Going Solar:A Work in Progress

reply to post by bwcawaterbear

I've done extensive research on EMP protection for the layman and offer the following advice. To gain a working knowledge of EMP, I suggest the following 2 websites:

futurescience.com/emp

onesecondafter.com

There are others, but these make a great start!

I would steer clear of attempting to build your own Faraday cages,unless you are an expert. If you do it wrong, the result could be to actually ATTRACT the pulse,instead of deflecting or shielding it.
I DO recommend investing in "Faraday Bags"; these are bags that you insert your important small electronics into. It is possible to make your own,using alternating layers of foil and plastic wrap,however,my own tests found a good amount of leakage with these.Here's a simple and cool way to do your own test: Turn on a small AM/FM radio.Tune in a station and turn up the volume.Insert into the Faraday bag and close the seal.You should not be able to hear anything,as the radio waves should no longer reach the antenna. (Try both AM and FM.)
Remember to retract or disconnect all antennas,power cords,etc. when actually shielding devices from EMP.
The most important thing to remember, the electromagnetic pulse will surely fry anything plugged into the grid at the time of an event. Unplug the device and disconnect or curl up the cord. If the device is connected to the grid, it's highly vulnerable,but it still may help if it's turned off and going through a modern,higher quality surge protector. (Remember, you may be lucky enough to be on the fringe of an affected area.)
Another note on Faraday bags;don't make the mistake I made, take out a tape measure and know the sizes you really need. I first bought a set a 4 bags that were supposed to fit a laptop. It turned out they would only fit an item not much larger than a cellphone! Know your dimensions before going on to a site such as Amazon,to place your order.

reply to post by liejunkie01


I already purchased a propane fridge that has a pilot light so it doesn't use any power whatsoever and a propane stove/oven . I boil water on the stove for coffee and in winter I'm heating with a woodstove so the percolator lives there !! I have a friend that deals with solar equipment and can get me factory second panels at half the price ! I'm gonna go with a 40amp charge controller and 4 Kirkland deep cycle batteries from Costco . They are great batteries and the price is right !! I might get a small power inverter 300 watt if someone is visiting and needs it ?

On the led subject here are a few links to places I regularly use that have great prices and awesome support. Leds are so much better than incandescent/ florescent. And the sky is the limit to what you can create with them for lighting purposes. Not to mention their lifespan vs the other two. I grow coral in all my tanks via led they are very useful.

Led Group Buy


Rapid led

reply to post by jaynkeel


I might consider going LED for my interior lighting ? Can you suggest the best ones for living areas that are not spot lights and which colour is closest to incandescent , the cool whites or warm whites ?

reply to post by rick004


You can control the spread of the light by how high you mount it and what degree lens you apply to it. No lens would give you a general spread of light , 40, 60 ,80 etc degree lens would tighten the beam if you had to mount the fixture in say a vaulted ceiling or at a higher height. The best thing to say would be to get you hands on an led and a few lenses and try which looks better for you application. As far as color temp, yes neutral white is more of a yellowish look and cool has a bluer look, you can also achieve a full spectrum look by mixing red, blue, green. The best thing is you can use a lot of things and get creative with heatsinks and housings, things like old computer heatsinks with or without fans can hold a few leds, or even browsing ebay for screw in leds conversions is pretty cheap in the long run. The sites I quoted would be great for making your own larger arrays akin to a shoplight. But with a little creativity everything can be scaled up or down. I will be back and post a little more later on some ideas....

I started to buy that Harbor Freight kit, then got into it and did this:

www.youtube.com...

I've since dropped another plug into my living room. Ran my den and the living room light all yesterday afternoon and night on solar. Hardly touched the batteries.

Today I expect my grid tie inverter. It occured to me that when my batteries were happy and charged, I was wasting electons. With a grid tie inverted, all I have to do is connect that to my panels with a switch, then throw the switch in favour of the grid tie when the batteries are charged. Then I'll have about 1,300 watts a day going into my house to offset my usage. When I'm not home I'll actually be selling electricity back to the Elec company and not wasting all that sun during the day.

Grid tie inverters connect to your panels, then you just plug in the inverter to the wall in it feeds the current back toyur meter. Pretty cool. So I'll have the best of both worlds, solar powered battery backup and grif tie to offset. I have my eyes on some nice 250 watt panels now. I want 4 of those so I can generate about 5,000 watts + to feed back every day.

Oh, and I did go LED on my bulbs. Saves TONS of watts.

reply to post by davjan4


That's pretty sweet!

I did pick up that kit today and I'm currently putting it all together.
Got the power meter also to see my appliances are actually pulling.

Originally posted by kdog1982
reply to post by davjan4

 

That's pretty sweet!

I did pick up that kit today and I'm currently putting it all together.
Got the power meter also to see my appliances are actually pulling.

Let us know how it goes!

reply to post by davjan4



I'm putting your video up for you.....



So,I got it together,was surprised at how much it weighed.About 60 to 70 lbs.
Still manageable,because I was looking for something more portable.
The frame is basically pvc 1 inch pipe.Pretty easy to assemble.
I like the fact that it has sort kickstand like legs to adjust the angle.

I got it out and hooked-up just as the sun was setting,and the output was about 14 v.
Tomorrow I will purchase the battery and just use my current inverter which is only 400watts.
Plan on upgrading that soon.

One day I plan on moving up with permanent panels mounted to the roof.

I check some of the wattage use .
I florescent bulb about 7 watts,my desktop computer,about 70 watts.The LCD tv was about 70 watts.
The refrigerator was topping out at about 1000 watts when the compressor was running.

Originally posted by ElOsoDurmiendo
another thing to look into with the hf/ thunderbolt magnum kits is getting rid of the light kits that come with them and getting something more efficient. Ebay is loaded with 3watt 12 volt LED spotlights. Assuming various losses etc that would still mean that for every hour of sun you could run 4 lamps for 3 hours, or 2 for 6 etc. That doesnt sound like much but you could also run a lamp, portable scanner, charge a mobile and listen to a small radio for 3 hours off 1 hour of sunlight. There is a decent forum just for the hf panel kits, its a ning site. Will link when not posting from my fone

 

Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

 

solarpanelkitatharborfreight.ning.com...

www.ebay.com...

edit on 11/12/12 by ElOsoDurmiendo because: (no reason given)

Thank you for the link!

Originally posted by jaynkeel
On the led subject here are a few links to places I regularly use that have great prices and awesome support. Leds are so much better than incandescent/ florescent. And the sky is the limit to what you can create with them for lighting purposes. Not to mention their lifespan vs the other two. I grow coral in all my tanks via led they are very useful.

Led Group Buy


Rapid led

Thank you for your input and the link to LED's.

reply to post by Alguien



Your emp bags,would the electrostatic bags that my pc boards come in work also?

Something I came across in my searches was the solar stick,with wind turbine capability.

Very cool.

THE ONLY TRULY PORTABLE HYBRID SOLAR & WIND GENERATOR IN THE WORLD! The Solar Stik™ 100 Breeze can be used for applications requiring power generation in remote areas, or in environments where the sun may not be as prevalent as wind. The 100 Breeze incorporates extreme portability and adaptability, along with TWO truly independent power sources, to provide power for nearly any application. It is a Solar-Wind Hybrid DC Generator, designed to provide maximum solar power using basic operational principles: - Cooler Panel Operation Temperatures: Solar Stik™ Panel Arms allow full air flow around the panel surface, allowing it to operate cooler than a traditional “flat” or “surface” mounted array. - Direct Sunlight: The Panel Arms can be adjusted to provide maximum direct sunlight exposure onto the panel surface… more direct sunlight means more power generation! - Supplemental Wind Generation: If there is wind, there is power! Wind is an excellent supplemental power source, and augments the power generated by the solar array. In the right conditions, the Solar Stik™ Breeze can reliably generate up to 1.5 kW-h of daily energy with three panel adjustments during the daytime hours and a steady 10 MPH wind

www.solarstik.com...

My father has the portable solar system similar to the ones depicted here only a little higher output. He just bought a wind turbine to supplement his solar which will be mounted year round, and he lives along Lake Ontario so it is always windy there. Because he has an open basement with easy access to all walls on the 1st floor we are gonna retrofit most of his outlets in the walls to the following. Regular duplex outlets with one being house current from the power company and the other from his solar/wind system. So in the case of a power outage he doesn't need to switch anything just simply pull the plug from the top and move it to the bottom. We are also going to create some led lights say 1 for every room that will be stored in the basement when not in use. All these things will make it easier in the long run and when the power goes out he won't be left in that dark. Many more ideas are floating around in our heads but those are the main ones for now.

reply to post by kdog1982
I don't know but if I had to guess,I'd say probably not. Then,again,since the're designed to actually handle a direct electrostatic charge, maybe yes. Both brands of EMP bags I purchased have a foil layer. If your electrostatic bags have a foil layer which you can't see through, that ups the chance of it being suitable. I would definately hold on to them,perhaps to protect less critical items. Remember, it's not all or nothing! You wouldn't want to use a bathrobe in a snowstorm,but if that's all you had to wear, that would sure beat the alternative!
P.S. Don't forget my radio test. (Find a battery powered AM/FM radio, tune in a station,turn up the volume and seal the bag your testing. If it works,you won't hear the radio anymore.) This test could be used on any Faraday Cage or other shielding you wish to try.
On a related note: You can use a cell phone to do an advance test of any location you may be caught in during a major solar flare or emp/hemp event. See how many "bars" you get in the test location (such as underneath an escalator at your local shopping mall.) The less bars the better. Here's one case where no reception would be ideal!

reply to post by jaynkeel


That sounds great!
I think wind is a good backup also.

I purchased a durolast 12v,85 ah marine battery today,it is currently running this desktop computer and a 60 watt ( or equivalent to incandescent) florescent light ,which uses about 7 watts,the computer,about 70 watts.

I'm using my old inverter for now,it's 200 watt continuous,400 watt max .

I will now see how many hours I get out the battery till it dies,then see how many days it would take to recharge it with the solar panel.

My plan is to have more batteries in rotation.

my last complete build consisted of two sharp 125w polycrystalline pv panels. three thixotropic gell deep cycle 125a/h batteries. 45amp solar controller. appropriate wiring and connectors. 1m earth rod. i found that pure copper earth rods were too expensive so i opted for copper piping 15mm filled with lead.
batteries were stored externally in an insulated box on wheels and ratcheted/lock secured. batteries drop charge the colder the temperature becomes. i would not store the batteries inside unless an area is dedicated to them,is a sealed compartment from the rest of the dwelling and has venting near floor level and head height at the very minimum. sulphuric/lead or lead acid (if utilised)batteries can and do produce explosive gasses.

i ran a medium sized microwave 750w on a 1200w inverter (non-pure sine). my calculations on the draw from the microwave factored in the duration it was on, eg 12 minutes at 750 watts/hr equalled 150 watts consumed around 14 amps give or take. don't forget the inverter requires power to run as well.

if you are running panels with batteries, i would suggest a controller between them (not that expensive) as panel/battery interaction can create backwash which could lead to premature failure of the system or diminished efficiency.

i am currently working on a 14 panel mono crystalline system, all recovered/recycled from a sea channel buoy system. they were heavily corroded on the connections showing no voltage. several stripdown and resolder sessions and after several tests on each panel they are showing 15-18 volts which will suffice for 12 volt system with controller.

don't forget to consider in-line fuses for 12volt circuits such as lighting when connecting to the batteries.

f(uk)

reply to post by kdog1982


As far as I know it's not a good idea to run your battery right down to nothing ! You shouldn't let it get below 30% discharge I believe ?

Originally posted by rick004
reply to post by kdog1982

 

As far as I know it's not a good idea to run your battery right down to nothing ! You shouldn't let it get below 30% discharge I believe ?

Actually it's about 50 %,but I could be wrong.

After about 5 hours,my little 400watt inverter starting beeping at me because of low voltage when searching on here.
So,I just have it hooked up to my light ,got tired of the beeping!

I did manage to use the wiring that was provided to position it in a spot to where I could maximize the solar and the charge controller could be convenient and dry to allow charging of my battery.

reply to post by fakedirt


Thanks for the info,FD
much appreciated.

Sounds like you have it going on.