Last Thursday I spent a lot of time analyzing exactly how efficient my charging solution was with a real-life test. What dropped out was a rather poor picture of how inefficient the whole solar charging setup was. From over 1.2KW hitting the area of my solar panel I managed to use about 19W. That’s a […]
Distance since last post: 75kmWeather: Cloudy, rainy.Forecast: Bad for the next 3-days. Looks like I’ll have to be careful!Notes: Crashed into a lamppost while I was trying to mount my bike. No damage. Phew! View towards Remagen (two bridge towsers can be seen at base of hill) in terrible weather. No sun, no energy although […]
When I did my first tests and calculations about the use of solar power to drive a PC I was quite amazed at the inefficiency of the process and today’s ‘laboratory conditions’ test proves just how much room for improvement there is. It’s thanks to devices like UMPCs that this is project is at all possible […]
Distance since last post: 15km Weather: Clouds thinning Notes: I don’t have much faith in the lead-acid battery. The Li-Ion battery seems to be charging much more reliably. Another day completed and I feel like I’m getting into a better rhythm. Checking emails and RSS on the mobile phone and creating rich journal updates with […]
Distance since last post: 40kmWeather: Mixed, cloudy. Hazy. Warm 20-22 degreesNotes: Feeling really good. No aches. Pushing harder today. Cant stop eating sultanas! The hills on each side of the Rhein are getting bigger! Winter is coming…If you take notice of the geese that is. I saw a flock flying south (following the River perhaps) […]
Location: OppenheimDistance since last post: 68KmWeather: Hot with 50% cloud coverForecast: Heavier cloud tomorrow. Clearing toward Thursday.Notes: Problem with the Lead-acid battery today. It didn’t seem to charge. Will concentrate on loading the Li-Ion battery tomorrow. Due to the cloudy weather I decided to cycle all the way through to the campsite in one stage […]
Here’s a solution based on the Sunlinq 25w panel and a Xantrec 300 Plus combo lead-acid battery/inverter. Its very similar to my own solution apart from the fact that this one weighs nearly 10KG!!! A number of blogs seemed to have picked up on this solution today and are quoting 11-12 hours charging time. This figure […]
I don’t really understand why I didn’t try this before. Its simple. its recommended and it works. Have I been too focused on flexibility why simplicity could be the answer? I was speaking to Chris from Euro-Line, an importer of consumer solar products and he highlighted a document that I’d already seen. I took another […]
In a recent comment here, someone asked why the Lead-Acid battery was needed. Its probably not too clear in the video why I use it so I reproduce my answer (which comes from the best of my knowledge!) here. There are two main problems with charging Li-Ion batteries from Solar panels. Firstly, Li-Ion batteries (in […]
Tonight I’m doing what I’ve been doing most night for the last few months – researching solar power and solar notebook/laptop solutions. Tonight the Google search subject is expeditions. I figured that these guys must have solar computing pretty much sussed by now but I’m struggling to find a solution that can improve on my, […]