05:27 - Tuesday 18 September 2007 by THG Team
Source: Tom's Hardware UK – Keywords: solar, livetest
Categories: Hardware
Source: Tom's Hardware UK – Keywords: solar, livetest
Categories: Hardware
Table of content:
The Solar Panels
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An overview of all pages of our Solar-PC, upadted every minute: current, voltage, power, battery charge, live-cam images, ad weather data from the live system..
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| Please press F5 to refresh the live cameras and the data! |
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| Solar Panel Yield | ||
| Live 
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| Power Generated: | |
+60.61 W |
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| Voltage: | |
12.547V |
| Currrent: | |
4.831 A |
| Solar Panel Efficiency: | |
22.55 % |
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| Start Solar Power Generation: | |
08:04 |
| End Solar Power Generation: | |
--:-- |
| Total Time: | |
05:00 |
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| Today’s Peak: | |
169.67 W, At:
12:43 |
| Solar Power Generated Today: | |
413.016 Wh (Ø
31.543 W ) |
| Yesterday: | |
773.79 Wh |
| Total Solar Power Generated : | |
17557.41 Wh |
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| We begin logging how the amount of power generated when the yield exceeds 10 watts. We stop in the evening when the yield falls below 10 watts. During the day, we only count periods where more than 10 watts are generated. |
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| Currently Generated Power | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Live Camera: Our Voltech Power Analyzer shows us how much power is being generated. |
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| Live Camera: The solar panels on the roof of the THG lab in Munich. |
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| Live Camera: A close-up of the solar panel in operation. |
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| A block diagram of our solar plant. |
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| Live Camera: This circuit board controls the solar panels and switches the PC on and off. |
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| Live Camera: The USB circuit board is controlled by a microprocessor running at 6MHz. |
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| Info |
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| On this page you can find information about the amount of power currently being generated by the solar panels. The maximum yield of our solar plant is 260 watts. To counterbalance the effects of aging, the solar panels have a slightly higher yield when they leave the factory. As a result, our two panels can produce a good deal more energy than their specified nominal capacity when they get full sunlight. Their efficiency depends on the intensity and the incident angle of the sunlight. Power generation data is logged every day from 0:00 until 23:59 (24-hour time format) and then added to the statistics page. |
| We begin counting the time that power is produced as soon as the yield exceeds 10 watts. We stop counting when it drops below 10 watts. If the yield rises above 10 watts again at a later time, the ending time is automatically updated. The average power generated is logged every 7.5 seconds. If that average value is greater than 10 watts, 7.5 seconds are added to the time sheet for total power generated. We set the limit to 10 Watts, because the solar regulator also uses some power and the battery bleeds a little bit of power as well. Additionally, the PC’s power supply draws a standby current. |
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| If you’d like to go back and start reading about our solar-powered PC project from the beginning, have a look at the articles leading up to our live test: |
- Next page Solar Panels - Statistics
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At the moment, you just aren't getting enough solar power through the day to run the PC AND charge the battery to a level that will take you through till the sun is up again.
Would it have been a better idea to give the battery one full (mains) charge prior to running the live test? Especially since you mentioned yourselves about the lack of sun in September as opposed to July/August... you could have had a fighting chance of 24Hr operation.
It would still have been running on solar power, but you wouldn't have had the instant 1500KWh deficit to make up.
"Hours of Operation" appears to be showing the information from "Total Uptime Today" rather than the time of the day the system was up.
does look like the batt needs charging before use but charge controller is not ment to handle that much power (thay need the pc on so it does not make the charge controller cut out)
or it needs 1 more solar pannel or batt or both so the batts can charge up and hold an charge for longer or charge up faster
may not be an good idea as well running the batts flat but not sure on that one
but as the test is going on does look like it is staying on for an little longer per day
there is No forum link any one post one (or i will soon as i find it)
realy dislike this site now
why no link not even any chatter on fourms about this
i get 1 result from fourm search for Solar but says page can not be found
is it that if we are not on an USA host we cant see all of the fourms?
I haven't read the full article (only the first part) but surely you need excess solar capacity in overcast conditions to allow 24/7 operation and a full battery?? That's my criteria for off-grid operation!!
Bob Wya
maybe this setup should of been used for Norm use Not 24/7 use as i not use my computer for 24hr an day
shut it down at end of work hrs or home times and then turn it back on
For hard-core Bit-torrent users 24/7 operation is essential...
Also what about those late night gaming sessions you indulge in... Be honest now :-) Not much sun then is there? Hence the system would need more battery ommphh (i.e. Amp/h). (Well actually it would also need a graphics card as well :-)
If I wanted to edit documents on Solar I would just use a laptop... Sorry but either you can run a real Desktop (dual-core/quad-core CPU + Raptors/SCSI HD Striped + X1950+/7900+) or just use a laptop (which will surely save power) with the advantage it will run directly off the Solar-charged batteries.
Don't get me wrong I love the idea of Solar but it would be nice to see the full deal (a proper system and just how much outlay in terms of Solar panel area/hard cash & environmental impact of the panel manufacturer - whole life cycle estimate)...
Bob Wya
Guys, a huge part of the panel is in the shadow from some building for now(10:36)! And even more was earlier in morning. You're losing a lot of power just because wrong panel position.
www.ImageShack.us" />
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Like I have been saying this project is a bit micky mouse... Given that Solar Panels have been kicking around for a while now in an affordable Amorphous form (i.e. not just crystaline form used by NASA!!)...
People will read the article and think thats fine but... 'I use my system 24/7' or 'I want to use my system at night' or 'I have 2x 8800 Ultras SLI and never mind my quad core 3.7Ghz CPU - using slightly more than 300Watts!!'
OK a more interesting article might take a real system. Then hook up a few batteries and panels and cost up how much it would **really** cost to go off-grid. Proper storage of electricity can make or break such a system... Is there an alternative to Lead-Acid batteries on the horizon? Fuel-cell or Li-Ion technology for example (thinking of both cost and capacity)...
The problem with the article it is very much for the 'Solar Geek' and doesn't demonstrate a viable alternative to a Nuclear/Fossil- fueled national grid.
The shadowing of the panels is probably not such a big deal. Sure you will lose lots of power but hell in the real world stuff like that is going to happen - be it shadowing from trees, other buildings, etc.
Bob Wya
So, did Autumn pull the plug in the end?
I think it's a nice idea though not a practical alternative for most people at this point in time (and maybe never, actually (and unfortunately)).