Power Woes

[haxx]

Anyone that uses a pc 24/7 and pays the electric bill may appreciate this.

My PC runs 24/7 (normaly) so thats a load o $$. I am a camper. A serious trail blazer. I dont use sites or trails. so power is a nice thing to be able to replenish on the trail.

Solar
Yes thats it... Solar

I think it would be a pay off to set up a solar panel on one side of my patio door running to a Very large battery. The battery hooked up to a circuit box similar to a ups wich will switch from battery to wall power for when your battery dies.

Does anyone have electrical knowledge that would help design this mod... or whatever you would call this.?

[simon275]

To power a PC over the night we are talking a large solar setup and a lot of batteries. Even an industry standard UPS only lasts a few hours powering a single machine so this is gonna be a serious undertaking.

[Redundant]

No offense, but buying a huge solar array and the batteries that go with it is going to cost so much more than the powerbill that it'll be years before it becomes costworthy...

There are other things you can do to save money (If you own the house):

-Put insulation around the water heater (but not if it's gas! :o)
-Be sure the doors have good seals so hot/cold air can't get in.
-Insulation in your attic if it's not a finished one.
-Use compact fluorescent lightbulbs whenever possible
-Turn off A/C when not at home
-Turn off water heater while camping ('vacation' setting)
-Turn off lights when ever possible
-Buy a high efficiency washer, dryer, refrigerator and dishwasher. (Believe me, they use most of the power)

Doing this will save you so much more money than buying a solar array and batteries.

Some things to do to your PC to save money would be to have the screen to turn off after 5 minutes and possibly have the hard drives turn off after a half hour if you don't mind waiting a few seconds for the to turn back on. Oh, and getting a HIGH efficiency PSU is the best way to save (power) money on a PC (besides going to Core 2 Duo lol)

Hope this helps, Redundant.

EDIT: You know, if zoning laws allow, you can buy a small wind turbine and those are more cost efficient than current solar panels.

[sirkillalot617]

why have a lot of solar panels surly you could find away to put wind turbine some ware

[haxx]

kool I was hoping for a good round of responses on this.

Ok very valid points. Also things i have already raised as problems on my list.

Simon275> absolutely corect, since writing this i read some power consumption stuff on panels and what not. Ya it would cost a lot to set up.
=Problem-A

I figured ok so if we have a problem run with it.
Some posible solutions i thought of...
-Dont burn the batts during sleep hours.
-Use a very low power consumption PC to further reduce the drain on the batts. (laptops run forever on a 6 cell batt sometimes
-and peltier cooling instead of forced air or liquid.


Redundant & Sirkillalot>very good point about the turbine.. except that a turbine is no good if you dont have alot of wind all the time.

I Have NO CLUE if smaller turbines would do this aswell but the large sort tend to draw bats in and slaughter them at a high rate... I dont want to be cleaning up bat corpses every night.

[Silenced_Coyote]

Wouldn't peltier cooling raise the power consumption more than air cooling?

[progbuddy]

This word sums up your energy costs:

Propane.

It works, and it saves lots of money in the long run. Electric stoves use 50 amps (O.o) and they are one of the leading energy bill costs (next to A/C and water heater). It would be worth it to save up for an LP stove and water heater. Other tips are:

Turning your A/C to an appropriate setting when you leave (usually off, lol, unless you live in Libya or Las Vegas), insulating your house better (styrofoam works wonders, better than that fiberglass crap), and turning your water heater off when not in use. My grandpa tried all three, and he only paid about $100 a month for electricity, even when using his PC. It would be kinda neat, but in the long run it will save you about $2.00 a month.

[Redundant]

This word sums up your energy costs:

Propane.

It works, and it saves lots of money in the long run. Electric stoves use 50 amps (O.o) and they are one of the leading energy bill costs (next to A/C and water heater). It would be worth it to save up for an LP stove and water heater.

Considering he leaves his house for long periods of time when camping, isn't propane a bit dangerous?

[Zephik]

Considering he leaves his house for long periods of time when camping, isn't propane a bit dangerous?

Not if installed by a professional. We leave to stay at our lake home for weeks on ends sometimes and we have two massive propane tanks that, for the most part, run our house. One is our primary that we use for everything while the second is for our backup generator. It costs a lot to fill the one up (we haven't used the second one yet), but we've only filled it up once in the almost two years that we have lived here. It cuts back on energy bills a lot for sure. Having our own well for water also cuts back on bills too. But of course, wells can be very costly to make and sometimes they dry up. Not a happy situation to be in when that happens.

As soon as we sell this house, we are going to remodel our lake home and live there. It will have propane, a well, and a massive generator. No more power outages or outrageous bills for us! Even though propane and oil is expensive, in the long run, its cheaper and allows you to boast about the benefits to your neighbors and friends. ^_^

[progbuddy]

LP is cheap as hell here :p. LP makes for a good coolant too ( just dont set it on fire! :p). It has cut back on our heating costs a lot (we have a 100 gallon LP tank [as tall as me, as fat as Roseanne lol]). We only refill it about once every 2 years.