[PLUG] Do it yourself solar...
Carl Karsten
carl at personnelware.com
Wed Aug 19 20:45:27 UTC 2009
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Cow_Power
I have been pondering how to make battery packs for laptops.
Something like:
http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=UPB50
Only I want to use AA, AAA or D cell batteries, and have a whoopty USB
interface for both monitoring (super cool if I can report on what
cells need replacing) and charging (how sick is that?)
being able to hook it to a car or whatever battery seems like a good idea.
On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 3:21 PM, Tom Sharples<tsharples at qorvus.com> wrote:
> Some of our wisps use these airx-400s:
>
> http://preview.tinyurl.com/lmgs39
>
> if you have sufficient wind they work quite well.
>
> Tom S.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Michael Robinson" <plug_1 at robinson-west.com>
> To: <plug at lists.pdxlinux.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 1:02 PM
> Subject: [PLUG] Do it yourself solar...
>
>
>> Since I'm looking at building a do it yourself UPS, I figured I ought to
>> look into a do it yourself solar power system as well.
>>
>> Well, I can't find any Portland businesses to buy panels from at a
>> reasonable hobbyist price.
>>
>> Even at $6/watt, panels are awfully expensive.
>>
>> The best I can get a grid tie inverter for is $299 and that's
>> only a 250 watt inverter off of Ebay.
>>
>> Batteries only get you so far. Can anyone build a solar system
>> that can provide 250 watts for say a single server for significantly
>> less than $1k? How about a wind mill? Any other options? To get
>> 250 watts worth of panels I'm looking at $1.2k alone and getting
>> only a fraction of the power most of the time.
>>
>> Anyways, I'm curious. Are there any incentives in Oregon for people
>> who buy solar panels to address the cost issue?
>>
>> So I'm back to getting a non grid tie inverter and somehow managing
>> to program a PIC microcontroller to monitor the battery and report
>> to the Linux server. I guess I'll have to design a circuit to charge
>> the battery and monitor the AC line for outages, spikes, and brownout
>> conditions.
>>
>> With sliver solar panels and other emerging technologies, one would
>> expect that solar panels would be a lot cheaper by now than they
>> were even a year ago. I guess that just isn't the case.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> PLUG mailing list
>> PLUG at lists.pdxlinux.org
>> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
>
>
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--
Carl K
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