Sascha D's posts

Check out our Mini-Subs.  These are our low end small solar powered submersible water pumps.  Depending on the height and volume you plan to pump you'll need to choose a different version of the pump. Once you know what pump you want, select the associated number of solar panels you'd need.  

To see one of these pumps, look at:

Mini-Sub� 75 Watt
http://www.AltEnergyStore.com/cart/497.html

Hi Eva,
Well, first off there are really two types of solar panels people refer to - one that uses the sun's light to produce electricity (uses photovoltaic cells) and another that uses the sun's energy to heat water or air.  You can see a basic explananation of how a solar panel that produces electricity works by going to Sandia National Labs' website:  

http://www.sandia.gov/pv/lib/PV_NOW/FR_pv.html

For learning about using solar energy to heat water or air, you might want to look at Florida Solar Energy Center's website:

http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/ed/sw/

And click on the button of the sun that says "Solar Wonders".  There you will find many useful presentations on solar energy and how it works.

Best of luck to you!
-Sascha

You may have an interesting invention here!

I've never heard of a solar panel door.  One problem with placing a solar panel on a purely vertical surface (like a door) is that it will not optimially be collecting energy from the sun.  Since panels aren't all that cheap, most people like to try to get every milli-Watt*Hour they can out of their panel.

You generally want to have the panel angled at the same degree as your latitude.  And even better, since the sun is lower in the winter and higher in the summer you want to again adjust its angle so that it is optimized to receive the sunlight.

If you just wanted to mount a panel on the door, there's other concerns you'd want to take into account, such as most panels aren't made to take the day in and out impact of shutting and closing of a door and how to run the wires so that the will not break after hundreds of openings and closing of the door.

Good luck!

Hi John,
No I'm sorry, we currently don't carry solar water heaters.  Although I've seen sites/stores that offering them occasionally on the web, I haven't been able to dig up any URLs.  

Anyone else have any suggestions of sites?

>How do you ship a battery to
>the caribbean?(Dominica)

If the battery is a sealed one (like the Concordes) they are shipped out by air freight.  Otherwise, the normal lead-acid batteries have to be shipped out by ship freight.