Newsletter Archive

Apology

Actually we did send out a brief message on the 19 th of December about an error on our newsletter software that allowed replies to be transmitted to all newsletter recipients. As advised at the time, this has been resolved and your email address was not sent to anyone. Sorry again for the confusion.

New Staff

We've had some changes in the past few months so we thought we'd give you an update of who we have on our staff at the moment. We now have six staff who are BCSE accredited and/or who hold a Certificate IV in Renewable Energy.

Sales and Marketing:

• Dave Lambert - export and trade sales manager
• Peter Pedals - system design, training and marketing
• Adi Cyrillo - retail sales
• Terry Thomas - retail sales

Administration:

• Karen Welsh - reception, marketing and general administration
• Maria DeRighetti - accounts
• Ruth Nielsen - wages and general administration

Installations:

• John Davis - installation coordinator (originally from Australia Wide Solar)
• Adrian Winkler - installer
• Chris Nuss - installer and qualified electrician
• Stewart Gardner - installer and qualified electrician
• Paul O'Reilly - installer
• Mias Feenstra - installer

Miscellaneous:

• Dave Christmas - purchasing
• Ray Stone - technical repairs
• Greg Matheson - IT manager and web designer
• Karlin Bracegirdle - 'Living With Solar' trainer
• Allan Macdougal - manufacturing
• Ross Anderson - cleaner and caretaker

Installation Materials

Besides the usual lugs, cables, and conduit we offer a wide range of other products which may be needed for installs. These include signage, frame accessories, roof anchor points etc. Our latest addition is a Deks Roof Penetration Seal at an attractive price. These products are in the Solar Accessories section of our Web Shop.

Amorphous vs Crystalline Panels

We carry two types of solar modules which are suitable for mobile homes, boats, caravans etc. Each type has some advantages and disadvantages.

1) Amorphous Canon/UniSolar type: These solar panels will continue to produce significant power if a portion of the panel is shaded by tree cover. They do perform a bit better than the other type in extremely hot conditions. They are not covered in glass and are considered to be very robust. However, they are very large in size. A 64W amorphous panel is larger than a 130W Kyocera polycrystalline panel! Another disadvantage is that their 'dull' surface tends to collect dust and they are somewhat difficult to clean. They have a 20 year warranty.

2) Kyocera panels: This type of polycrystalline panel comes with a 20 year warranty and they take up half the area of an equivalent wattage UniSolar panel. However, all poly and monocrystalline panels suffer a very substantial loss of power if a portion of the panel is shaded by some tree leaves or even a mast on a yacht.

This partial shading 'problem' is not the same as cloudy weather or filtered light (in which case there is not much difference in performance between the two types).

The other decision to make is whether or not to permanently mount the solar panel on the roof. The advantage is that it is 'out of the way', very resistant to theft and can charge your battery while you are on the road.

The big disadvantage is that it means you need to park your vehicle in full sun (which you might prefer not to do when touring the Outback in mid summer).

The second option which can suit if you only have one or two solar panels is to have them on a 10 - 20 metre lead. You can then park under a shady tree and mount your panels in the sun. This means that you need to have somewhere to stash your solar panel while you are on the road. Perhaps the big disadvantage is that the solar panel can be prone to theft if you want to leave your vehicle unattended. This may or may not be an issue depending on your lifestyle and the type of place where you camp.

Feel free to contact us to discuss these options further.