Computer Cases & Towers

Solar Panel Mounts

While some people prefer to mount their solar panels directly to their rooftops, there are advantages to using a mounting structure instead. Whether you buy a mounting kit or choose a do-it-yourself method, mounting your solar panels can be the way to go.

There are several advantages to mounting your solar panels. Strong mounts can protect your panels from any possible wind damage by holding them firmly in place. Mounts also allow you to lift your panels higher to change the angle of tilt, and allow cooling air to circulate around them. With mounts you can move your solar panels as you need to much easier to get the most sun no matter the season.

Mounts can be as small as an RV module, or large enough to hold hundreds of panels. No matter how large or small your mounts are, you can easily adjust your panels to follow the sun. You can do this manually or purchase special tracking mounts, these move automatically to follow the sun in order to get the best performance all day long. Tracking mounts can be expensive, but will help you to gain more power.

There are three main types of solar panel mounts. RV mounts, fixed mounts, and pole mounts.

RV mounts are, as you might of quessed, made for RV use. Because of wind resistance while driving and not always being able to align with the sun, many RV users mount their panels flat on the roof. RV mounts raise the panels slightly off the roof to allow cool air to circulate underneath them while still protecting the panels from high winds.

Fixed mounts are used on roofs and the ground. These are the most common solar panels mounts used, because they are simple to install. These mounts hold panels firmly with a series of rails on either a home roof or a concrete pad on the gound. The fixed mounts do not move so you will not be able to track the sun with this style. They can also become buried under snow or tall grasses.

Pole mounts are a popular and cost-effective choice. These mounts are easily moved for tilt and direction, and thereby tracking is a great option. They are sturdy and can withstand winds up to 80 miles per hour, however these can only hold one or two modules. Most often people use pole mounts for single operations, such as water pumps that need to work constantly.

You have many choices in how you want to mount your solar panels. Whether you plan to use solar panels for your home, RV, or farm the right mounting system can make a huge difference.

About the Author

John Smith is passionate about helping people understand solar panel systems. He writes more about solar panels at DIY Solar Panels Now.

A Number Of Tricks To Help Pick A Wireless Surround Sound System

Recently more and more wireless wireless surround sound transmitter products have appeared which claim to deliver the ultimate freedom of broadcasting music throughout the house. We will look at various products and technologies to find out in how far these devices are effective for whole-house audio uses and what to look out for when purchasing a wireless system.

If your house is not wired for audio then you face quite a problem when you want to get your music from your living room to your bedroom. Often the audio source cannot be moved. Running speaker wires between rooms will be costly and therefore many people are looking for alternatives. The following technologies are utilized by devices solving this problem: infrared, RF, wireless LAN and powerline.

Infrared wireless audio products are restricted to line-of-sight applications, i.e. only function within a single room since the signal is broadcast as infrared light which cannot penetrate walls. This technology is frequently found in wireless speaker kit products.

RF wireless music devices send the music signal via radio waves. These radio wave signals can easily go through walls. The signal is broadcast either by utilizing FM transmission or digital transmission. The least expensive option is FM transmission. Products utilizing FM transmission, on the other hand, have a series of drawbacks. These include degradation of the audio quality due to static or hiss and audio distortion. In addition, FM transmitter products are also fairly prone to interference from other wireless transmitters.

Products which employ digital wireless audio transmission employ a digital protocol. Such devices include transmitters from Amphony. In this protocol, prior to transmission the audio signal is converted to digital data. This conversion and transmission in the digital domain will ensure that the original audio quality is maintained. However, this is only the case of the data is sent uncompressed. Some wireless audio transmitters will apply some type of audio compression. Such products include Bluetooth audio transmitters. Audio compression will degrade the quality of the audio to some degree.

Products utilizing wireless LAN are useful when streaming audio from a PC. Their disadvantage is that they generally have some fairly high latency, i.e. the signal will be delayed by some amount since wireless LAN was not particularly designed for real-time audio streaming. Also, a number of products require to buy separate wireless LAN modules that are plugged into every audio receiver.

Powerline products use the power mains as a medium to broadcast the music. These products usually offer excellent range. On the other hand, they face trouble if there are several separate mains circuits in the house. In this case the signal will have trouble crossing between these circuits. Another problem confronting powerline products are strong power surges and spikes. Such surges can cause dropouts in the audio due to errors in the transmission. To safeguard against these errors, powerline products commonly build a delay of several seconds into the transmission.

Here are some recommendations for choosing the optimum wireless audio system: Try to find a system that can run several wireless receivers from a single transmitter. Ideally an unlimited number of receivers should be supported. That way you don't need to purchase extra transmitters when you start adding receivers in different rooms of your home. Some devices have some type of error correction built in which will help guard against dropouts in case of strong wireless interference. Choose a digital RF transmitter to preserve the original audio quality, ideally one with an audio latency of less than 10 ms in case of video or other time-sensitive applications.

Make sure the wireless transmitter offers the audio inputs you need. You may need amplified speaker inputs, RCA audio inputs etc. Get a wireless system where you can buy separate receivers later on. You should check that you can get receivers for all the different applications you have. Such receivers may include amplified receivers for passive speakers or line-level receivers for active speakers. Because you may want to connect the transmitter to several sources, you should select a transmitter that can be adjusted to different signal volume levels to prevent clipping of the audio signal inside the transmitter converter stage.

Verify that the amplified wireless receivers contain built-in digital amplifiers with low distortion figures. This will keep the receiver cool due to high amplifier power efficiency and provide maximum sound quality. Select a system which offers receivers that can drive speakers with the preferred Ohm rating. Make sure the receivers have a small form factor and are easily mountable. This will help during the installation. 5.8 GHz wireless products typically have less problems with interference from other wireless transmitters than devices working at 900 MHz or 2.4 GHz.

Cheapest Way to Get Car Stereo, Mounting Kit, and Installation.?

What is the cheapest way get a car stereo, the mounting kit, and then have it installed? And I am open to ordering things online, and driving to many places around town too.

follow this link and put in the info regarding your car and it will show you the different sizes of your components http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/autoi... its a very good company and when you buy from them most of the stuff needed to install the products in your car comes for free and they have the best customer support around, they also give you a list of certified installer in your area and you can get a "coupon" from them to your local installation shop; you will not be disappointed
good luck

March "Ultra Drive" Front Mount Serpentine Drive Kit