{"id":9942,"date":"2019-04-01T08:00:36","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T12:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/?p=9942"},"modified":"2023-03-19T09:13:08","modified_gmt":"2023-03-19T13:13:08","slug":"consulting-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.engineeringradio.us\/blog\/2019\/04\/consulting-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Consulting work"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been doing some non-broadcast-related consulting work lately. It is actually sort of fun and pays well.\u00a0 One thing that I have become involved in is solar installations, or more precisely data communications from solar installations.<\/p>\n

It seems that a critical part of any solar installation is the production numbers.\u00a0 Owners\/investors like to see a return on investment.\u00a0 They like to know that their system is working properly.\u00a0 Getting hard data on electricity production is an important part of the customer service aspect for a solar installation company.\u00a0 Being able to remotely monitor the system and be alerted of any faults or failures helps keep those production numbers where they should be.<\/p>\n

Solar installation on a large fuel storage tank:<\/p>\n

\"Thin<\/a>
87.5 KW Thin film solar panels installed on a fuel storage tank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It turns out that those fuel storage tank facilities use a lot of electricity. Not just for the fuel transfer pumps, some of their product is heavy oil; #4, #6, Resid or bunker oil<\/a> is very thick (or viscous). Tanks, pipes, and pumps for those distillates must be heated to certain temperatures in order to move them. That is all done with electric resistance heating.<\/p>\n

There is a very good book about oil and how it is extracted, transported, refined, and used called Oil 101<\/em> by Morgan Downey.\u00a0 It is an eye-opening read, to be sure.<\/p>\n

Looking at the tops of those tanks; there is a lot of unused areas.\u00a0 It is a novel idea to use that area to generate power for the tank farm.\u00a0 The thin film solar panels come in rolls. They have an adhesive backing and are peel-and-stick. The nice part about this type of installation; the steel tanks help keep the panels slightly cooler, which boosts their production on hot summer days.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/a>
Three phase solar inverters installed on fuel storage tank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In this installation, each inverter reports to a website that logs all of the output data, as well as area temperature and percentage of sunlight. This system helps the installation company and tank owner know if there are any problems with the array.\u00a0 In order for that to work, the LAN needs to be set up and a communication device used to connect to the public network.<\/p>\n

All in all, that was a fun project.<\/p>\n

By the way, if anyone needs a solar system installed, I know a company that can do it.<\/p>\n