Solar or Generator? I have a cabin in the woods with no electricity…what are some options?

I am looking for options to power a light and vaccum and a cd player in a cabin in the woods. I wouldn’t mind a generator but I dont know how I can save that energy. What would be the best option? Any affordable solar options for me, that would store power?

generator would most likely be best if you are not there all the time. the solar power is an expensive start up, and basically runs on batteries. you can also consider wind power, and if there is a stream near by, hydro.
If you use the batteries to light the house at night, you can also use the generator to recharge those batteries, so you are not running the noisy generator at night.

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Get a coil of 10mm copper pipe from a plumbers’ merchant. Do not uncoil it and build a squat ‘cold-frame’ to enclose it. Paint the coil with black paint. Plumb one end to a small reservoir (and water supply) and the other to radiators(?) inside the greenhouse. The coil will heat up inside the frame and hot water will create convection flow in the coil. But a pump will improve the flow if you can get one driven by solar/wind power.

Hello Everyone,
I am interested in making a HHO generator that is powered by a solar panel that produces 12v but only 2 watts. Is this enough to produce a good amount of hydrogen and oxygen?
13gentj,

To run your car on hydrogen and oxygen you would need more energy than your car produces in the first place. This is because of the inefficiency of the engine and the inefficiency of producing these elements from water through electrolysis.

So you are right to think of adding energy. A solar cell is a clean way to do this. But you have to be realistic in your goals. This set up is not going to produce very much gas but it would be possible to figure out exactly how much and what this will do for you. At 12v your output of 2w means the system is producing about .167amps, not very much.

An additional problem would be to keep the solar panel oriented properly if you intend to use this set up in a moving vehicle. Most solar photovoltaic panels you can buy are only 8 to 20% efficient. When the sun is striking the panel at an angle this can drop off significantly.

what are the factors we take in consederation and wat formulas we can use.
for example: imagine i have a bulb of 150 watt , what are the steps taken to by the solar cell pannel and the rechargeabel battery needed for my system.

The energy produced by the solar cell is related to the intensity of the radiation from the Sun at that particular time. Its called irradiance. Say you wanted to power that bulb for a day, you would need to calculate the total irradiance (which is energy per square meter) using this formula:

Edaydensity = (Imax)(Tday)/(pi/2) where Eday density is the daily energy per square meter, Imax is the maximum irradiance of the Sun, at around the afternoon and Tday is the total time that sunlight is available. If you want to go the easy route just choose 250w/square mater as the average density.

The second is to determine how much power a single solar cell can derive from that 250w/square meter and you’d figure out by looking at the efficiency. A bulk silicon solar cell can provide around 22% efficiency. Based on that you can calculate the number of solar cells required to power a 160W bulb. The rechargeable battery is charged using surplus power that the solar cell isn’t using when its under operation. i.e. whatever’s left over is sent to the battery. You can determine the surplus power by calculating the amount of power produced by the total solar cell array (power from all the solar cells) minus the power consumed (160W). The entire solar cell system consists of the solar cell which connects to a DC converter to produce DC current. But for household appliances and electronics, this DC current is connected to an inverter to produce AC current. The solar cell is also connected to the battery which stores the excess power.

Forget the manufacturing price, because if electric-powered supplies were used in the early modern times, then it would set the standards of the supplies’ price,thus available to the public in an affordable price.

If only people didn’t make use of the fossil fuels, the world would be a much better place, since CO2 emissions would be less. But back to the question, is the fact that electricity can be used to power carbon-emitting machines of today?There’s also solar energy, so I’m really lost here.

Simple and true answer, the greedy get greedier. No money in providing us with free electricity, even if its best for the environment. Today technology can provide solar, wind and magnetic power systems that can operate on renewable energy, that would save us money, and is safe for our environment. But No money to be made in providing us free electricity. So the greed would rather pollute our environment because there big money for the greedy.

Some day more people will start converting there system to renewable energy and the more and more we start doing this, the more the idea will catch on. Some day there will be no utility company and that would mean more money for us to spend.

Great way to save power and preserve reasources. But it may be a bit unsitely and it may not be the most efficent use of your money (I would assume solar producing sources would be hard to come by money wise because they are not mass produced as frequently, and most poeple just assume not using them will work). If your going to go for all solar power, then get power saving appliances, that way you help the solar panels that help you.

I don’t know how hard it is to build solar panels or something that could actually be used to help as an alternatvie energy source for my home? Any ideas??

Let me start off by saying we (my family and I) live completely, 100% “off of the grid and are completely self sufficient”

The house is built utilizing natures natural elements, in the shape of an octagon with 8ft wide arch doors on every wall to catch every angle of wind (typical 4 sided homes have half the chance as one with 8 sides. A circle being the most efficient design). Woodburning stoves, solar chimney, solar AC, solar heating, solar water heating (pool and home), solar stove, solar power, wind power, hydrogen powered back up generator, hydrogen back up water heater, hydrogen stove, 2 hydrogen powered trucks, 1 EV (electric vehicle) and satellite internet.

There are no utility lines, no water lines, no roads, tv, cell service, etc. on our ranch. EVERYTHING needed is produced here. All electricity comes from 27 solar panels, 2 main wind gens and a back hydrogen generator if needed (typically we can last 9 days with all luxuries of sunless windless weather, hasn’t happened yet). Water is caught and storaged from the rain. Hot water is made with solar batch water heaters with an on-demand hydrogen hot water heater as backup. Even our vehicles use alternative energy (2 hydrogen trucks, 1 EV electric vehicle converted). Because of this we have no bills, no debt and no mortgage.

The fallowing steps were taking directly out of a DIY guide I offer to those who would like to run their homes on solar power safely, reducing their monthly utility bills or even selling power back the the electrical companies. The entire guide is available at www agua-luna com. Its pretty simple but if you have any problems feel free to contact me directly I can walk you threw the process.

Materials you will need
A sheet of copper flashing from the hardware store. This normally costs about $5.00 per square foot. We will need about half a square foot.
Two alligator clip leads.
A sensitive micro-ammeter that can read currents between 10 and 50 microamperes. Radio Shack sells small LCD multimeters that will do, but I used a small surplus meter with a needle.
An electric stove. My kitchen stove is gas, so I bought a small one-burner electric hotplate for about $25. The little 700 watt burners probably won’t work — mine is 1100 watts, so the burner gets red hot.
A large clear plastic bottle off of which you can cut the top. I used a 2 liter spring water bottle. A large mouth glass jar will also work.
Table salt. We will want a couple tablespoons of salt.
Tap water.
Sand paper or a wire brush on an electric drill.
Sheet metal shears for cutting the copper sheet.

The first step is to cut a piece of the copper sheeting that is about the size of the burner on the stove. Wash your hands so they don’t have any grease or oil on them. Then wash the copper sheet with soap or cleanser to get any oil or grease off of it. Use the sandpaper or wire brush to thoroughly clean the copper sheeting, so that any sulphide or other light corrosion is removed.
Next, place the cleaned and dried copper sheet on the burner and turn the burner to its highest setting.
As the copper starts to heat up, you will see beautiful oxidation patterns begin to form. Oranges, purples, and reds will cover the copper.
As the copper gets hotter, the colors are replaced with a black coating of cupric oxide. This is not the oxide we want, but it will flake off later, showing the reds, oranges, pinks, and purples of the cuprous oxide layer underneath.
The last bits of color disappear as the burner starts to glow red.
When the burner is glowing red-hot, the sheet of copper will be coated with a black cupric oxide coat. Let it cook for a half an hour, so the black coating will be thick. This is important, since a thick coating will flake off nicely, while a thin coat will stay stuck to the copper.
After the half hour of cooking, turn off the burner. Leave the hot copper on the burner to cool slowly. If you cool it too quickly, the black oxide will stay stuck to the copper.
As the copper cools, it shrinks. The black cupric oxide also shrinks. But they shrink at different rates, which makes the black cupric oxide flake off.
The little black flakes pop off the copper with enough force to make them fly a few inches. This means a little more cleaning effort around the stove, but it is fun to watch.
When the copper has cooled to room temperature (this takes about 20 minutes), most of the black oxide will be gone. A light scrubbing with your hands under running water will remove most of the small bits. Resist the temptation to remove all of the black spots by hard scrubbing or by flexing the soft copper. This might damage the delicate red cuprous oxide layer we need to make to solar cell work.
Cut another sheet of copper about the same size as the first one. Bend both pieces gently, so they will fit into the plastic bottle or jar without touching one another. The cuprous oxide coating that was facing up on the burner is usually the best side to face outwards in the jar, because it has the smoothest, cleanest surface.
Attach the two alligator clip leads, one to the new copper plate, and one to the cuprous oxide coated plate. Connect the lead from the clean copper plate to the positive terminal of the meter. Connect the lead from the cuprous oxide plate to the negative terminal of the meter.
Now mix a couple tablespoons of salt into some hot tap water. Stir the saltwater until all the salt is dissolved. Then carefully pour the saltwater into the jar, being careful not to get the clip leads wet. The saltwater should not completely cover the plates — you should leave about an inch of plate above the water, so you can move the solar cell around without getting the clip leads wet.
now place in the sun with the magnefied on top.
The solar cell is a battery, even in the dark, and will usually show a few microamps of current.
That’s it it’s that simple. If you’d a more detailed process and some pics (ouldn’t put them here) it’s available along with some other DIY alternative energy projects at www agua-luna com

Hope this helped, feel free to contact me personally if you have any questions if you’d like assistance in making your first self sufficient steps, I’m willing to walk you step by step threw the process. I’ve written several how-to DIY guides available at www agua-luna com on the subject. I also offer online and on-site workshops, seminars and internships to help others help the environment.

Dan Martin
Alterative Energy / Sustainable Consultant, Living 100% on Alternative & Author of How One Simple Yet Incredibly Powerful Resource Is Transforming The Lives of Regular People From All Over The World… Instantly Elevating Their Income & Lowering Their Debt, While Saving The Environment by Using FREE ENERGY… All With Just One Click of A Mouse…For more info Visit:

www AGUA-LUNA com
Stop Global Warming!!!

Just need to get your opinion if it’s worth the hassle setting a solar power generator at home? How do you compute how much money you can save? How do you determine if it’s viable? Your detailed and meaningful answers will be very much appreciated.
Thanks

Solar hot water almost always pays back in about 4 years, if displacing electric hot water, if you live in a warm climate.

For solar electric, whether you will really save money varies widely by area.

The usual computation is to take the cost of the solar electric system (including panels, mounts, inverter, labor, tax, and fees – but minus tax breaks and incentives) and assume that the cost will be spread over 25 years. So if your system ends up costing you $25,000 net, that would be $1000 per year. You would compare that with your electric bills for a year, and see if it’s cheaper.

I’ve left some things out, such as the cost of money over time, the possible rising price of electricity relative to inflation, and the maintenance cost of replacing the inverter once during the system’s lifetime, but the above is the general idea.

The best way to get an idea is to call several professional installers for free quotes. They will generally run the analysis, and inform you as to how much you could save. You can compare their answers with each other, and with common sense, and judge for yourself. Don’t rush into anything.

What else could i power?
What would the voltage be?

(not actually doing it, its 4 science homework)

You should learn about solar cell in a supplier’s catalog. I think digi-key or McMaster-Carr carry such devices.

Good luck with your search!

sites:http://www.doe.gov/energysources/index.htm

http://facts-about-solar-energy.com/solar-energy-history.html

books:http://www.amazon.com/Got-Sun-Solar-Renewable-Grid-Tied/dp/0965809870/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209616709&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.com/Goods-Living-Source-Book-Special-Anniversary/dp/0916571068/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209690790&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Know-About-Solar-System/dp/0064462307/ref=sr_1_44?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209690882&sr=1-44

i dont under a bit about bibliography organization and im too lazy thanks!

Use this: http://citationmachine.net/index.php?reqstyleid=1

It’s an internet site where you plug in your info and it creates a bibliography entry for you.