Solar Power

[Exonian]

Hi everyone

Feeling very pleased with myself as I have just completed my first Faraday Cage following loads of internet/forum advice and using an old metal filing cabinet. In this first one I have several small and large torches, head torches, lots of spare batteries, a solar/wind up radio, several garden solar powered lights and a solar wind up lantern. Any ideas for items in the next cage? My question is can anyone recommend a good (and cheapish) solar charger for small batteries and also something capable of powering i pod, i phone and kindel - again solar if possible?

Thanks a lot.

[ulyssesgrant]

I think there have been a few posts regarding this type of thing in the past.

Alas, to be honest, you get what you pay for in this particular industry. Don't feel that because you are in the UK its a no-go as a possibility for power. I've used loads and they do work here but you do have get a decent one.

https://www.powertraveller.com/en/shop/ ... treme-12v/

I've used power traveller stuff all over the world, and its really good. The charge time isn't too bad for AA/AAA batteries if your using a USB battery charger, such as the one for ENELOOP batteries. It charges the battery pack reasonably quickly in Britain. Its quite light and compact. Ive used it at very low temps and in a desert. It worked for me in overcast conditions, albeit slowly.

http://www.goalzero.eu/shop/backpacking ... solar-kit/

Thats an example of something from GoalZero. I've used that too. Even in sun-laden England it produces a decent amount of charge going into the power pack (which is 4 AA batteries, a little more versatile than the power traveller stuff...). The only downside is its a little heavier.

Batteries-wise, if your going to use rechargeable ones the best out there by a mile, and this again is from using them on glaciers, jungles, foully hot deserts, and even in England... etc, are Eneloop by Sanyo. If you get the new ones that will charge over 1800 times before they start to fade they really are great. I've got about 50 -60 now of different sizes.


Hope those examples help. No doubt people will mention 'the one they got at Aldi', or the Duracell one. They do, when used regularly, break or become non-functional compared to better kit. I've hammered my power traveller one now for years and its still kicking it out.

[PaganPrepper]

I've naff all idea of electronics so my idea may be utter tripe! but why not have solar and wind, and kinetic (human) inputs connected to the same battery bank? so solar and wind would be topped up my human power when needed, then use USB ports or an inverter and plug sockets to charge from the main battery bank?

from using them on glaciers, jungles, foully hot deserts,

wow! what on earth do you do for a living? or are you Sir David Attenborough really

[Hamradioop]

[quote="PaganPrepper"]I've naff all idea of electronics so my idea may be utter tripe! but why not have solar and wind, and kinetic (human) inputs connected to the same battery bank? so solar and wind would be topped up my human power when needed, then use USB ports or an inverter and plug sockets to charge from the main battery bank?

That is perfectly possible to achieve. http://www.bimblesolar.com/wind600w-con ... wgodbwcABQ
for solar and wind


Used to charge 24 volt batteries http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Clansman-Mili ... 4897.l4275

[ukpreppergrrl]

Does your solar charging for iPods etc. have to be portable? If not you could look at a small off-grid permanently sited solar setup. I have one on top of my car port A 60Watt panel (I chose to have the larger, thin film panels as their output is better under Britain's greyer skies in the winter), charge controller and a couple of leisure batteries. Bought as a kit from Maplin plus batteries from an online seller. Total cost about £260. It will charge all my portable devices with ease (iPhone, iPod, Kindle), including my little Dell notebooks, and keep the wind-up lanterns/radios charged without actually having to wind them up! Just have to keep the foxes from biting through the cables... Because it's permanently mounted with batteries always being charged, there's always charge available, even in the middle of the night Come "The Great Power Down" there's just enough juice in there to run a small 12v fridge too - I have a diabetic friend and keeping the insulin cold will be an issue if the power is down for any length of time, even with the Frio bags. It's also a lot of fun to setup and play with...

The Bimble site linked above is a good place to start looking for kits and info, as are the numerous 12v forums (e.g. canal boat owners, long distance lorry drivers, caravanners, and the green eco off-grid sites). A small solar rig isn't that expensive and does make a loss of power less roughing it - I can still watch films, and listen to music via a 12v digital amp. I wrote a blog article on it: http://ukpreppergrrl.wordpress.com/2014 ... ar-panels/

[dangerman]

No brainer if you can still get one.


viewtopic.php?f=15&t=10376


http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/goal-zero-g ... it-p200348

[Hamradioop]

http://www.freesunpower.com/tutorials.php A USA based site info is good just remember 110V is not the EU standard but 220v

[ulyssesgrant]

from using them on glaciers, jungles, foully hot deserts,

wow! what on earth do you do for a living? or are you Sir David Attenborough really [/quote]

Haha! No I instruct in the outdoors. Takes me everywhere. It also means a lot of kit gets tested in some seriously vile circumstances.

[Yorkshire Andy]

http://ukpreppergrrl.wordpress.com/2014 ... ar-panels/

A good read


for home entertainment have you seen the raspberry PI?


http://www.raspberrypi.org/

with XBMC media center installed you can upload films to it etc its small and low powered ideal if you have a 12v TV


along with a wifi usb dongle will let you load up the internet via it and all sorts

[ukpreppergrrl]

A good read

Why thank you!

for home entertainment have you seen the raspberry PI?

I have considered the Raspberry PI a lot over the last few years. I am a bit of a computer homebrew person: my home webserver runs on an old Soekris board pulled out of a dead (or not so dead as it transpired!) work firewall, and my main music server runs off an Alix board pulled out of a different redundant firewall! I've just not yet found a reason to build something out of a PI yet, given I've free access to other bits of old embedded kit

I like XBMC and am fully intending to go that route (or something similar) when the WesternDigital TV Live box stops. I'm not sure I'd want it for the Prepper's Entertainment System though as the extra power required for the 12v TV and a large external hard drive (on which to store the video files) is greater than the power pulled by the little Dell Notebooks with their 1TB internal drives and, albeit small, internal screens.