Lights on for our Solar-PC - The Live Test Begins
Table of contents
- 1. Kick-off: Our Solar-Powered-PC goes live
- 2. Immense Investment, Major Setbacks
Our project over the past months: to build a PC system that is independent of the wall socket. Today, we present to you the result and kick of the live, around-the-clock test of our solar-powered PC. The power it needs is generated exclusively by solar panels. To boost their efficiency, the panels rotate so that they always face the sun, receiving maximum exposure. This allows the system to generate 50 % more power than a stationary installation. You, our readers, can follow the system’s operation live and get information ranging from the energy output of our solar panels to the solar-powered PC’s current status, from the battery’s current charge to comprehensive statistical data of the past several days.
Our “DIY Solar-Powered PC” project has been met with great interest, generally. It demonstrates how a powerful PC system including a TFT display can be powered using only solar panels – supported by a battery. The battery is charged whenever the solar panels produce more power than the PC needs to operate. Their peak output is 260 watts, but the AMD-based PC and its display only needs 60 watts. However, the stored power is desperately needed during the night-time, when the solar panels don’t generate any power at all. So much for efficiency.
Truly, the conditions for this live test are less than ideal, since the sunshine duration is dramatically shorter in September than in the preceding months of July and August. It is therefore quite probable that our PC will shut itself down temporarily as a result of the short sunshine duration and consequential lack of energy. The situation may become especially difficult if we get several consecutive days of rain, preventing our 1200 Wh battery from recharging sufficiently to keep the PC up and running. Also, the system is configured to start up only of the battery has a minimum charge of 100 Wh. But that’s exactly what this live-test is about – to give our readers the opportunity to check on the system at any time, even when things aren’t ideal.
| You can find the live test of our Solar-PC here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Automated cameras offer a look at the surroundings, the weather in Munich, the solar-panel system on the roof of our Munich lab, and the hardware itself. Our live feeds produce 18 new images per minute, ten of which show the interior of the lab. Remember to press F5 to get a refreshed image.
