Solar Powered PCs & Servers

[Millgate]

Hey guys,

 

Quick one. You know that we offer everything IT? Well, I've had a meeting this morning with a firm that want to partner up with us offering solar powered ict suites.

 

What do you guys think?

 

I'm waiting on more details but it saves between 60-100% on power. You can have them custom built to your exact spec and they fit on the back of your monitor.

 

I've told them that I'll go away, speak to a few schools and get there feedback before getting them back in the office for further talks.

 

TIA

 

Luke

[Steve21]

Honestly, they sound either really low powered, or based on florida sun with those figures

 

Considering most computer rooms aren't exactly filled with huge windows, and beaming sun I'd be interested to see how those figures etc fit into it.

 

And then of course cost dependant.

 

Steve

[TronXP]

depends on costs, certainly would be an interesting.

[Gibbo]

Teacher: "ITS SUNNY, QUICK LOG ON!".

 

then

 

"ITS CLOUDING OVER, SAVE YOUR WORK, SAVE YOUR WORK!"

[Millgate]

Honestly, they sound either really low powered, or based on florida sun with those figures

 

Considering most computer rooms aren't exactly filled with huge windows, and beaming sun I'd be interested to see how those figures etc fit into it.

 

And then of course cost dependant.

 

Steve

 

Ah, I should have said. The panels are on the roof and the power is transfered via cat5e.

 

The PCs themselves can still be plugged in and you will still get a 60% saving

[Steve21]

Isn't that just called solar panels then?

 

We have a huge amount of solar panels linked into our school from the roof, but it's just added into generic electricity. No way they'd power all our computers though not with those figures

 

Do you have any more information in terms of the specs/power usage etc?

 

Steve

[pcstru]

Depends on the capital outlay how the energy savings stack up. The best solar installs are looking at 5-10 year break even on the capital outlay, even when the power is being fed into the grid AND the feed in tariff is subsidised above the normal KW/h buyback cost (i.e. you get paid more for generating than you would to buy the power). If the kit is actually powering the PC's then you need some kind of local energy storage and that can only add cost, complexity and (key for a school) safety issues.

 

Sounds to me a bit dodgy actually. I can't see it would be of much benefit to a school to invest in solar given many are struggling with budgets. The payback is just too far off (your year 7's may have left by the time you start to benefit from the money you spent that was associated with funding their place).

[Millgate]

You don't have to use Solar. Even if you used the grid, you'll still save 60%.

 

I'm getting them to send over the "bumf" tomorrow with the stats regarding power etc so I'll update you all then.

 

Sounds like an interesting options so far though

[Steve21]

You don't have to use Solar. Even if you used the grid, you'll still save 60%.

 

Maybe I'm being stupid at the end of the day, but if it's energy saving computers, where's the solar part come into it then? Assumed you meant powered by the solar? Feel I'm being stupid so ignore me if i'm missing something obvious...

 

Steve

[CHR1S]

Checks date.... Not April 1st....

Checks outside ..... Dark

Checks Weather for next few months.... Not much sun.....

 

Not Sure If Serious??

[VeryPC_Colin_M]

Checks date.... Not April 1st....

Checks outside ..... Dark

Checks Weather for next few months.... Not much sun.....

 

Not Sure If Serious??

 

LMFAO! No Luke is right it's a serious solution, and I think a couple of sales have been made. One here;

and the project won Outstanding ICT Partnership at the TES Schools Awards 2012. Not my cup of char though.

[Millgate]

Yup, that's the stuff

[timbo343]

@Millgate just tread carefully. One of my contacts at a supplier had moved from a company who folded as they looked at the solar market for Devices. It didnt go very far.

[hawc]

Can you sell back unused energy to the grid? Is their anything that we could publicly show to say "look at how green we are"

[FN-GM]

Any PFI school wont be able to do this because of the red tape. Plus lots of PFI schools get the electric bills paid for as part of the rent agreed in the contract, so would the school would see little gain anyway.

 

Checks date.... Not April 1st....

Checks outside ..... Dark

Checks Weather for next few months.... Not much sun.....

 

Not Sure If Serious??

 

It doesn't need to be sunny, they generate power on a dull day.

[CHR1S]

 

 

It doesn't need to be sunny, they generate power on a dull day.

 

But then my comment isnt funny....

[Domino]

Any PFI school wont be able to do this because of the red tape. Plus lots of PFI schools get the electric bills paid for as part of the rent agreed in the contract, so would the school would see little gain anyway.

 

 

 

It doesn't need to be sunny, they generate power on a dull day.

 

Well, you *say* that.

 

Spitalfields, right next to the office here, used to have a little LCD sign down by the entrance that told you how much power their roof covered in solar panels were generating. They took it down after the first winter when it didn't generate enough power to run the sign.

[gwendes]

Well, you *say* that.

 

Spitalfields, right next to the office here, used to have a little LCD sign down by the entrance that told you how much power their roof covered in solar panels were generating. They took it down after the first winter when it didn't generate enough power to run the sign.

 

haha. That's quite impressive considering a length of wire and a ground will capture enough to power a crystal set and an LCD

[Greenbeast]

Well, you *say* that.

 

Spitalfields, right next to the office here, used to have a little LCD sign down by the entrance that told you how much power their roof covered in solar panels were generating. They took it down after the first winter when it didn't generate enough power to run the sign.

 

ha ha ha

 

Of course they need sun, they may generate small amounts of power on a 'dull' day

[nikaso]

I saw a demo of this last week, it all looked and sounded good but the cost was prohibitive, it was going to be north of £30k for an IT suite (30 PCs) because the PC base units have to have the special PSUs that can accept DC. Savings on energy were quoted at around £5k per annum but how realistic that is I don't know. Unfortunately the equipment started to smoke when it was being demo'd due to being wired incorrectly but never a good sign in a sales pitch!

 

The energy savings come from the fact that they are not losing energy by converting from DC solar panels to AC for distribution on the grid and then back to DC through the transformer in the PC, not through any massive advances in solar panel tech.

 

The server proposition sounded a bit more attractive because you can effectively save a bit of money on power but get a 4 hour UPS in with it as well due to the battery.

 

From what I remember the plan is to get it to a state where they can lease the equipment (thereby reducing the massive initial Cap Ex) and the savings in energy pays for the PC lease but they aren't there yet.

[PotNoodleTech]

Be careful Millgate solar power is something that most people don’t understand and it’s easy to get wowed with figures and estimates - I think you may be sold a scheme here that makes your partner firm (and you) money rather than saving schools money.

 

60% saving on electricity used by a class of 30 slow atom devices? It’s possible, but at what cost up front?

 

So – here’s some fag packet calculations:

 

Assuming each device uses 20w (with TFT) and they're on 7 hours a day they're going to use 4.2kwh a day for the whole suite, so 819kwh per year, or £90 per year at a day rate of 0.11p per kwh.

 

A 1000w solar set up generates a rough average of 800kwh per year depending on where you are in the Uk – so a 1KW system will save you £90/year in electricity outright (not including any feed in tariff payments as you won’t be feeding anything back to the grid anyway).

 

So to summarise you’d need a 1kw solar “plant” in order to save £90 per year in electricity used by just 1 suite of really low power really low end slow energy saving PCs.

 

How much would a 1KW solar plant cost? I am willing to wager, more than £90 a year. So the school is onto a net loss for at least the first 10-15 years?

 

Doesn’t sound like a good deal to me – unless you can give us some figures that prove otherwise?

[PotNoodleTech]

Ok so based on nikaso's prices above - this is a masive money making scheme for the solar company, at massive extra cost to the school.

 

Not good!

[Greenbeast]

and if batteries are involved as suggested above, factor in replacing those every 5 years also.

[pcstru]

Savings on energy were quoted at around £5k per annum but how realistic that is I don't know.

 

More back of fag packet : KWH cost ~£0.15, Typical PC KWh 0.1 for 10 hours per day, 200 days per year with 30 PC's per room. Around £900. If you reduced the PC use to 20w (0.02), you would save £720 a year. So you would need nearly 7 rooms or 210 PC's to save £5K per year.

[zag]

What a brilliant idea!

 

Surely this is the future.

 

Imagine not having to worry about power cuts!!