Last night at the ALPB Meeting Chairman Bob described his forthcoming experiment with solar power starting with a 25 Watt collector panel.
Other part 15 members also collect energy from the sun and there will be more such activity in the future.
Here is a very interesting report on "solar roofing tiles" that look exactly like plain roof tiles but are actually solar collectors:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/im-getting-my-roof-redone-and-heard-about-solar-shingles/
At KDX Worldround Radio we post a page with many current alternative energy news links:
http://kdxradio.com/power.html
Someone else doin' the solar power thing! Keep us updated..
12vman, how much solar power capacity do you have? Are you storing energy with batteries? Is most of your energy use low voltage DC or do you convert to AC power for some or all of your application.
Seems like about $1.80 per watt on average for 100 watt panels. I just purchased a 20 watt panel for $48. Checking around, the DIY guy can buy individual cells and assemble a 100 watt panel for about 1/3 the cost, not counting the enclosure.
As our resident expert on solar power any info you have would be appreciated by solar noobies like me.
I have 512 watts of panel mounted on telephone poles ~20' off the ground. I use 8 large 6 volt batteries connected in series-parallel to give me 12 volts D.C.
The panels that I use are not made anymore (Unisolar 64's) Thin film technology. These are the batteries.
http://www.dcbattery.com/rollssurrette_s600.pdf
My whole situation is engineered to operate directly from the battery. (Lights, Pumps, TV, Stereos, Fans, ect..) I only use an inverter to charge my battery powered hand tools or to run a glue gun or the soldering iron when I need to. (I have a butane soldering iron that I use the most) It's easier to fire up a 400 watt inverter than to design a charger for the tool batteries..
I operated both, an SStran and a Rangemaster through a 12-24 volt converter through Cat-5 wire 800/1000' away from my shack. Used 2 pair combined for the power and the other 2 pair combined to get the audio to the Rangemaster. The regulators in both units will handle up to 35 v.d.c. Earphone level audio and balanced at both ends with a 600 ohm isolation transformer worked well..
I did the SStran a little differently. Same power situation but installed an FM radio inside the waterproof enclosure and used the earphone audio to drive the SStran. (Mono) Just an ElCheepo FM mono pocket radio. I used an LM7809 regulator to operate the FM Rcvr at the Xmtr. Ramsey FM unit transmitting the audio to the SStran. (Hillbilly STL). Had to be one of the first simultaneous transmission units fully solar powered.. LOL
Figure your charge period for the winter to be ~1.5 hrs./Day. If you know the power draw of your Xmtr, figure your requirements within that 1.5 hr. window. Your battery should be 4 times that capacity to avoid draining it any more than 25% of the total capacity of the battery to avoid damage to the battery.
If you plan to keep the battery outside, cold batteries don't work so well. Double your battery capacity and panel. Be sure to use a controller and it must be weatherproof in an outside situation. (Think Marine) All of my power came from the shack so I didn't have these issues..
Keep us updated and I'll help where I can..
Our local school system installed 3500 watt grid-tie systems at four middle schools a few years ago as part of their Science curriculum. The systems don't store power, simply backfeed to reduce consumption.
They have a nice control station so the students can see what's happening.
The panels are ground mounted at about 5 feet.
The cost to install a system to take a typical household off the grid is fairly expensive. I don't know what the "return-on-investment" time is or what kind of funding/tax incentive can be had.
I do have a backup generator for my house but that has its own set of problems.
So, for now my 20 watt panel and a small gel-cell will sufice. I'm thinking a portable setup that I can take camping. I could run an LED light and my MFJ Cub CW transceiver. When I'm home I'll try it with the Part 15 transmitter.
The panel and charge controller should arrive Wednesday or Thursday.
Trying to convert an existing home to solar would be expensive. Many changes should be made to keep the total load as small as possible. (Think energy efficient everything, including appliances) And a high awareness of everyday consumption..
During great conditions, (Full sun, Perfect angle, ect..) that 20 watt panel shound provide just a little more than 1.5 amps of charge. During the summer, it should maintain a 20 aHr. battery, giving you ~5 aHr. margin to use. (~25% of the total capacity of the battery) During the summer, figure ~4 hours of charge time. During the winter, Figure a 7-8 aHr battery with a margin of ~ 2 aHr. usage margin. (Both in a 24 hr. period) Design for winter and things will work year round..
Be careful charging a sealed lead acid battery (Gel Cell) with solar. Most controllers are designed for flooded cells, which requires a higher charge voltage. (~14.2 volts) Gel cells usually only need a charge voltage at ~ 13.2/13.6 volts and that needs to be very regulated. A higher voltage will soon dry a sealed battery out and render it to junk..
Have fun and keep us updated!
Probably you heart of us, the Netherlands, country of wooden shoes, and ............ windmills! http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how-to/make-your-own-miniature-wind-turbine#slide-1
Rob V.
That little wind turbine linked by Rob Veld is very attractive and now I wonder if an entire 100-foot by 10-foot fence panel totally filled with thousands of those little wind-mills might amount to enough voltage to run the house.
Or a 60-foot ham tower crammed to the limits of it's wind-loading capacity with little fans churning and turning.
Or poles sticking out from all over the house with many little blowers whizzing madly.
Please draw a schematic so we know how to combine several thousand wind turbines.
The ALPB will probably issue a Technical Prize for Rob's information.
Here ya go..
http://www.allsmallwindturbines.com/
I had 2 installed here but I didn't have enough wind. You need at least a 10 mph yearly average to even think about it.. (Mine is 2 mph..)
Go with solar. No moving parts to wear out.. 😉
Hmm, you have less wind than we do nearby in Missouri where plenty of wind blows around.
My opinion as a beginner is to grab what we can get and then try to build on that.
1 Volt today, 2 Volts tomorrow, as we build our way volt by volt.
In the end we're all doomed, so we might as well play around before that happens.
It's not in this room, but I made a
cool little panel - not soon after that -
a very kind soul gave me a much bigger
one which is fantastic.
But back to the little panel - it came out
to be 6 volts at about 500 mA, I think.
It ran a C Crane FM transmitter almost
all day long a couple of years ago.
What fun! I also ran a radio from
it when I was doing yard work.
No batteries at all. In other words,
nothing was charging anything.
It was just the panel connected to the
load.
Oh, it's so great.
And regardless of what else you use it for,
radio and solar panels go together.
Bruce, Noise and Static Radio
Viewed as a survival tool, I am thinking of solar and wind as a way of providing the one essential thing we'd need in a power outage, that being heat.
Heat requires serious Amperage on a continual basis, so there's no inexpensive approach.
My neighbor has a solar heated pool. The sun shines on it and it gets warm.
Are you advising staying warm in the pool during a blizzard?
I got to thinking about how the summer sun heats the place up too much and we run costly air conditioning.
Then I thought about how the winter days are cold even when the sun comes out because the sun is at a different angle.
Well, then, all we need is a giant prism on top opf the house to bend the angle of the sun until indoor temperature is how we want it.
What would be step one in building a giant prism?