie mode, Solar Liberator will shut down power output if the grid supply goes down, to prevent reverse feeding. This is a requirement for the UL 1741/IEEE 1547 certification which is the standard required by most utility companies for equipment that feeds power into their grids.
3. Can the 500 watt units be used off-grid?
There are two separate outlets for grid-tie and ‘Always On’ off-grid output. This is for safety and to prevent accidentally connecting the wrong output to the grid. The grid-tie output can simply be plugged into a wall socket using the provided cable, whereas you need to draw cabling and connect up the off-grid output terminals via a transfer switch that disconnects the grid when operational.
4. How does the unit know to output power when connected to a transfer switch that has triggered due to utility grid failure? Wouldn’t the unit still believe it was in island protect mode?
The grid tie output will shut down when the utility supply goes down. If you have wired the ‘Always On’ off-grid out put through a transfer switch, when the transfer switch triggers, then your house will be supplied power from the ‘Always On’ output, and is isolated from the grid.
5. I saw that 4 is the maximum number of 500W panels that can be chained. Does this mean you can also have more than 1 set of 4 chained 500W units plugged into separate sockets or is there a limitation of 4 units per house?
The 4-unit limit is such that the maximum rated current (usually 15A) is not exceeded for the wall socket you are plugging the Solar Liberator array into. You can have multiple sets of 4 units plugged in – as long as each set plug into a different breaker circuit and you do not exceed the max current of the circuit.
6. I don’t completely understand how the unit will power my house by being plugged into an outlet, is there anywhere that explains this properly? Is this power available throughout the house?
When you plug the 500W Solar Liberator unit in to a wall socket, the unit will feed the generated solar power into your home’s electrical network, just like the power line that comes to your house from your utility Company. This is achieved by the grid-tie circuitry built-in to the Solar Liberator unit. Therefore the power that is fed into the household network in this way can be drawn from any other socket in the house or even flow back onto the grid (if you have net metering setup with your utility company, you could get credited for the excess power that flows back to the grid).
7. How durable are 500W units to be in a purely outside environment? Will they be able to stand up to hail, heavy rain, snow, ice, freezing temperatures, and high winds? How will freezing temperatures effect the internal battery and the unit as a whole?
The Solar Liberator unit is made out of anodized Aluminum with acrylic sheets covering the PV cells. It is designed to endure difficult weather conditions such as heavy rain and snow, etc. The battery and the electronics are housed in a weather-proof casing. The software uses advanced thermal and charge management to ensure the longevity of the battery and electronics. The battery by design can operate at temperatures down to -20 C (though performance may deteriorate).
For extreme low temperatures though, we recommend removing the batteries to minimize damage to the batteries.
8. How will it stand up to high temperatures? How does it protect the batteries and electronics from heat?
The panels and the electronics themselves will operate at 50+ C. The internal structure and circuitry have sophisticated heat dissipation mechanisms. But if the ambient temperature itself is above 40 C, the battery will deliver minimal power as the software will keep things quiet to minimize stress on the batteries.
9. Has the mounting been tested for high winds? What kind of wind speed can it handle?
The units and mounting has been tested for wind speeds of 50kmph/30 mph.
In areas where high winds and gusts over 80kmph/50mph are common, we recommend mounting the units on the ground or using windbreaks and the use of specialized reinforced mounting systems.
10. What kind/brand of solar panels do you use in the 500W unit?
We do not use generic/branded solar panels. Solar Liberator uses a 8 × 16 grid of standard 6inch crystalline Photo-voltaic cells that are integrated into the unit and makes up the panel. Each of the 128 cells, has a peak power output of 4.2W for a theoretical peak output close to 538W.
11. For a roof installation of the 500w units, can the installation be done by a homeowner, or do you recommend an installer. Any specific installers you recommend?
Mounting the unit is straightforward and electrical setup is as simple as plugging the cabling that runs from the unit into a wall socket. It is reasonably assumed that this can be carried out by an adult familiar with basic DIY work. If you are not comfortable with setting it up yourself, we would recommend that you seek the assistance of a professional in your locality.
12. Do I have to have net metering setup with my utility provider in order to use Solar Liberator?
You do not have to have a net metering agreement with your utility provider. But if you do have a net metering agreement, the excess power that flows from your home to the grid will get metered as well and be credited by your utility company. If you do not have net metering setup, and the units generate more power than you are consuming, no power will be drawn from the grid and your meter would come to a halt.
13. How much does the 500W unit weigh?
The 500W panel weighs 20kg with battery of which the battery weighs 8kg.
14. Is there a need to replace the internal battery pack when they die? Can we unplug it on the unit?
All Solar Liberator units can function without the battery pack. The battery pack will enhance performance of the unit though, with evened-out, smooth power delivery as the sunshine fluctuates and by providing backup power when the sun does not shine at all.
Batteries can be easily removed or replaced. Replacement batteries will be available once the deliveries start.
15. Will the unit function fine with the “computer” resetting each time the sunlight is lost or would “grid” tied models have some way of trickling power to the main board to keep things going?
The microcontroller we use is a very low powered component that can draw power from any of the power sources available (solar panels, battery and grid). If all power sources are lost, it will reset and recover on power being regained.
16. What is level of configuration that the software allows for the user? Can we activate/deactivate the batteries?
The software does not allow battery configuration in order to keep things simple for the user. The software does everything intelligently to achieve the best balance in performance, longevity and overall health of the unit.
17. I would love to get more information about your Li-Ion batteries?
The Li-ion battery is a sealed battery cartridge that consists of 128 standard Li-ion 18650 2,350 mAh battery cell with voltage level of 3.7V. The battery charging and thermal cycles are controlled by the internal software, which is part of the innovation in Solar Liberator, and is optimized for best performance and battery life.
18. It would also be great to get info on the extra batteries. What would be the max battery storage for the 500W unit?
Additional batteries will be available once deliveries start. The unit comes with a single 1kWh battery cartridge. But the unit can house up to 4 batteries giving you 4 kWh of storage, which is enough to draw peak power for 8 continuous hours.
500W unit also supports connecting up external Lead-acid battery banks to expand storage capacity even more.
19. How easy is it to integrate an external battery bank into the system with all the other components continuing to function properly?
The 500W unit supports connecting external Lead-acid battery banks using the high current DC terminals provided in the unit. Solar Liberator will automatically integrate the external battery bank into its energy management scheme.
20. What is the hardware that is inside the unit? Do you use open hardware such as Nanode, Raspberry Pi, etc?
While we are fully supportive of open architecture, the hardware inside the Solar Liberator is proprietary and we do not use open hardware. The reason for this is primarily the safety critical nature of the devices, hence minimizing unneeded complication. In addition, if the hardware/firmware was user modifiable this may invalidate certification.
21. Have you considered adding a NIC, using DHCP, for easier configuration? How do we enter the SSID and password for local wireless network?
There is a built-in WiFi NIC which connects to your local wireless network and configures using DHCP. Administrative configuration interface for Solar Liberator is accessed via Bluetooth, where you can configure the units to use a specific wireless network with SSID/password.
22. Will we have control of the “data” or is it all going to a central cloud?
Yes – you absolutely have control over whether the data gathered by the internal software ever leaves the boundaries of your privacy. You have the option to enable/ disable ‘Anywhere Monitoring’, which works via our servers and accessed via the smart phone app.
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