solar power & Toolbox

[Tom Honeyman]

> AS for the Solar panels,
> I have been using solar panels in the field successfully for  
> several months now.  I bought foldable solar panels, Global Solar  
> P3.  I have 55W, which was US$900, but there are cheaper (less  
> powerful) models that ought to work out just fine.  They weight  
> about 4lbs.  The only catch is that these require an external  
> battery.  I bought a motorcycle battery in country, which is  
> smaller than a car battery and thus more portable.   The solar  
> panels charge the battery with a set of pos/neg clips (which come  
> with the optional accessory kit), and I had the female end of a car  
> cigarette lighter rigged to have pos/neg clips as well (this was  
> not something I found pre-made, but it is easy enough for someone  
> who knows about electricity to rig up).  Then, all my equipment has  
> cigarette lighter adaptors (cell phone, battery charger, computer,  
> etc.). I can plug in anything I want that has a cigarette lighter  
> adaptor (12V). These are widely available adaptors for many  
> devices.   I agree that
>  taking a multimeter into the field for trouble-shooting is a good  
> idea.  They are cheap (about US$10), lightweight, and widely  
> available.
>
> Please let me know if my answers need clarification.

Yes, that's basically what I would have said!

My situation was a little different, weight, cost and humidity were  
big issues so I had a small Sealed Lead Acid (7 Amp hour / ~2kg)  
battery and 10W panel. This was just enough to charge the batteries  
for the Nagra ARES BB+, my flashlights (If you need them, make sure  
they are designed to work with rechargeables), digital camera etc. I  
took two 5 hour batteries for the Video Camera, and never needed to  
recharge them (we were mostly after audio this time). I didn't have a  
laptop. In other words I had a "bare-minimum" digital system.  
Unfortunately, the solar panel broke in the first month, so I ended  
up getting power from a variety of fairly bizarre sources in the  
remaining 4 months... that's when the multimeter came in handy.

So I guess my first recommendation would be to have a backup system  
if something goes wrong.

Depending on your constraints, I'd suggest doing a rough estimate of  
your power consumption, and purchasing a kit of the right size like  
the P3 above.

If weight is not an issue, I suggest purchasing a largish Lead Acid  
battery in country.

Consider a charge regulator. This will stop you overcharging the  
battery and a good one will also indicate when the battery is low so  
you don't damage it from drawing too much power. Although, I suppose  
if you did damage your battery, you could always pick up another one.  
Here's a product that is a protective housing for the battery and  
battery status indicator:

http://www.whitworths.com.au/main_itemdetail.asp? 
cat=123&item=4190&intAbsolutePage=1

(Apologies for not finding a better link) The better model has a  
cigarette lighter plug. Having a handle on your power source is good  
because you can move it around if you use it as a primary power  
source instead of as a charger. Using it as a direct power source is  
more efficient as you have some power loss in the transfer of power  
from one battery to another.

The battery acts like a buffer. Because you'll only be charging  
during the day, and you usually have your equipment charging while  
you sleep, you need a battery big enough for (at least) a couple of  
nights of recharging (in case it rains etc).

That's all I can think of for now, I'll post again when I've finished  
the report.

Tom Honeyman
PARADISEC Project Research Assistant
Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures
Sydney Unit, room 238, Transient Building F12
University of Sydney NSW 2006
tel +61 2 9036 9557
fax +61 2 9351 7572
tom.honeyman at paradisec.org.au
http://www.paradisec.org.au



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