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RAINBOW POWER COMPANY LTD
E-mail Newsletter #73
8 July 2004
CONTENTS:
1. PV PANELS
2. WEBSITE
3. PRICES ONLINE
4. LCD TELEVISIONS
5. COLOUR LASER PRINTER
1. PV PANELS: Germany and the EU have commenced a program
to double
their renewable energy to 22% by the year 2010. This is expected to cost
US$27.7 billion. They have done the 100,000 roofs; now they are going
for 1,000,000 rooftop installations! Virtually the entire world’s
production (700MW) has been ordered by Germany. All PV manufacturers
are
scrambling to meet the demand and hopefully to maintain supply to
existing customers.
While Europe and most of the Western world are making
great advances to
increase the use of renewable energy, the Coalition Of The Willing – the
USA, UK and Oz, are notable exceptions.
For the next 18 months, there could be a shortage of
panels,
particularly if existing suppliers need more than their usual
requirements. At the moment, we have a good supply of KC80s in stock.
There is also world pressure on the PV price. We expect
an initial price
rise of around 3% in the near future.
While this all sounds like bad news, I think in the
long term there will
be positive results. World production, competition and economics of
scale will eventually help to maintain or lower prices in the long run.
2. WEBSITE: We continue to upgrade our website so as to provide more
and more information online. There is now a link on the Home Page that
will take you to the Forum, where there is a blog type list of changes
to the site.
We have revamped our FAQ/Information page. Some large
sections have
been added, including a large book on windpower by Dr Gary Johnson, and
a 177-page report titled ‘A Clean Energy Future for Australia’;
courtesy
of the World Wildlife Fund.
3. PRICES ONLINE: Australian customers can now download
our Price
List in PDF format from the Products Page. This is in Aussie dollars
and includes GST (a tax applying only to Australian residents).
Overseas customers should email us their complete contact
details to
receive an overseas Price List.
4. LCD TELEVISIONS: There are a wide variety of televisions
on the
market now. The conventional television is usually referred to as a CRT
(cathode ray tube). Plasma and LCD televisions are now the 'new kid on
the block'!
LCD televisions have the advantage of taking up a lot
less space. They
are only 50-75 mm thick. Another advantage is that they use about one
third less power than the same size CRT television.
A 34 cm (14") Sony CRT television was measured
to use 58 Watts. I
recently checked the power consumption of a 43cm (17") LCD wide
screen
television (NEC brand), and found that it used 53 Watts when measured
on
the AC side.
Interestingly, a lot of LCD televisions (including the
NEC model above),
work on an input of 12 Volts. One brand, Majestic, is advertised as
such, and the specifications advise that it will work between 10.9 and
15.5 Volts. However, I would not advise that you attempt to run any
other brand direct off the battery unless the distributor/service centre
for that brand television advises that it is okay. The battery voltage
on a solar system can typically range from 10.5 to 15 Volts (for a
so-called 12V system). It could even operate outside of this range
under certain fault conditions (eg a flat battery or say the television
is running direct off the panels if the battery is disconnected.) Given
the cost of an LCD television, I'd suggest it is better to be safe than
sorry.
The power pack for the NEC television is rated a 5 Amps
12 Volts DC. I
am not certain whether or not it would work off a modified square wave
inverter as opposed to a battery quality sine wave inverter.
5. COLOUR LASER PRINTER: We recently ran some power
tests on our
Minolta QMS Magicolour Laser Printer. This is a full colour laser
printer that retails for a little over AUD$1100. The compliance label
suggests it uses 7 amps (1600 Watts). We’d suggest that this is
really
a surge rating. We recorded the following readings (measured on 240
Volt AC grid). The warm up took 800W for 30 seconds and then 580W for
1
minute. The printer then goes into a standby mode, using 14-15W
(however, every minute or so it does a 1-2 second surge up to 750
Watts). While printing a full colour page, the power changed about
every second from 15W to 800W for 30 seconds. After about 30 minutes
of
not using it, the printer goes into a Power Saving Mode using 6.3 to
7
Watts. To conclude, we’d suggest that the Printer tends to use less
power than its label suggests. On a Renewable Energy system, we’d
suggest you try and do all your printing at once, rather than leaving
the Printer on standby for several hours.
That’s all for this month folks! Your comments
and questions are most
welcome; however, there is no need to send our newsletter back to us
when you reply! If you would like a price or product information, please
tell us which country you are from if it is not evident from your e-mail
address. This allows us to assess if local GST (tax) is applicable or
whether 240 Volt 50HZ products will work in your country, etc.
Dave Lambert and the RPC crew
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