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So what are you doing with your solar system?

J

John Dunkley

Jan 1, 1970
0
I thought it might be interesting to start a thread to see what people are
doing with their solar systems.

I am not talking about grid connect or whole of house - but small hobby
projects.

My project is already well advanced.

I have a hobby room at home (retired) and I plan on making all of the
equipment that I have running throughout the day totally solar powered:

Laptop
Weather monitoring station
Printer
House (external) CCTV monitoring
Room Lighting
LCD 12 Volt Television
ADSL router
Hand held Ham Radio equipment (VK5JE)
Radio
etc
etc

Will probably have some excess capacity so might put other house lights on
it as well!

I figure 2 X 80W solar panels and a 250 AH Calcium deep cycle battery will
put me pretty close.

Will be mounting solar panels on 'Ham' type rotators, azimuth & elevation -
to keep pointing to the sun, and may even make this auto track in time.

So what are you doing with your solar experimentation?

JD
Down here - 'Down Under' is the right way up!
 
W

William P.N. Smith

Jan 1, 1970
0
John Dunkley said:
I thought it might be interesting to start a thread to see what people are
doing with their solar systems.

I am not talking about grid connect or whole of house - but small hobby
projects.

http://compusmiths.com/TowerBase.jpg is an old picture of:

Weather station
fixed-cell phone (call in for voiced weather reports)
VHF repeater (Marine VHF 26)

two 20-watt panels (only one shown above)
two golf cart batteries in cooler at base of tower

I added a wireless mesh node and WiFi router, plus a couple of
Webcams(*), but there wasn't enough solar power to operate them, and
grid power had recently become available nearby, so those things are
AC powered.

(*) Until the lightning strike, now the whole shooting match is
undergoing insurance claims, re-engineering, and rebuilding in a
different location.
 
M

Mary Fisher

Jan 1, 1970
0
We power a pump which lifts water from our small pond so that water goes
through the filter and dribbles back into the pond to aerate the water.
Trouble is, the pump keeps getting blocked :-(

We also charge our caravan (small trailer) leisure battery with a pv panel.

Many years ago I bought a small lamp which is powered by a pv panel and
which, in theory, charges cells.

We have two solar powered (and clockwork) radios which we use when camping.
I heard the first news of 9/11 when the afternoon sun came out and brought
the radio to life while we were on a Scottish island.

Our sun in northern England is too intermittent to rely on for sustained
power but I'd like to have more small appliances which don't need to be
powered by conventional cells - even re-chargeable ones.

We're delighted with the results from our solar water heater - the water
pump is powered by pv.

Mary
 
M

Mary Fisher

Jan 1, 1970
0
oldcrow said:
Mary:

Use a macerator pump for filteration unit. You can find the information
on www.alibaba.com

Bob
Thailand

Thanks, but I suspect it might macerate the tadpoles and other life in there
.... :-(

Mary
 
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