Wednesday, May 6, 2015

More Power !!

Many of the solar solutions offered these days are frankly not very powerful. from the radios and flashlights with built in solar chargers, to AA solar battery chargers to those little 1.8W Battery "Maintainers", They all really don't amount to much. After toying with many of these, and even after using 40 watt panels, I admitted to myself that bigger is better, and more wattage is required if you want to even think about coining the phrase, solar "Generator". Well, as usual, a recent Canadian Tire sale was the catalyst yet again...
Now I realize that in spite of the hoopla, there are still cheaper options. However, the convenience of not having to wrestle with shipping etc made this a good choice. It did not come bundled with a charge controller. I have a couple, but I decided to try a cheap Ebay one to see how it performs...
...seems to be working ok. I'm going to try and secure it to the top of the van's luggage rack. It "almost" fits, so I have some work to do...
Attached to the tie-downs, it hinges pretty good for orientation purposes. I might raise it up on a box of sorts so that I can store stuff underneath, but we'll see...
all in all, a huge increase from my previous 21 watt (3x7) setup, which of course fits nicely in the luggage rack...

IVECO...

 This beauty has been roaming around Central Newfoundland lately. I just grabbed some photos of it for fun...

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