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Radiation is a word that describes anything that radiates away from
something. Audio speakers emit radiation in the form of air
pressure waves that our ears are able to sense. Audio radiation is
very different from electromagnetic radiation which in turn is very
different from nuclear radiation.<br>
<br>
Heat is infrared radiation/electromagnetic radiation with a
frequency from 300 GHz to 400 THz.<br>
Visible light is electromagnetic radiation with a frequency from 405
THz to 790 THz.<br>
Both of these forms of electromagnetic radiation are produced by
campfires, fireplaces, and light bulbs...things we are very familiar
with.<br>
<br>
Microwave ovens use electromagnetic radiation approximately centered
around 2.4 GHz to heat objects.<br>
Radios and TVs use electromagnetic radiation in the KHz and MHz
frequencies to transmit their signals wirelessly.<br>
Mobile phones use electromagnetic radiation in a range of
frequencies under 2.4 Ghz, mostly 850-900 MHz and 1800-1900 MHz.<br>
<br>
Wireless devices all use some portion of the electromagnetic
spectrum.<br>
Solar tie-in: In fact, one could consider solar panels (thermal AND
electric) to be wireless devices/wireless receivers that are used to
collect electromagnetic energy that the sun transmits to the Earth.<br>
<br>
The intensity of wireless signals various significantly, largely
depending on the frequencies and communication distances involved.
Wireless smart power meters are on the lower end of range of
intensities. We regularly accept and use stronger transmitters in
our lives everyday in things like cell phones an wifi devices
(laptops, smartphones, iPads, etc.).<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
It is useful to keep in mind that the actual risk posed by a
potential danger is a function of:<br>
1.) peak dose<br>
2.) cumulative dose for things that accumulate<br>
3.) repair rate/damage tolerance<br>
<br>
If a peak dose is too high, repair/control mechanisms cannot keep up
with the damage. It is like receiving 12" of rain in an hour vs. 1"
per day over 12 days. One is a flash flood disaster, the other
leaves everything soggy.<br>
<br>
If the cumulative dose is too high, trouble can also ensue. This is
like receiving 1" of rain everyday, day-in-and-day-out. If you live
in a closed basin with no drainage, the water levels will first
saturate the soil and then start to rise and flood you as it
accumulates. If there is drainage, you now live in a rain forest.<br>
<br>
Repair rates might be thought of the sandbags around homes and sump
pumps placed in basements to keep the basements and homes from
flooding. If a sudden sustained peak water ingress rate or median
water ingress rate (determined by soil permeability and sandbag wall
effectiveness) exceeds the pumping capacity, then damage will
occur. In workstation/server class computers and on CDs/DVDs, error
correcting codes (ECC) provide the repair and data integrity
mechanisms to protect against random data corruption (single bit
flips, media scratches, etc.). In humans there are DNA repair
mechanisms that attempt to correct damage to our DNA strands. As
long as the repair mechanism is stronger than the damage dose, no
permanent harm is done.<br>
<br>
<br>
Finally, it is useful to keep risks in perspective. As a society we
have spent billions to prevent some low probability events while
ignoring the opportunity costs of not preventing other higher
probability events. An example...we have decent estimates for the
numbers of preventable medical errors and related deaths that occur
each year, yet that's not given nearly as much attention as it would
likely otherwise have if those were related to air travel or foreign
boogymen.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 8/4/2011 10:11 PM, natural building wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:6ECC8CE1-472A-4AF3-A842-2701001BDF0F@shaw.ca"
type="cite">It's fascinating and frustrating to read about the
Ontario MicroFIT PV program while here in BC we are having
so-called wireless 'Smart Meters' forced upon us without
consultation or choice.
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The World Health organization very recently listed EMF
radiation as a class 2b carcinogen - alongside DDT, Lead and
gasoline exhaust, to name a few - and yet the BC government in
its wisdom thinks it's safe and prudent to authorize the
installation of new wireless meters on every house in the
province without the owners consent at a cost of almost $1
billion and the loss of at least 400 meter-reader jobs.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>What they really should be doing is investing that money and
effort in renewable, like Ontario...</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px Papyrus;
color: rgb(99, 10, 255);"><span
class="Apple-style-span"
style="font-size: 18px;">Steve Satow</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px Papyrus;
color: rgb(99, 10, 255);"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.naturalbuildingsite.net">www.naturalbuildingsite.net</a></div>
<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px Papyrus;
color: rgb(99, 10, 255);"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:naturalbuilding@shaw.ca">naturalbuilding@shaw.ca</a></div>
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<br>
<div>
<div>On 2011-08-04, at 7:21 PM, Frank Tettemer wrote:</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
<blockquote type="cite">
<div>Hi All, Here's some more fun data to add to the mix!<br>
<br>
I mentioned our non-tracker/over-loaded-panels before,
briefly. I'll describe it again.<br>
We've mounted 13,000 watts DC panels, in agreement with
the Ontario Power Authority to sell, at max., 10 Kw per
hour.<br>
Our thinking is to be able to produce (and sell) 10 Kw per
hour from 9AM to 4 PM,<br>
with variously smaller hourly productions before and after
those times of day.<br>
<br>
These sunny summer days, we vary from 75 to 92 Kw per day
sold to the power authority. We, of course produce more
than that, from 9 until 4, but the inverters cut off the
over-production, sending only the allowed 10Kw per hour to
the grid.<br>
<br>
This corresponds to the tracker claims, mentioned by
others on the list. And as expected, the trackers
generate their 35% more, on these summer sunny days.
However, for over half the year, our seasonally adjusted
array produces only 15% less than other local trackers.
And in Winter, our array produces almost the same amount
as other local trackers with 11,000 watts DC on them.<br>
<br>
We change the angle to 45 degrees around Late August/Early
September.<br>
We change again to about 65-70 degrees to horizontal in
October/Early November.<br>
We change again, back to 45 degrees, in Late
February/Early March.<br>
And we change to Summer Mode, at 25 degrees, in Late
April/Early May.<br>
<br>
Please Note that we definitely Do Not change angles on the
Solstice nor the Equinox.<br>
That timing would be exactly the Wrong Time to change
angles!!!<br>
<br>
Some background to the Ontario microFIT program:<br>
They pay 81 cents per Kw produced, up to a maximum of 10
Kw per hour, for ground mounted arrays, for the early
adapters of last years applications..<br>
A common installation has about 11,000 watts DC of panels.
We have added about $6,000.00 more in panels, or 2,000
more watts DC.<br>
<br>
This means we produce more full 10Kw each hour than the
standard 11,000 watts arrays, because we have invested
more in panels but not in tracking devices.<br>
A common fixed, seasonally adjustable array with 11,000 of
PV's is averaging a little over $10,000 income from
production in this area.<br>
And like John Staube has mentioned about his area of
Southern Ontario, there are over 100 microFIT
installations now in production in our local County of
Renfrew, all within a 45 minute drive of us, any
direction,<br>
<br>
and 95% of these people are small family farms.<br>
<br>
So if an installation varies from $65,000 in cost to
$95,000 in cost, or with trackers, $120,000 in cost, you
can see how an annual gross income of about $10,000 would
take close to half of the 20 year contract to pay off the
investment.<br>
<br>
Our over-paneled-array will hopefully average us over
$13,000 per year. As we did our own design, purchasing and
installation, with about $3,000 paid input from a local
electrician, our initial investment of time and cash will
pay off in a bit under six years.<br>
We won't get rich, after that, but we won't be concerned
about tracker maintenance, either.<br>
<br>
Frank Tettemer<br>
Living Sol ~ Building and Design<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.livingsol.com">www.livingsol.com</a><br>
613 756 3884<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
================= More Forwarded material
==================<br>
<br>
WatJohn and I have a mutual friend (Don Fugler) here in
Ottawa , now retired, who used to pedal to and from work
every day, year round.<br>
<br>
In winter, those bike trips both ways would be in the dark
... the sun not yet having risen in the mornings (7-ish)
and already long gone in the evenings (4:30-ish).<br>
<br>
OTOH in summer the northeastern sky will often be a
spectacular blazing red in the hour before 6 am and I
remember many June nights working outside until almost 10
pm without having to use artificial light.<br>
<br>
The Unbelieving Heathens on this List were having trouble
swallowing the production figures for my neighbour's 10 KW
single-axis tracking array. Well, those UHs are probably
going to gag on the following which came from a person
whose company has just brought their dual-axis tracking
system out of R&D and put it on-line.<br>
(I don't know him personally (but I did meet his partner
when he was out pitching their single-axis system and my
SlipperySalesDevil hackles were activated) so I can't
vouch for the veracity of his claims as I would for those
of my llama-rancher neighbour.<br>
<br>
================= Forwarded material ==================<br>
<br>
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2011 7:10 PM<br>
Subject: Weekly update...<br>
<br>
This is an excellent day for [partner] and me because our
first dual-axis has been tracking perfectly for 1 week<br>
<snip><br>
As my wife transcribed for me last week, we have no idea
how effective our system is going to be, but for an
astonishing figure, our first dual-axis has produced an
average of 134 Kw per day over the last 3 days and even 38
Kw today as of 4pm in all this cloud cover and rain. These
are amazing figures that NO COMPETITOR can touch.<br>
<snip><br>
<br>
=============== End of forwarded material ===============<br>
(Presumably those are "kWh" not "kW" and yes, I too am
having a bit of trouble swallowing some of the above
...the bit about the competition, in particular)<br>
<br>
On those June days, my llamaRancher neighbour's
single-axis array was producing in the neighbourhood of
100 kWh per day, roughly 40% better the the nearby Enphase
fixed array.<br>
<br>
<br>
On Thu, 04 Aug 2011 08:09:25 -0400, jfstraube
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:jfstraube@gmail.com"><jfstraube@gmail.com></a> wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">PVwatts.org is a wonderful website
calculator for PV output that I use all the time.<br>
</blockquote>
<snip><br>
<blockquote type="cite">In Ottawa, it predicts a full
2-axis tracker will produce 36% more electricity than
ideally sloped fixed system. I beleive it.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite"><br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">On 2011-08-04, at 7:05 AM, Haudy
Kazemi wrote:<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite"><br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">When most people use the power
output calculators/estimators,<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">they look at the annual
production figures not the daily figures.<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite"> A tracker in a high latitude
may make larger differencein the summer than in the
winter because the arc of the sun is longer,<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite"> A fixed array in those
conditions will self-shade in the early and late parts
of the day. This may the root of the daily difference
between the reported performance difference between
the tracked and non-tracked array.<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">During summer, tracked array may
outproduce the non-tracked array by the ~40% reported
in this discussion thread.<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">During spring/fall, tracked
array may outproduce non-tracked array by 20%.<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">During winter, with a short arc,
tracked array may outproduce non-tracked array by 5%.<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">On an annual basis the tracked
array may only exceed the non-tracked array by ~20%,
even it does better than that in the summer.<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite"><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">Perhaps someone can check this
in a calculator?<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite"><br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">On 8/3/2011 8:00 PM, Nick Pyner
wrote:<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite"><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">I just think nobody is taking
the geography in to account.<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite"><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">There are plenty of PV
installations around here , but I have never seen or
heard of a tracking one. This is probably because
there is no point in them. The situation could be
quite different in the more frigid parts of the
world for two reasons.<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite"><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">1. Even in what is laughably
called the banana belt of Canada, the insolation is
not that great, and the skies are not so clear, so
you would need to chase every watt you can find.<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite"><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">2. In the summer, the days are
longer. Hence the practical window of opportunity
may be as much as an hour wider, but the hourly
march of the sun is the same.<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite"><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">A tracking system helps in
both cases, and this heathen would imagine the more
polar you get the more sense a tracker will make.<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite"><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">Nick Pyner<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite"><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">Dee Why NSW (Australia)<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite"><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">-----Original Message-----<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">From:
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:greenbuilding-bounces@lists.bioenergylists.org">greenbuilding-bounces@lists.bioenergylists.org</a>
[<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:greenbuilding-bounces@lists.bioenergylists.org">mailto:greenbuilding-bounces@lists.bioenergylists.org</a>]On
Behalf Of RT<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">Sent: Wednesday, 3 August 2011
2:59 PM<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite"><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">I told him that I had been
telling people (this List) that his single-axis
tracking array had produced 40 and sometimes 44%
more than the Enphase fixed array and that you (the
Listmembers) were telling me that I was full of
$#!+.<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite"><br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">
<blockquote type="cite">We both just shrugged our
shoulders (as if to say "Nyeh! What can you do about
unbelieving heathens ?")<br>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
-- <br>
=== * ===<br>
Rob Tom<br>
<br>
-- <br>
<br>
<br>
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</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
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