Mains Grid = 10% within 230 Volts AC
battery store: typically 12 volts DC
Adapter = reduces electricty to fit the applience (they get hot/wasteful)
Inverters - increases battery output to required levels
Inputs:
solar power grid
i.e 3 X 6 mono-crystalline solar cells At 0.5 Volts each. 36 in series would give
about 18 volts which would be good for charging 12 volt batteries, wider the cell
the more ampage (so wire multiple strips in parallel to increase it), attach
to a board/cover in glass/plexiglass and you have your own panel - adjust
series/parallel to suit your voltage/ampage needs
*attach a blocking diode in series stop battery discharge ie. a Schottky
diode (for efficency) inside pannel (heat works better)
*don't mix and match cell sizes (goes by smallest)
* seal pannel with silicone caulk or something similer
wind power
one permanent magnet DC motors, salvage one or build your own.
wind speed and how fast the motor turns is important - high DC voltage, low rpms
and high current seems more preferable going by some sources.
battery motor example
enameled wire types
stepper motors AC: higher the step, the lower the rpm if choosing
between volts/current
Bridge Rectifier (made of diodes) turns ac into dc for charging,
you need higher votlage then the battery to charge it. diagram here
voltage doubler circuit - double the voltage/half the current and
suddenly every motor thrown away becomes valuble again...
Battery definitions:
capacity measured in Amp hours (ah) which is the total ampagage over a given
dicharge period :
ah / dc period = x Amps DC per an hour, quick discharges waste power
cycle life: number of times battery can be discharged.
connecting batteries in series to increases voltage:
what is a battery:
A lemon is a battery. Stick a copper coin in one end
(the positive), and a zinc nail (the negative) in the other. the lemon acts as an
electrolite.
one lemon =
0.906 volts where volts is the force/power flowing from
the negative to the positive.
connect the positive to the negative of 4 lemons and your getting 3.5 volts of power
enough to light an LED or try a stronger acid (suphuric perhaps) or change the metals
in the electrodes, but not the same metal...
make a battery cell: coper coin or silver / paper soaked in chemicle
(ie. salt water ala voltic) then zinc- stacked in series on top of one another to
make your cell...
*maximise surface area for increase current
rechargable battery : apply an electrical current to a cell
where the reacion is reversable (electron flow is reversed). i.e car
batteries: lead and lead dioxide with sulpur electrolite
charge controler:
measures battery voltage - turn on/turn off battery charging based on current voltage. avoid damaging battery when fully charged/stopping it go flat. exccess
power is then
wasted or has to be fed somewhere elsewhere, another battery?
Battery Banks:
Wiring batteries up in parallel, does not draw a consistent charge, first
battery goes dead quicker/charges more then the rest because of resistence in wiring.
positive from first battery, negative from last in the chain makes it more even,
switch them around manually, or try a differnt wiring scheme i.e cross diagnal...
Electronic Basics:
diodes - only allow electricity to flow in a single direction
. i.e. ude to change ac to dc and/or to stop solar powers drawing power when not
in charing devices. cause minor resistence ( aloss of voltage i.e 0.7v check brand/type for more
on wastage)
resistors - limit current flow, and protect your componets from
damage
reed switches - turn on when subjected to a magnetic fied
capacitors - store charge. pass through voltage increases
as it charges to maxmium, and when current stops it discharge back down to 0 expenentially.
(fast then slow) Its stats depends on the size/material of conductors and the size
and space of the dieletic between. (two bits of foil either side of a page in a
book are a capacitor)
make a semiconductor: dope silican with an impurity to form holes i.e. galium, boron (p-type) and/or add an electron i.e. arsnic, phosphorous (n-type)
to make it conduct...
LED - light emiting diode
Stick a p-type material (3 electrons) and n-type material (5 electrons) together and you get photons
given off as light - alegedly - when a current is passed through it at the cross section.
Transistors - make a sandwitch of p type, n type and p type material.
(p n p(, call the middle one the base. and the other ones the
collector and the emitter. apply a charge to the base and collector.
and after a short delay as it charges (like capcitors) the emiter will emit
an amplifed charge. n p n transistors is a sandwitch of the
materials the other way. compare to leds AS I GO DO YOU WANT TO RECONSIDER
YOUR PHYSICS MODELS NOW? AS I GO WHAT CONDUCTS BETTER THEN AIR ..
Transformer - convert one ac voltage to another. via two
sets of windings around an iron core - the difference in number of turns effects
the output as passing current in one, creates an electromagnetic field which generates
current in the other. use to increase/decrease voltage as required based on number
of of turns. (i.e. 12 to 230...)
electromagnetic - wrap a wire 100 times around a nail, pass
a current through the wire. your nail is now a mangnatised isn't it cool
build a motor
electro magnet - between two permenant magnets - flip the current
and watch it spin
build a turbine (motor in reverse) - spin an axle with wires on
between 2 megnets and youg get a current to charge with (and they make it sound
complicated....)
Relay Switch acts as a switch between 2 circuits. create
an electrmagnetic field, pull a metal leaver down bridge the other circuit. magnet
turns off. leaver drops back (i.e. gravity/spring) turns it back off.
how about ಥlay - invertor/battery bank goes dead, switch to mains instead...
grid tie invertor feed unwanted energy into the grid and
get paid for it. terms and conditions may apply - assuming you tell anyone, and
is it really cheaper off the shelf...
Chemistry
make hho gas - 12 volt current in water with an electrolite (i.e.
salt)
releases hydorgen/oygen gas at the . seperating at the plates. this
gas when ignited/burnt releasing 20+% more energy then the power required to seperate
it...( with clean exhaust fumes) and incidently is created when you overcharge a
battery because it is full...
Pulse charges are designed to apply a high voltage to break things down (like crystal
deposits - see resoring dead batteties) and to avoid things getting too hot with chemical reactions (though you can always moniter voltage/temp/trickle
charge levels and cut the power accordingly, if you feed into your car...) why
not cook with it?
remember boiling water can be used to make steam - steam moves
turbines which produces electricity, as we go back to motors again...
Alternative Ideas:
solar water heaters
homemade air conditioners
rainwater top up for loos
Build a well - 2" galavanised pipe straight down until you hit
the auqa/water table and a pump and avoid being ripped off, by water meters
which don't calculate the flow rate aquarately |
|
Aspire 9300 lap top computer:
|
19 |
4.75 |
90.25 |
|
(old) tiny lap top
|
19 |
7.9 |
150.01 |
|
la spa hot tub - 2 seperate pumps, and a heater |
230 |
32 |
max 7360???
|
|
32inch lcd lexsor television |
22-24 |
9?
|
200 |
|
play station -2
|
8.5
|
5.3
|
45.05
|
2??? |
|
wireless router |
12 |
1 |
12 |
| microwave |
| |
1000 |
| Fridge | 102 |
2 |
240 |
|
living room light fitting (3 x 20 watt bulbs)
|
|
|
60 |
|
sony ericson mobile charge
|
4.9 |
0.7 (700mA) |
3.3 |
| Dyson DC07 vacume cleaner | | | 1050 |
| kenwood bread maker | | | 480 |
| tesco jug kettle | | |
max 2200 |
panasonic sa-ak320 mino hifi
(5 cd changer) | | | 242 |
Remember that the total continuous power consumption of the connected devices must be less then what your invertor can handle, most invertors have two values to cope with power surges (when tv's get turned on etc)
battery voltage drops when it goes flat. so invertors will often turn off at 10volts to stop burning your batteries out /sound alarms etc
*stereos rated at top volume, less volume less draw, and depending what circuits/compents
on will determine its curent requirements |
Watt = 1 joule of energy per second
kilowatt (kw) = 1000 watts
killowatt hour (kwh) on power bills = your average
consumption per second over that hour! and now seems be a mesure for the power
needed to power a killowat device (per second) over that hour.
so 1 kwh = 3600 kilojoules used or 3,600,000 watts used and
one assumes when they list it as daily use your supposed to divide it
by 24 to get your actualy average use per hour....
so daily use of 5.4kwh (my last fuel bill) would mean a continious draw of
225 watts (a second) if averaged over the course of
the day and no the hot tub hasn't been on for years ...
it can't rain all the time (and likewise we can't get sun/wind for that *swoon*
all the either, but if we did, it would be a peace of piss, unless we introduce
batteries of course....)
Remember you have to be aware of short term spikes, and how quickly your stuff is
charging and when, and how long you storage is if you go down that route... and
going by my last bill grid energy is î±·17 a kwh
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|
Charge, Q = C × V |
where: |
Q = charge in coulombs (C)
C = capacitance in farads (F)
V = voltage in volts (V) |
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