Title: Solar Experiment
Date: 20190725
Tags: energy thoughts
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Gopher is a bit slow these days.  Happy Summer, I guess. :)

Just a quick update as a follow up to my thoughts on powering my computing from
solar[0].

I did end up buying a 50W solar panel and controller.  I had a couple car
batteries sitting around from project cars that aren't currently driveable to
use for storage.  I plan to upgrade to deep cycle eventually.  I don't have the
panel mounted, I just set it out in the driveway on the weekend and charge up
the batteries.

This rough setup takes some adapting to.  I have to set up the panel and
batteries on the weekend to charge.  In the evening, I bring in the panel and
disconnect the batteries.  The house obviously isn't wired for 12V DC power so I
have to carry a battery into the house and hook up a power socket and use a car
charger for my phone.  I haven't wanted to use an inverter and had to order a
12V charger for my laptop so I've only been charging my phone.  I also don't
want to leave the phone or the charger connected to the battery once it's
charged because of parasitic loss and the risk of over discharging the battery.
This means, I charge my phone up in the evening.  I then disconnect it because I
have it in the bedroom when I sleep.  Then back on the charger in the morning to
top off what it lost over night.

I have no idea what kind of process I can do with my laptop.  It runs all night.
I fall asleep to podcasts playing on it and it does backups and things over
night.  I'd love to have the laptop cut power from the battery once it's charged
and then turn it back on at 80% or some such.  That's another project I don't
have time for and really, the ideal solution is to shut off my computer when I'm
not using it.

I'll start charging up during the week once I determine that I need to but
probably only with an AGM or gel battery so I don't have to worry about gasses
from the lead acid car batteries.  I worry about someone stealing my panel, too,
though...  I might find a more discrete, though slightly less sunny spot for it.


[0] gopher://kagu-tsuchi.com:70/0/phlog/solar_computing.txt