Today I managed to leave my book at home so my lunch hour was filled with aimless shopping. Went to the Tractor Supply store near the wendys I inhabit and dropped $250 on solar equipment.
I walked out of there with a 15 Watt, 12 volt solar panel and a deep cycle 120 A/H marine battery. Figure we can at LEAST light up the camp for 12 hours every evening. I'm going to go garage sale shopping for a pair of shitty, but loud, speakers and I'm currently working on making my old 40gb Ipod run off of external battery for the 'head unit.'
Another possibility is to get an inverter (I believe bicho and jys are talking about purchasing one for the cars) which we could pwn off of the battery easy enough to run little things like a 'rita blender, air compressor or massive vibrating dick-machine.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Solar P-P-P-Power!
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2 comments:
whoohoo! I spent a good part of the afternoon reading about solar power. Everyone should put big items they are wishing for/project ideas in a post so we can balance out the money factor as well. I personally really want to figure out how to make a swamp AC. Basically my biggest issues last year were sleeping (I couldnt sleep during the day so I missed out on a lot at night) and eating took too much time. I'm going to work on a camp kitchen (as previously mentioned) to organize food production... and make at least a basic swamp AC using a batt. powered fan and some cheesecloth.
Also, I vaguely remember reading SOMEWHERE (newsletter?) that small camp fires are now OK. But I cant find that info anywhere online. I'd like to bring our little firebowl and some wood (we've got plenty of wood!) but need to make sure its cool first. If anybody runs across that info that'd be great.
Seriously look into the alternative energy zone's tips on 'cool zone.' The tips said that double layers of a shade producing, light and breathable material then plus a reflective insulated one coupled together with a simple fan could lower tent temperatures to damn near coma-inducing quality.
Remember how I slept in the hearse? It stayed VERY cool for MUCH longer than everyone else's tents because it had so much insulation. Insulation plus some shade or reflectivity is certainly the way to go. Solar fans go for $30 and are a hell of alot easier than an air conditioner.
I'm going to make something small out of that reflectix material. Something small enough for 1 person, an air mattress, and a solar fan and can be set up in minutes.
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