Solar Power

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Is anyone here into solar power? I'm just starting out in this area, and what I have managed to get my grubby little hands on is a 9v 6x6 inch panel, I have no idea of the amperage, just that it puts out 9v in good weather, and a 6v 4.5 amp-hour lead acid battery. I'm thinking of buying a 5v voltage regulator and hooking up a USB connector, so I can use it to charge my phone.

I'm also considering building or buying a larger lead acid battery and buying some factory reject solar cells to make into an 18v panel.

Has anyone done any cool solar projects or have some ideas for a person on a low budget? Any high budget ideas I can afford when the long job hunt is over? Any absolutely ridiculous ideas we can all lust over having and being able to afford? All of these are things I'm interested in!

I've thought about it for years... never got into it yet.

Sure. I'm into solar power, it just doesn't seem to work that well.

How do you mean it doesn't work well?



It isn't that hard to get into. I'm not sure how much my panel and battery cost, but if my starving college student friend gave it away, it must have been pretty cheap.

fred olsen cruiselines can cut almost a fifth of their fuel use just by installing solar panels on unused roofs around their ships.

I've always heard that it's not so much a matter of how well solar power works, but how well it works vs. what it costs, and then you have to figure in the weight of the batteries if you're using it on any sort of vehicle.
I'd imagine solar would be okay as a supplement to wind, geothermal, etc. in a home or business, but I don't think it'll ever be a very practical primary power source. That's the thing though, instead of always looking in the ground for more stuff to burn, we need to be able to pull power from multiple sources that are always there. The sun always shines, the wind always blows, and the tides always come in and out.

If money was no object, I'd get a house just outside the city, figure out a clean well-water system, go wind/solar power, geothermal heat and live off the grid!

It galls me that over half your utility bill is "connection fees"... you're paying $$$ for the "privilege" of having something hooked up to your house, regardless of how little you use.

Solar power is interruptable by night and clouds. Even when steady the cost per kw hour is hight compared to other means of generating electricity.

ruveyn

THIS.


And oodain, marine vessels would fair far better to use wind turbines as a source of electricity(provided they have backup generators) as stagnant air is extremely uncommon out on the oceans. If I lived out on the Coast instead of 60 miles inland I'd have a wind turbine to power my house.

That's why you use BOTH.

Solar panels, even on ships, are expensive and even more costly to maintain. Using only solar panels would be a stupid idea out on the ocean since many regions are cloudy and stormy 90% of the time.

I have played around with solar panels a bit. I made a real simple charger with just a panel and a diode. After the diode drop the voltage was just a little higher than the battery ( 12volts in this case) worked fine. Not a fast charge by any means but it got the job done.
I made a solar cell phone charger for a friend of mine. It worked but it was also slow to charge and largely inconvenient so it doesn't get used much, but it did work. I used a low dropout regulator on this, as the panel I was using wasn't much higher than the 5 volts I needed for the USB style connection. I also remember I had to do some trick with resistors on the data pins as It would not work with his " I " stuff. (Iphone, Ipad, etc). I can't remeber what the values were but it was easy to find online. ( I put the resistors on a DIP header and plugged it into a socket. I called my chip the Ithwart : )
I am currently working on a solar powered guitar amp. It works, I just need to finish the last board (tone control board) and box it up.
You can find these parts (Solar panels, etc) dirt cheap surplus, and its fun.

My neighbors are a couple of green minded ladies and they have a large solar set of panels at their place. It's grid tied (no batteries). In the summer it pays their electric bill, minus connection fees I'm sure. In the winter it helps but not as much.

I have read a little about using stepper motors as generators for a small wind turbine. I might play with that next.

unfortunately a wind turbine is far too dynamic to use on a ship,

the load levels would lead to instabilities and you would be in even greater danger of capsizing when working with large installation vessels, cruiselines would probably barely be able to sail if you loaded them with that much + the air resistance, as far as ships go they dont have a lot of extra power to work with.

solar cells wheigh less, they are more expensive, but not half of what they were 6-10 years ago, they have no moving parts to take into account and the power produced is easier to introduce into the ship grid, it can be done locally and distributed, contrary to anything but the lowest most inefficient turbines.

maintenance wise solar cells are dozens of times cheaper than turbines and they alwasy will be, do you know how much the composite coupler in a modern turbine costs? and how often they change them?

they cost more than a car and needs changing every 3-5 years, vs the cells themsleves that are "guaranteed" to work for 15 years, then comes all the grease, lube and bearings that also need cjhanging regularly because of the mechanics, not to mention the time it takes to do all that.

again the only regular thing you would ned to do with solar cells is wash off the salt that accumulates on the covers for the panels.

Make hay and electricity while the sun shines.

ruveyn

Last edited by ruveyn on 27 Aug 2012, 7:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

I've been thinking about making a wind turbine. I'm kinda a noob at electronics so I'm not sure if this will work, but I'm gonna try hooking a toy motor to the blades and hook the motor up to a cheap rechargable battery charger (not the plug-in-the-wall kind, it's just this thing that came with a solar powered car lego building set thingy majiger i have in my attic). Does that sound like it would work? I'm not sure it would...

What you will end up with is a toy. If you really want to recharge something (seriously recharge it) use a plug in recharger that uses electricity generated by fission heat or the heat of burning hydrocarbons. That is what grown-ups do.

ruveyn