Which Type of 12 Volt Solar Charger Is Best?

Posted by AMA on November 3rd, 2009 | Comments Off

 

Rising oil prices and concerns about pollution are leading a significant number of people to look into solar battery chargers. Read on to find out more about different types of solar battery chargers, including how to build your own.

The simplest type of battery charger works by simply supplying a battery with electricity of the correct voltage. The battery is connected to the charger, and disconnected after it’s fully charged. A 12 volt battery can be recharged in a 15-18 volt power supply. The drawback to this system’s simplicity, though, is its risk of overcharging.

If you overcharge a battery, it’s likely that the battery’s functionality will be decreased, often significantly. In the event that you significantly or repeatedly overcharge a 12 volt battery, it may be damaged to the point that it will no longer hold a charge. However, there is a device called a charge controller that will make sure that the necessary voltage is used and prevent the battery from being overcharged. If you’re using a 12 volt solar charger, you’ll probably want to be able to leave it connected throughout the day while the sun is shining, in which case a charge controller is a must.

The most widely used type of charge controller for 12 volt batteries is a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) charge controller. In basic terms, this type of charge controller works by flipping a switch on and off very quickly. In this sense, the switch is mostly “on” when the charging process is first activated. As electricity is moved to the battery, the switch spends more time activated than deactivated, and once the battery is fully charged, it no longer comes back on. A microprocessor chip controls and monitors the charging process. Thus, you can leave this type of charge controller plugged into a battery all day long if you like, since it will only transfer power to the battery when needed, without the danger of overcharging. This is called “trickle charging,” and it is a good strategy when you’ve got a battery that you might not necessarily use constantly, but would to make sure that it’s charged when it does need to be used. If you’re using a 12 volt solar charger, it’s useful to have this feature. This, in turn, will allow you to keep the 12 volt battery for your boat or RV charged for whenever you need it.

These are the basic components that make up a 12 volt solar charger. The source of the energy itself is the only thing that makes a 12 volt solar charger different. Solar battery chargers collect power through the use of a solar panel rather than from a wall outlet.  Building your own DIY solar panel for use in a 12 volt solar charger is becoming more common.  You can get more info by clicking on DIY Solar Panels.

1/2 volt and 3-4 amp solar cells are commonly used in the solar panels that you might see on buildings. Several of these cells have to be joined in order to generate the 15-18 volts necessary for a 12 volt battery charger. Currently, there are small solar panels of numerous different voltages on the market. The charger won’t work unless you match the voltage of the solar panel to your charge controller. The correct voltage is shown on the voltage rating, which is displayed on every charge controller. Generally, it’s best to use a solar panel of 15-18 volts if you’re not using a charge controller. If you are using a charge controller, the required voltage is just that – required.  GreenDIYEnergy is the best guide to building your own 12 volt solar charger.  To read more, visit GreenDIYEnergy.

The method for wiring the solar panel to the charge controller is contingent upon certain factors within the controller. Generally, it’s safe to solder the same kind of connector onto the solar panel that you have on your charge controller. If you aren’t using a charge controller, use the type of connector that’s on the battery instead. Spring loaded clamps are a good choice with most larger 12 volt batteries. For non-mechanically inclined types, you don’t necessarily have to solder (although this type of soldering is very simple); it’s possible to just twist the wires together and use electrical tape. You’ll only need a simple soldering iron and solder, which you can get cheap at places like Radio Shack. Just twist the wires together, use the soldering iron on the wires, and touch the solder to the wires until it melts. You just have to be careful not to burn yourself, and to apply heat directly to the wires, not the solder, with the soldering iron – the solder is then melted by the heated wires.  Another guide to building your own 12v solar charger that I recommend is Homemade Energy.  To read more, visit Homemade Energy Review.

That’s all you have to do! If you can do that, you can build a 12 volt solar charger without any problems. A 12 volt battery is the first component. A charge controller with the appropriate voltage is also necessary. The solar panel, which you can build yourself or buy, should also have the same voltage. Finally, connect the solar panel to the charge controller, and the charge controller to the battery. After you’ve done this, you’ll have permanent, free power! By using solar energy instead of oil to charge your battery, you’re helping reduce pollution and dependence on foreign oil, and saving yourself a lot of money in the long run.

 

Filed under Energy | Tags: , , , ,


Do you think it would be easy to build a solar powered car? It’s not But

Posted by AMA on November 3rd, 2009 | Comments Off

Hybrid Cars are now very easy to come by these days and the prices have really dropped.  They are also a great way to do your part in saving the Environment.

However If you want to build your own Car using Solar Power - Green Energy Source

Most cars are powered by fossil fuel or better known as Gas.There is do much volatitlity in the price of oil and it is not even a renewable energy source. It is going to be gone one day… Yes, Gone!!.The countries that have all of these resources are ripping our money out of our pockets as we lean back and pump this junk into our cars and then into the air we breath.  I believe that we have to do something before it’s too late.If solar energy can be used to power a small community then it stands to reason that you could power a car.  Sounds like an impossible task right?

What does it take to make this work?  A lot of things but the two most important are the solar array and the batteries.The solar array is very important as it collects the sun rays and converts it into electical energy. There is the prefabricated type and the individeual kind that you have to set up yourself.

You can get branded parts from places like Siemens and ASE Americas they sell terrestrial grade cells and the space grade cells. The lower end is the terrestial grade that can produce a signigicant amount of power.

You must complete the wiring properly in order to make sure your vehicle keeps moving even if one of the panels stops working.  The voltage of the solar array should match the system voltage of your motor, you should not to worry because it will still run.

The battery is what is used to store the energy after it is soaked up from the sun. So the batter is a very important factor in building a solar powered car.  There are a few options in batteries and they are lead acid, lithium-ion or nickel-cadmium.The voltage of the engine determines how many you will have to buy.  After you have purchased these two components, you must connect them to the motor.So you know how much juice is left in your batteries, you will also need to install instrumentation similar to the heads up display console on regular cars which tells you your speed, mileage and gas.

All of this seem to be such a task and if you are not into building things or just don’t have the time, why not just purchase a hybrid car until the big Auto Makers get on board.If you use a hhybrid car, it is much better than driving a 1976 Coupe Devill and there are cars that can travel many miles on only one gallon of gas.  Take the Toyota Prius as an example.  They have tested this vehicle on 2 gallons of gas and they traveled 100 miles and still did not run out of gas.Adam Carolla took on this challenge only a few weeks ago and was featured on SPEED television.

Well I guess my point here is that you can build your own solar powered car and drive around with a large solar panel on the top of your car or you can take advantage of the new technology being provided by the car industry and drive a hybrid car.

Filed under Environment | Tags:


An Effective Barrier For Containing Oil Spills – The Floating Boom

Posted by AMA on November 3rd, 2009 | Comments Off

Environmental Sustainability

On Saturday, September 26, 2009, Typhoon Ketsana struck Metro Manila and brought with it unprecedented amounts of rainfall that the Philippines has never experienced before. Locally known in the Philippines as Typhoon Ondoy, Ketsana caught the country totally unaware and unprepared for disaster. When Ondoy finally blew its way out of the Philippine Area of Responsibility, it left behind at least 300 people dead and millions of people displaced by flooding. It also destroyed some 0 million worth of property.

After Ondoy has passed, the finger-pointing that is almost natural to Filipinos ensued. The displaced victims of Ondoy blamed the government for not coming quickly to their rescue. Some government heads blamed the people for ignoring flood warnings that were announced as early as the Thursday before Ondoy made landfall. Many politicians eager for attention in time for the upcoming 2010 Presidential Elections were quick to blame the Arroyo Administration for lack of preparedness in times of disaster.

Reports of oil yield per acre per year for green crude vary wildly from 5,000 to 150,000 gallons. One company, Valcent Products, claims that 150,000 gallons of green crude per acre is possible using a carefully controlled, closed loop system. Actual yields, though, currently top out at about 33,000 gallons per acre per year. Even by conservative estimates, it would take about 40,000 square miles of land to produce enough green crude oil to completely replace the United States’ consumption of conventional oil. That’s an area about the size of the state of Tennessee.

Before stocking up on floating booms, you need to determine exactly which type you might need.

There are booms for calm and protected waters. Then there are ones that will still work effectively in much rougher water, such as along the shoreline or even further off the shore.

Algae fuel is reported as being “environmentally neutral”. This means that it does not change the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere because it consumes just as much carbon dioxide during its cultivation as is released during combustion. This is in stark contrast to conventional gasoline which only adds carbon dioxide to the environment during production and consumption.

If there is any lesson that needs to be learned from the coming of Typhoon Ondoy, it is definitely this: It is high time that we learned to respect our waterways. If we cannot help to clean and rehabilitate our waterways, then we should at least stop treating them as if they are our personal garbage bins. If Typhoon Ondoy, which was merely a Category 2 storm, could flood Metro Manila the way it did, what more would a stronger typhoon?

Instead of blaming other people for the disaster that happened, we should all becoming proactive and prevent another similar disaster from happening again. We need to start cleaning our waterways now!

Resource Author Francisco Rodriguez Higueras
Trabajar desde casa es fácil si sabes como
Todo sobre Juegos Mario para gente que le gusta jugar
Encontrar un Trabajo – Empleo es fácil si sabe dónde buscar

Filed under Environment | Tags: , , ,


East Sussex Town Does Its Bit for the Environment

Posted by AMA on October 18th, 2009 | Comments Off

Brighton City Council has recently revealed it will be installing 20 roadside charging stations for electric vehicles. This is part of a big project to try and make Brighton a more Zero-emission city.

However do people who already have an electric vehicle really think they are bigger and better than the rest of us? If you consider an episode of South Park it would certainly seem so. Many of the people in South Park bought a electric car and found that they all started to think very highly of themselves and better than the people without the car.

Of course this is all nonsense and just put there to annoy the people of Chicago (where a lot of the episode was based) as well as everyone who own one of the electric cars.

Could it be that the solution to the worlds pollution problems lie in these cars, or perhaps they cause more hassle than good? As power stations are unable to shut down overnight, currently there is a lot of unused electricity, so without building anymore stations, we could power millions of electric vehicles with no additional impact on the environment. If we should have to build more power plants, we would hope that they will be cleaner plants. It also works out that the price per mile is a lot cheaper for an electric car than it is for a gas car. The truth is of course all to do with efficiency as gasoline cars are 25% efficient whereas electric are about 95% so this equates to a mile on electric costing a penny and a mile on gas costing around 15 cents.

So if you are about to buy an Audi or buy a Nissan you should hold off and wait until an electric car comes your way. Whether it is new cars there is sure to be an eventual upgrade for a car to help take down your C02 emissions.

Filed under Energy | Tags: ,


Choosing the Right Solar Panel

Posted by AMA on October 17th, 2009 | Comments Off

A long as your home has adequate roof space and the proper orientation to the sun, a solar power system could provide all of the electricity for your home. Many homeowners who have been interested in using solar power systems in the past have not been able to take advantage of this technology because they either had limited roof space or were slightly out of alignment with the sun. This meant that the solar panels may not have generated enough energy to justify the cost of installation. Some hope has been given to these homeowners in recent years by the increased efficiency and tolerance of sunlight angles of modern solar panels.  Combining the solar panel with a 12 volt battery and charge controller is the most common application, making a 12 volt solar charger.

The improved technology and more advanced manufacturing techniques used today provide better panels for all types of solar power systems. The newer solar cells used in modern panels can offer homeowners better power production than cells that were available even a few years ago because of several different improvements. Their primary advantage is that they can generate more power from less sunlight than older cells. This is good for homeowners since it means that they are more effective for longer portions of the day. Older solar panels required the sun to hit them more directly and so had a limited range of operation. During the early morning and and late afternoon these older panels would generate little to no electricity. If there were any clouds at all, even if the sun could shine through them, these panels couldn’t produce energy consistently. These newer panels will help many homeowners justify the cost of installing a solar power system because they will generate more energy in all levels of sunlight. This can also be good news for people who have homes with less than perfect alignment with the sun.

These newer solar panels will also allow the average homeowner to entirely eliminate their electric bill with fewer panels. Because there are fewer panels used, this will also mean the system is less expensive. This is helpful for homeowners with limited roof space and may enable them to justify a solar power system for their homes.  You can see how much solar power and how many panels you’ll need for your home if you check out Solar Power Calculator.

Longevity is the last advantage to the newer solar panels. In a moderate climate, the life of older panels was ten to fifteen years. The panels would produce peak power for about ten years and then degrade over time. This was because as the solar cells aged, they would fail one by one. Since the solar panel was a collection of many of these cells it would still produce energy, only less. The newer solar cells are more durable and will produce more electricity as well as lasting longer. The homeowner will get to enjoy the benefits of solar energy for many more years to come and this makes it an even better choice.  A great way to save on the cost of solar panels is by building your own home build solar panel.

Filed under Energy | Tags: , ,


« Older Entries

Categories

Blogroll

Archives