Sorry but that doesn't works, lets do some calculations:
a midrange PC with high efficiency PSU will drain at least 280W, if the night is 10 hours long you need 2,8KWh
lets assume you're using 2 of the solar panel to charge the battery, and that the charger has 100% efficiency you have in the 14 hours of day 1,4KWh of power put in your batteries. Thats means less than 5hr of power.
Even admitting that 5 hours is better than 0 if you do same is calcs come out that this is totally anti-economics: if you pay your current 0,2$/KWh you can save 0,28$/day, or 100$/yr so you need 3 years of full 14 hours of sunny days to pay your investment (or you live in a desertic area or actually is safe to think that you need at least 5...)
Topic: Any solar powered rigs out there? I have an idea for one, check it out! - page 4. (Read 7961 times)
July 16, 2011, 01:18:42 AM
July 16, 2011, 12:59:44 AM
there is a 60W solar panel on Amazon for $270.90 with free 2-day shipping via Amazon Prime. still up there in price, but for people with money to burn, have at it
July 16, 2011, 12:53:34 AM
Seems good, but it's out of reach for most people I think, not everyone knows that much about electricity, and where you get 50w panels so cheap?
July 16, 2011, 12:07:22 AM
I'm kinda into eletricity and inverters and batteries and all that for no real reason. I even rigged up an 800W inverter in my car so I can run whatever I want in there except apparently a hair dryer and toaster cuz their power usage ratings on the label are A LIE!!! 
Compared to computing, simple electrical circuits like that are a piece of cake so don't get intimidated. Since electricity costs are such a huge factor and almost the only ongoing expense, it makes perfect sense to cut it out. So did anyone already make a solar powered or I guess wind or anything else "power out of nowhere"-ish?
Cuz here's my idea for one but I'm definitely open to suggestions. Solar power sounds bad because you can't have your computer losing power every time a cloud crosses the sun and a USB shutdown-command-giving uninterruptable power supply is safer but loud and annoying and expensive and then your computer is still off a lot
And I'm all about low costs so what I'm thinking is get a 50W solar panel or two over at Harbor Freight for about $110 (no idea where they all are in the US but just go to whatever mega cheapo demi-hardware store is near you ). I dunno what kind of voltage regulating capabilities those would have though so that may be a significant expensive. Then get a 400W or so inverter at the same kind of shop or on newegg or whatever. That could handle a midrange card, CPU, and hard drive pretty sufficiently. They're only like $35 and an 800W pretty high end one is about $75 if you had to go that high, but you really wouldn't want to because the last piece is a battery. A really big, high capacity, high output interstate battery is like $120 so screw that Walmarts carry a $25 riding lawn mower battery (+$5 lead core surcharge if you don't trade in a battery so $30). I bought one just for testing subwoofer amps and stuff and when the power was out for half a day here after a big storm a few months back, I got my 200W inverter out and that battery and ran my 32" LCD TV for about 3 hours then ran my 120W gaming laptop off it for another couple hours and as far as I could calculate, it was maybe 30% of the way to a voltage that's too low for my inverter to use. So those cheap batteries pack a lot of power!
So here's what I'm thinking. Use your computer during the day and keep your solar panel hooked up to it. Hopefully it's sunny then your battery charges and then near sundown, you bring the battery inside and hook up your inverter to it. Most have jumper cable style clamps so it takes no wiring and like 5 seconds. Turn it on and plug your computer into its AC outlet then boot it up. It'll run off power from the battery via the inverter. Start mining and hope that your battery has enough juice to not drop below approximately 10.4V before morning. Then wake up, make delicious eggs, read slashdot, brush your teeth, then go shut down your computer. Then unhook the inverter and put the battery back outside on the solar panel and repeat daily. If you find your battery running out, calculate the draw and overall capacity of the battery via one of many methods and then add 1 or more additional batteries in parallel to have enough power.
Now, this would technically work for a total equipment price tag of as low as $175. But if you REALLY wanted to do this long term, here's the ideal setup I'm imagining.
Several solar panels for ultra fast charging.
A voltage regulator for the solar panels to keep it under xx amount of volts.
A DC based battery charger with auto-shut off so you don't overcharge the battery (this is actually pretty much mandatory unless you want to check on the voltage every 15 minutes otherwise it will explode in a flaming ball of hydrogen and acid from overcharging)
A voltmeter and amp-meter so you know what's going on with the whole system at all times.
a really high end, efficient power inverter (or a 12V DC computer power supply instead if they make those)
A UPS that automatically shuts the computer down if the voltage dips too low
Proper fuses
A deep cycle marine battery that's build to perform many, many draw down and recharge cycles. $30 walmart batteries may not last real long if you use them daily in this fashion
P.S. since I have almost all that equipment, I'm gonna rig up a demo of it and make a video, which is a lot more exciting than text
Oh and if the forum ever decides that 21 posts and about 3 days straight of being logged in is enough to get past newbie status, it'll be posted in the proper forum category too.
Compared to computing, simple electrical circuits like that are a piece of cake so don't get intimidated. Since electricity costs are such a huge factor and almost the only ongoing expense, it makes perfect sense to cut it out. So did anyone already make a solar powered or I guess wind or anything else "power out of nowhere"-ish?Cuz here's my idea for one but I'm definitely open to suggestions. Solar power sounds bad because you can't have your computer losing power every time a cloud crosses the sun and a USB shutdown-command-giving uninterruptable power supply is safer but loud and annoying and expensive and then your computer is still off a lot
And I'm all about low costs so what I'm thinking is get a 50W solar panel or two over at Harbor Freight for about $110 (no idea where they all are in the US but just go to whatever mega cheapo demi-hardware store is near you ). I dunno what kind of voltage regulating capabilities those would have though so that may be a significant expensive. Then get a 400W or so inverter at the same kind of shop or on newegg or whatever. That could handle a midrange card, CPU, and hard drive pretty sufficiently. They're only like $35 and an 800W pretty high end one is about $75 if you had to go that high, but you really wouldn't want to because the last piece is a battery. A really big, high capacity, high output interstate battery is like $120 so screw that Walmarts carry a $25 riding lawn mower battery (+$5 lead core surcharge if you don't trade in a battery so $30). I bought one just for testing subwoofer amps and stuff and when the power was out for half a day here after a big storm a few months back, I got my 200W inverter out and that battery and ran my 32" LCD TV for about 3 hours then ran my 120W gaming laptop off it for another couple hours and as far as I could calculate, it was maybe 30% of the way to a voltage that's too low for my inverter to use. So those cheap batteries pack a lot of power!So here's what I'm thinking. Use your computer during the day and keep your solar panel hooked up to it. Hopefully it's sunny
then your battery charges and then near sundown, you bring the battery inside and hook up your inverter to it. Most have jumper cable style clamps so it takes no wiring and like 5 seconds. Turn it on and plug your computer into its AC outlet then boot it up. It'll run off power from the battery via the inverter. Start mining and hope that your battery has enough juice to not drop below approximately 10.4V before morning. Then wake up, make delicious eggs, read slashdot, brush your teeth, then go shut down your computer. Then unhook the inverter and put the battery back outside on the solar panel and repeat daily. If you find your battery running out, calculate the draw and overall capacity of the battery via one of many methods and then add 1 or more additional batteries in parallel to have enough power.Now, this would technically work for a total equipment price tag of as low as $175. But if you REALLY wanted to do this long term, here's the ideal setup I'm imagining.
Several solar panels for ultra fast charging.
A voltage regulator for the solar panels to keep it under xx amount of volts.
A DC based battery charger with auto-shut off so you don't overcharge the battery (this is actually pretty much mandatory unless you want to check on the voltage every 15 minutes otherwise it will explode in a flaming ball of hydrogen and acid from overcharging)
A voltmeter and amp-meter so you know what's going on with the whole system at all times.
a really high end, efficient power inverter (or a 12V DC computer power supply instead if they make those)
A UPS that automatically shuts the computer down if the voltage dips too low
Proper fuses
A deep cycle marine battery that's build to perform many, many draw down and recharge cycles. $30 walmart batteries may not last real long if you use them daily in this fashion
P.S. since I have almost all that equipment, I'm gonna rig up a demo of it and make a video, which is a lot more exciting than text
Oh and if the forum ever decides that 21 posts and about 3 days straight of being logged in is enough to get past newbie status, it'll be posted in the proper forum category too. Jump to: