"Ideal" Hobby Distilling Space

grim

If you can afford 200 amps worth of solar panels, you can probably afford to string some wire through the jungle. The inverter alone would be as expensive as a small import sedan. I couldn't afford the more expensive Bayou Classic, I went for the knockoff - Cajun cooker somethingorother.

Kapea

75A x 240V = 18000W
18000W / 200W per PV panel = 90 PV panels

A good deal on PV panels currently is $1US per Watt. Plus inverters and batteries... An expensive way to fire your boiler - if you live in the boonies

grim

Fire with wood, it's more authentic

Kapea

It gives your spirits that certain... je ne sais quoi...

CothermanDistilling

Never said solar would be the full 200A (Trust me, I got a quote for 13KW a month ago, and with hurricane-proof support structure, it was $100K)..

IF you can get electricity with out paying an arm and a leg, 200A is only a small percentage more than 100A, a 200A panel has WAAAY more Circuit breaker spots in it than a 100A, the cost of the panel is nearly identical, the cost of the labor is the same, only the cost of the wire increases...

Saying that, if I had my 'ideal' workspace located next to @Kapea, I would focus on an automatic solar stripper that, when the sun came out, and the wash level sensor said their was wash in the tank, would warm up and start stripping a trickle or s stream, but would do it every day...

then I just need to do spirit runs with a drink in my hand and a 18 year old in the other... we did say ideal, right?

dad

Hobby- I would want a place I could set up and leave set up! Electric or gas, o.k. but tearing everything down sucks.

The doubling of amperage was a shock for me. It wasn't the service install for me, it was the components to go 400amps from service to building, building to panels. Once inside I split it to two 200amp panels, because when you can get stuff at the Big Box stores the price comes down.

Smaug

Just a little mini commercial kitchen environment. Floor drain, water spigots landed at all of the obvious places, tile everywhere.

Kapea

We get 180" of rain a year here on the windward side of Gilligan's Island. Batteries are a good thing.

100 Gs for 13kW is theft. You can do way better than that. Or that structure better stand up to a category 8 hurricane.

CothermanDistilling

Ya gotta have a licensed engineer seal the drawings... The same company did the local Lockheed Martin plant where they gave everyone covered parking, but since the size was 2.25MW they got it for $5M... the $/w was a quarter of what I was quoted.. $7.69/W vs $2.22/W

Lockheed Martin Parking Catches Sun Power

Kapea

You can do way better, believe me. If you go grid-tie you can eliminate the batteries and have micro-inverters built into the panels.

CothermanDistilling

It is grid tie, but with a single inverter, I wanted micro's, but the guy convinced me, he said they really are only better if the panels are oriented differently or some can be shaded if they are one big flat sheet with no shade and no chance of blockage, a string inverter is better...

Also, this is the first one to even respond to the requests I have made over the past three years, everybody and their brother will do rooftop ones... I have attached the PDF for you to review...

Kapea

Do you have your heals dug in for a "solar carport"? If so, have you considered breaking the job up, have one contractor build the structure, and another do the electrical?

Fancy proposal. First thing that came to mind when I looked at it was their pride in their roofing skills. I don't know that I would hire a automobile mechanic to work on my helicopter engine...

I think there might be someone on this forum who is familiar with construction in Florida. Maybe he could help you with understanding what it takes for you to be the general (on your own property), so you can hire the subs to do the work for you directly, without a middleman adding a markup.

CothermanDistilling

it is not 'heels dug in, it is getting dual use out of existing area... we have property cost of about a million an acre in our downtown area.. not prices where you are in Hawaii, but not worth taking up, I could rent parking spots and pay for double that electricity... and the city will not let me rent or take up existing parking spaces if I wanted to, and I am leaving my roof for a future rooftop lounge:

in coastal FL, with the 140mph wind load, roofing is VERY similar to solar when it comes to engineering requirements... the company installed a 2.2MW system for the builder of the F-22 Raptor... if you look at the top commercial solar installed by megawatt, many, maybe half, are roofing contractors!

2015 Top Florida Solar Contractors @ Solar Power World

Advanced Green Technologies (AGT) is an award-winning solar energy contractor and sister company to Advanced Roofing Inc., one of the nation’s largest commercial re-roofing companies. Founded in 2007, AGT specializes in the design, procurement, and construction (EPC) of rooftop, carport, and ground-mounted solar energy systems. AGT is among the most experienced commercial solar contractors in North America having installed more than 130+ MW of carport, ground mount, and rooftop solar. AGT holds NABCEP, RISE, and LEED accreditation and is recognized by Solar Power World as a top Commercial Solar Contractor in North America.

yeah, I think that qualifies them....

I am familiar with construction in FL, and my contractor friend has built over 600 restaurants(papa johns, qdoba, dominos, etc) and has built 90% of the breweries in the area in addition to owning the oldest microbrewery in FL.. I cannot be the general contractor, our county does not allow commercial property owners to be the general contractor for projects over $500 ( yes, that $500 is a joke of a rule, the state rule is $75k, and I am trying to fight it, but not holding my breath) and even if I could be the general contractor, the permit would require sealed engineering drawings, I have tried to get those from a dozen firms, and like I said this was the ONLY response I had...

Trust me, I am an electrical engineering honor graduate, I built an operating commercial distillery, I am a certified beer judge, a certified cicerone, a certified NAUI SCUBA instructor, a certified NATO Patriot Missile Operator and Mechanic... trying not to be rude, but I know what I am talking about...

jacksonbrown

@Kapea said: I don't know that I would hire a automobile mechanic to work on my helicopter engine...

What about a scuba diving beer judge?

Kapea

Wow. I hope they don't have any kryptonite in Dunedin.

It looks like you can think of lots of reasons to pay too much for solar power. Go for it.

punkin

Listen fellas, if we can do this without the narkiness between some of our best contributors it will remind me why we come together and freely share information here.

If anyone in this little snipe reckons they have freely shared more information than @CothermanDistilling i'd like to hear it.

Let up.

richard

On a positive note ..... I am in favour of green energy. But looking at the quote and suppliers saying for the amount of spend money, the payback period is approx. 14 years. On that basis I would have problems with the spend.

jacksonbrown

There is actually a great scheme in Australia where they install the solar on your premises for no charge but they bill you for the power that it produces for a set time frame.
The benefit is that the rate they charge is a lot less than the traditional power companies and it is also fixed for the life of the contract.
Then when the contract is up you get the set up. It's yours and the power it produces is free.

grim

Up in my neck of the woods, they are tearing systems off homes in foreclosure, as they cloud the deed making sale difficult. I'm guessing the mortgage companies are negotiating with the solar companies to buy them out, and then hiring local contractors to rip the systems off. I'm sure the systems are supposed to be destroyed, but the micro inverters and panels are making their way onto the market for about 50-75 cents a watt in cash deals, not bad.

CothermanDistilling

Yes, the whole 'rent to own' thing for solar is a bubble yet to come, google: SolarCity scam

The costs of the panels are cheap, but the the markup on required certified install is huge...

jacksonbrown

I wasn't talking about renting??
This is the story I was referring too.
They include installation as well and it's aimed at commercial.
His fuel price analogy is kinda funny though. We're well under $1.10 here at the moment.

These guys are doing interesting stuff too. There's a story on Catalyst somewhere about it.
There are big problems in some parts of Au with too much power being fed back into the grid at the wrong times.
The grid can't sort itself out quick enough.
They had heaps of government intensives for a while but they were a bit too successful.

Not that any of this has anything to do with hobby distilling :-/

CothermanDistilling

I think that it would be cool to have a system that used used a few panels in series, straight DC on a boiler that ran a continuous still... you would not need a large diameter still to run a lot of wash if it is running every time the sun has been up a couple hours...

Kapea

A lot of efficiency is lost in energy conversion. Your idea about direct solar heating would be mo bettah.