Yesterday I went to harbor freight on walzem in san Antonio right down the road from Rackspace.
Started to stop in and say hi to ed, but I wasn't sure that they allowed visitors. I don't normally look at the el cheapo solutions because usually they are that way for a reason. But for $150.00, it was too much of a learning opportunity to pass up, so I bought their 45 watt solar kit As you can probably figure, 45 watts is not enough power for anything. However, I believe that zoning your solar power system is the way to go as it will allow you to gradually build a system without breaking the bank. My goal with zone 1 was to power: . A 10 watt boom box . Two twelve volt lights . A raspberry or arduino via a usb port . A Wilson electronics signalboost dt which should allow me to get 3g or 4g internet via a virgin mobile broadband system, or a exede satellite internet system. . To charge up my cell phone and tablet After hooking this up yesterday, it appears that it will meet those requirements for the $150 so I'm happy with it. The next steps to finish zone 1 are to buy a arduino and a voltage sensor and write the software to ftp the data to my webserver here at Keep America At Work and update the google gauge charts that you will see on the left hand sidebar with real time data. Zone 2 will be a similar system to power a water system similar to this one in the video http://keepamericaatwork.com/101-old-goat-lane/this-is-an-interesting-water- system/ Zone 3 will be to power a refrigerator which I believe can be done for less than $1,000.00 using this system. http://www.solar-electric.com/rvkitwi140wa1.html It will also require a inverter and I'm thinking about this one http://www.solar-electric.com/sa1wa12vosiw.html If that works as I believe it will, Zone 4 will be a similar system to power a window a/c unit in my cabin and a similar system for zone 5 which will be to power my computer, laserjet, tv, etc.. At this point I should be totally off grid as they call it for not too much money. Virgil Bierschwale - N5IVV To see the things I'm working on, click on the following link. http://keepamericaatwork.com/?cat=62 --- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html --- _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://mail.leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[email protected] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
