Your Questions About Solar Generators Reviews
Jenny asks…
Are there problems adding other charging units like wind power to a Harbor Freight Solar Panel ChargeControler?
I would like to buy a small wind generator and just add the negative and positive wires to the negative and positive wires in my Harbor Freight Solar Panel kit. The Harbor Freight Solar Panel kit’s charge control will still protect the battery from over charging right? Even though the charge controller would be buffering more wattage then what the manufaturer probably intended it to buffer? If so, could there be long term implications on the charge controller or battery?
admin answers:
Hey Me, what are you using for battery storage? If I understand the harbor freight kit properly, it does not have a battery included, or it is a very small sealed AGM type battery. If that is the case, don’t bother adding another source of charging power, you’ll just fill that battery up faster and still have no place to put your excess energy. If you have a good sized deep cycle battery or two hooked up, my suggestion is simply get a wind turbine that has it’s own charge controller, most of them do. Then wire it straight to the battery bypassing the harbor freight unit. A good example would be Southwest Windpowers Air 403, puts out up to 300 watts, although in ideal conditions on a tall tower, but has its own internal regulator, like a car alternator. So the two wires coming down the tower go straight to the battery, and the turbine is already prevented from overcharging anything.
In most wind/solar power systems, the charge controller is the achilles heel. It is the one thing that breaks down first and causes the most problems. We’ve been living in a wind and solar powered home for years now, I can speak from experience on this. We’ve not purchased the HF kit because the panels are not built as robustly as they need to be to be mounted on the roof of a home in all weather conditions, and the wiring harnesses are not designed for permanent installation, to be sunlight resistant, etc. Also the electronics are not UL listed to my knowledge, so they would not be legal for in home installation either. They are terrific little units to make small amounts of power in a portable application, like camping, or a remote shed for example. Adding another source of power to be fed through the existing controls of that kit would be like welding a bed on the back of a Ford Pinto in order to use it as a pickup truck. My suggestion is to have a good sized battery pack, like a pair of Trojan T-105 golf cart batteries (220 amp hours) then get a small turbine with its own regulator, and wire it straight to the batteries. The batteries will happily take a charge from either source, or both simultaneously, that’s how our home works. If you really want to do some shopping for this stuff, get a subscription to Home Power Magazine, they regularly run articles on all the available panels, turbines, controllers and othe components to home power systems. If you subscribe, you can use their website to review archived articles in past issues that have all the write ups you’re looking for. Good luck Me, and take care, Rudydoo
Sandra asks…
What are some of the best rechargeable flashlights (solar/winding/shaking/plug-in/etc)?
I think I would like a solar or electrical outlet plug-in rechargeable flashlight for home use, especially for power outages, and a winding/shaking one to keep in the glove box of my vehicle.
What are some of the best performers out there? The only one I’ve found with consistently good reviews is the SolarLite (Costco, Amazon).
admin answers:
Hey jdude
for rechargable go to
http://www.maglite.com/
have been using this brand for years at work.
I have tried a couple wind up lights in my vehicle and they dont last. I think the temp and humidity swings have an effect on generator and/or battery. I now have an LED 2 cell for the car now. It holds up fine.
I’ve had good luck with this wind up from radio shack. Keep it in the house near crawl space for emergency reasons. Tornado/asteroid strike or nuke fall out. (gosh i hope none of this ever happens)
Dynamo Emergency Crank Radio with AM/FM/NOAA Bands
price 40 bucks
hope this helps
Powered by Yahoo! Answers
