OT: Solar Charging 12V Car Battery

one problem I foresee is that the solar panels will not be able to initially charge the battery array up to full charge. Charge them up before you take them out to the no-AC area.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

Not a problem, Aaron's house (with AC power) is only ~5 miles away. ...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, CTO | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at

| 1962 | I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

And a treadmill ?:-) ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

You haven't disclosed the size of the chicken coop. Judging by the amount of light you can get out of a car battery, it might not be all that big.

What's it cost to move the chicken coop?

What's the cost of 5 miles of wire? Assuming you own the land between. Maybe there's a fence you could run the wire along. Run 48VDC with some kind of GFI-type breaker. Available power might enable other improvements.

I can think of only two ways solar can win.

1) if you can get some other taxpayer to pay for it. 2) there ain't no other way.

Can you import some endangered species and convince the government to require the utility to extend the reach of electrical power to prevent extinction?

Solar power doesn't have to be photovoltaic. In Arizona, you might have enough thermal differential to use a small reflector and a stirling engine.

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Estimate daily energy required at 200 watthours. Average solar insolation in the SW USA is about 18 megajoules per square meter per day averaged over the year. A 100 watt panel is about 1 square meter. At 10 percent electric conversion efficiency you will average about

1.8 megajoules electric per day. Thats 500 watthours. But you will only net about 300 watthours/day in the months of December/January. Lead acid battery will cost you about 40 percent. Charge controller another 10 percent. One panel rated at 100 watts should be adequate for a 200 watthour/day load.

Jim check this out ...light made with 2litter plastic bottles just a thought

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com... OT: Solar Charging 12V Car Battery...

My son, Aaron, software engineer turned farmer, has acreage in the San Tan Valley with no source of electric power.

He'd like some artificial light for his chicken coop to increase the egg output.

Lighting and timers are easy to find off-the-shelf, but I need some pointers toward finding a good quality solar panel that can charge a

12V car battery.

Thanks in advance.

...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |

I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Sorry forgot to add the link here it is

My son, Aaron, software engineer turned farmer, has acreage in the San Tan Valley with no source of electric power.

He'd like some artificial light for his chicken coop to increase the egg output.

Lighting and timers are easy to find off-the-shelf, but I need some pointers toward finding a good quality solar panel that can charge a

12V car battery.

Thanks in advance.

...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |

I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

If the PV is large enough or the batteries small enough he sure can.

If the PV isn't enough to charge the batteries from dead, then it won't be enough to charge them fully from a partial depth of discharge and they will die an early death near the chicken coop.

boB

plus a Richard Simmons fitness DVD - he is almost frantic enough for the chickens to follow!

Or Bio gas. Chicken shit is great for producing methane, but seriously adding more chickens means savings on a solar panel, controller, battery lighting and maintenance. Thats not chicken feed (pun?) and should the need to downscale happens there is no waste in investment capital (yummy!)

Practically the increased yield from a system so small that it can realistically consider car batteries is very likely to be disappointing. On the small scale it is almost always more economical to co-opt as much of nature as possible hence I bet the maths shows adding a few chickens is an outright winner in terms of economics.

Use a generator to charge them. or just let them charge on the system for a few days. FYI, a backup generator would be a good idea. Periodically you need to equalize the lead acid deep cycle batteries, so AC power might be a must depending upon the system size.

Equalize - controlled over charge. see

Cheers

Interesting thought. Maybe an M-G set would be better than a solar setup... and it's so-o-o-o less leftist ;-) ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

It'll definitely be cheaper, particularly in the short term -- there are some awfully cheap generators out there, like this one:

.

The main problem with cheap (

What does "Certified for California" mean? Quieter? I once had a work situation with a vacuum pump running continuously. Drove me nuts until I devised a muffler for it made out of off-the-shelf iron pipe fittings... the equivalent of a pi-filter ;-) ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

If I may inject even more cynicism into the conversation: I think the "design life" that Harbor Fright cares about is the duration between the point where the consumer sees the generator and the point where their check clears the bank.

I mean -- what is a generator for, to generator manufacturer? To make electricity, or to make money?

Honda probably has the delusion that their generators should make electricity for you, and money for Honda -- so they might actually make something reliable.

--
My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook.
My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook.
Why am I not happy that they have found common ground?

Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Software
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Maybe it has a little sticker on it warning you that drinking gasoline could cause cancer.

--
My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook.
My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook.
Why am I not happy that they have found common ground?

Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Software
http://www.wescottdesign.com

That you can use the thing in California without the California Air Resources Board (CARP) giving you a ticket: California has the strictest laws regarding exhaust gas emissions in the nation, and some extra equipment (I'm not sure what) typically has to be added to the exhaust to meet their specs, AIUI.

It's enough additional cost that for some manufacturers it's worthwhile to have a California version and a non-California version.

Probably! That's important, "Known to the State of Californica" ;-) ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

(...)

the utility to extend the reach of

Can I suggest _Engineerus Hardwarus_.

--Winston

the utility to extend the reach of

;-) ...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, CTO | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at

| 1962 | I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.