thesolarpowerexpert.com

Properly sizing the wire for your solar panels will play large role in the efficiency of your overall system. This article will help you select the right wire gauge for your solar project.

Slashdot clued me into how residents of censored states are fighting back with the FabFi project. I’ve been thinking about how to build a solar powered wireless router for a while now, and this news article inspired me to figure out how one might solar power their own FabFi Node.

Having a battery for backup power storage is extremely useful as it can be used for other purposes and experiments when the power is not being generated. One of the batteries that will serve many purposes is the BP7-12 12V 7Ah battery.

While no truly universal battery charger exists – i.e. a battery charger capable of charging any battery, no matter it’s size, voltage, or form factor – there does exist several ‘universal’ battery chargers that charge common form factors of a certain chemistry. This article covers three such universal battery chargers that have well used and [...]

My wife thought a sump pump battery backup system was a comfort appliance. I agree with her, but thankfully we don’t live a flood plane. If we did, I’d call it necessary…. This article points out the subcomponents you will need to build your own sump pump battery backup system.

My original post on solar panel reviews received so much positive feedback, I’ve decided to expand my reviews in this solar panel reviews 2011 post to some of the products sold by my favorite online solar retailer, GoGreenSolar.

A reader of my solar pond pump kit page ask a detailed question in the comments as to how to modify her solar pond pump so that it would work better. I think there are a lot of people like her in the situation of being underwhelmed by the performance of their solar pond pump kit, so I thought I would elaborate on how to go about upgrading such a system. Here is a paraphrased summary of the information she gave:

There are three primary components to even the most basic of solar systems: the solar panel, the charge controller, and the battery. This article will take you step-by-step and show you how to construct a simple solar system – such as the type for use on a boat.

A lot of people shop on Amazon.com to find solar panels for the home, RV, or boat. It’s a logical place for consumers to look for solutions. On this page you will find solar panel reviews of several different solar panels in the 200 watt, 100 watt, and 50 watt categories which are sold on Amazon.com

Although not a solar product per se, LED grow lights are an excellent load for solar power systems. In cold climates (like where I live) we have shortened growing seasons and many highly desirable plants like lemons, oranges, limes, kiwi, starfruit do not grow well here. The plants can be coaxed, but need to be given as much support in their early life as possible. A solar powered LED grow lamp can provide this extra energy they need to ensure good root development early in life as well as supplimental light durring the fall, winter, and spring. I like to think of a solar powered LED grow light system as capturing non-usable sunlight, storing it, and reimitting it at my selected target.