Solar energy

[14MDX1035F57]

Hello,

I have just realized a power supply with solar energy for my station.
The page is in French.
http://14mdx1035f57.perso.sfr.fr/Radio/ ... nergie.htm

Best regards

['Doc]

Solar power will certainly work! But it does have some requirements. First, you'd better have lots of sunshine. You will still need a storage bank of batteries, and some regulation to feed them. And the biggy, those solar cells are just not very economical (as in cheap) unless you find a few surplus.
I have a friend that lived where there was no power lines available. He relied on battery power for all of his electrical needs, which isn't very 'convenient' at times. He did some checking for solar cell charging, and did have a 'surplus' source for those cells. It still wasn't very economical, but better than paying for a new power line run the distance it would have to go.
- 'Doc

[tubehead]

im an avid fan of solar. i ran floridas only 100% solar power repeater until lightning took it out. panels are pricey but can be found used. get glass face, silicone cell panels. they will easily last 15 years or more.

[hilltop 439]

I had a thought while reading this topic and it was about wind power . Theres a doctor that live a town below me and he installed a wind mill that generates alot of electricity .In fact it is so much that he powers his home and his neighbor cottage with plenty to spare. He has batteries and such as the last posts discribed accept his system is wired into the power grid of the town . When his system is fully charged he can sell the power generated by the wind mill to the power company in the area . So in time the whole power system will have paid for itself and he will have free electricity minus the maintenance cost.It is certainly something to think about seeings everthing is going up in price these days.

[sparky17]

Translated link:

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... nergie.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That's a very nice looking install job you did there. Good job!

Really need at least 50 watt or more to really be able to have your radio receive all the time, unless you have a nice low power setup. I think my Galaxy 979 draws about 4-5 watts constant on receive if I recall (~1 watt less if you turn off/down the lighted face). We average 2-6 'sun hours' a day, my radio consumes over 100 watts a day, so not counting inefficiencies in charging (~80% efficiency to charge lead acid batteries) or unusual cloudyness, it would need at least 50 watts for 24 hour duty, or 25 watts for 12 hour duty for the winter months. (50 x 2 sun hours for winter = 100 watt /hours, for summer it would be 300 watt/hours.)

I ran a setup like this for a year or two (only a 5 watt panel).. I just used the supplied clamps from the panel, and had severe corrosion on the positive wire for about 20 feet (copper turned black for 20 feet). Negative wire was completely clean however. The clamp literally melted away in that time as well and eventually no longer conducted at all.

Neat as a novelty, and good to have for the impending zombie apocalypse, but I never wanted to drain down the battery, and opted to use the power supplies instead since I had undersized the panels and wanted to keep them charged...

Harbor freight has 5 watt panels for ~$50. If you look around on fleabay you can find bundle deals of loose cells that you need to solder up, for ~$50 for 65 watts of panels.. You'd need glass, a metal frame and some wire/tabs to solder it all up.

[PRO151]

Good article with good directions, even if Google Translate sometimes just can't quite get it right.

"Prepare an ancient material, a flavor like no other."

[443 Arizona]

reviving this 5 year old thread because things are cheaper , better now.
last year i had bought the harbor fright crap,, thats right, it was no where near a quality unit.
so then i bought an alum. framed, 100 watt panel, 25yr warantee, for $130, they have come down even more since last year.
a controller was $14 plus ship.

i use to run a 12 battery for my base radio years ago,(because it was a mobile unit), and i found out that good clean power was crucial for best radio performance.
with the price of solar now, i am trying to transition more and more.

[MDYoungblood]

Solar power is an interesting topic and depending on the area you live acceptable but in Maryland cloud cover would require a larger than normal storage array. I receive phone calls about solar systems all the time and tell them when they get into wind power than give me a call, I have never recorded many days (and nights!!!) that the wind in my area is below 5mph.
JMO.

3's

Greg

[443 Arizona]

i was experimenting with a homemade windmill, an old alum. A/C cooling blade mounted to an alternator.
thought about a pmdc motor as a generator too.
lots of stuff demonstrated these days on video posts.
i would love to get back into this and experiment/build some self-sustanability.
i even went as far as smeltering aluminum with large fresnel lens.
boiling water with a copper solar panel.
Arizona has the sunlight,,,thats for SURE...
why i even went as far as using it to get a tan,,

[Drifter5]

A good and cheap solar experiment project would be to convert a truck bed of a pickup truck to a truck bed camper. There are a lot of videos on people converting them on youtube. Before I got lucky and bought my home for 5 grand, I was going to buy a prefabricated cabin and go off grid. Solar/Wind power, a well and some propane for the small cabin. Many famers would be happy to split an acre of land for someone wanting to have an off-grid cabin.

- Drifter

[maverick01]

Been running solar on the cheap. Got a Harbor Freight 45W Solar Kit with coupon for a mere $129 back in 2009. A battery recently at Rual King for $69 group 27 RV/Marine Deep Cycle to replace the old one I had from Advanced Auto.

Both CB and 2M radios run long hours for listening. I can get 3 days for talking using both radios at stock settings. The 2M low power is 10W. SSB peak at 12W too.

If a kicker is used, it better be low power for 25W to 50W.

AND have a good charge controller and good blocking diodes in the circuit. Fuses are a must need too.

[443 Arizona]

yes, fused, crucial, as my experimental system had gone aerie and fried the controller , had made the connections permanent with no way to "break" the circuit. dummy me
so now i want to go higher voltage, mppt system.