Solar Emergency Power
Posted on August 8, 2008
Filed Under Real Tools, Solar Living
CDT-10w 12V crystalline PV module
I’m working on a solar / LED lighting project for people who live off the grid in Guatemala and Nicaragua.
Listening to people who live way off the grid in very rural parts of Guatemala has given us insight into what people really need for their lighting. Some non profits advocate 1 watt of LED light to replace kerosene lamps. And they have a point, one watt of LED light is a lot better than kerosene or candles. However, our entire solar power system + lights costs less than what people spend in a year on Kerosene and candles, and it provides what people really want – which is a little more than a fancy LED lamp. People want a power supply that can charge a cell phone, and possibly run a small transistor radio for a few hours a day.
(In Guatemala they practically give away cell phones. I purchased mine for $15.00 with $15.00 worth of time already programmed in. The phone was essentially free. You can purchase air time in chunks as small as 5 minutes. The cell phone companies know how to work with the incomes of very poor people)
It turns out our design, a 10 watt solar panel and a couple of 7 amp hour 12 volt batteries can provide enough power to keep a cell phone charged, run a couple of 2 watt lights and have a bit extra power to spare for longer times without sunlight.
A little power is a lot more than no power at all.
Now that we have the system designed for Guatemala, I realize it also can work as an emergency back up power system for our frequent black outs here in the midwest. A 10 watt solar panel, a controller and a 15 amp or so battery ( we can actually charge a much larger battery here because we don’t plan on using the system except in an emergency)
What this gives us is enough power to run a couple of 2 watt LED lights (we could go for 4), and a radio for a few days. Eventually we will drain the battery because our daily use is larger than the design for Guatemala but we can also design our system for a lot more storage capacity to start out. With the pattern of black outs here in Ann Arbor, we can expect once or twice a year to have a few days without power. The rest of the time our system is charging and then keeping the batteries topped off. I will have to run the numbers on this, but I expect we can keep somewhere around 500 – 1,000 amp hours topped off with our little 10 watt solar panel, which would give us enough power to run an energy efficient refrigerator on an inverter for a day or two while we wait for power to return.
A little electricity is a lot more than no electricity at all.
We purchased our solar panels at Amazon, they are cheaper than ordering direct from the manufacturer!
The Amazon link for the panels will be added as soon as Amazon sends us a new password for the account.
Till then, if you want to order a good emergency back up power system, consider the
10 Watt Solar Panel – CDT-10w 12V crystalline PV module, plus the Sunforce 60012 7 Amp Charge Controller.
We will cover how to make your own inexpensive LED lights in a future post.
Cheers,
Comments
4 Responses to “Solar Emergency Power”
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I see what you are saying and it seems to be a superb idea. If you wanted to go one step on, you could add a small wind turbine to the system and use a 12v fridge from a caravan. In the UK we have street signs that run on this system and I would think that you get more sun per hour than us.
Just an idea.
Cheers
Andy
I think it is very important to be prepared in most of everything that possible happen especially for the emergencies. Wherever we are, there will be always an emergency happen, and we dont know when will it happen. And being prepared and have the things or having emergency kit that we possible need whatever type of emergency will happen, is a clever thing that we do. And this is great substitute during electricity crisis or during blackout.
Hello,
I’m interested in your 10 Watt Solar Panel – CDT-10w 12V crystalline PV module, and the Sunforce 60012 7 Amp Charge Controller.
I’m member of a association that has an intention to install a solar panel in a small village in the south of Guatemala).
Would you be so kind to email me all I need about it and eventually how much does it cost?
I’m looking forwards to hearing you soon
Mr Tony S.
Hello! I’m interested in developing an area of my house to have this panels. Unfortunately, I’m cluless about solar panels and the energy that will give to power a home or a small business. If you would be so kind and reply with some infromation regarding solar panels, it would mean a lot.