Topic: Working on a new project and website. (Read 5774 times)

seanbranagh · « **on:** November 24, 2015 »

I have been working on a project, building a website. It won't have a forum so I am not trying to compete

It is just because I have gathered a bit of media, images, video and information etc. over the years.
Mainly from the Mournes but also trips further afield and I want to share that detail and experience with anyone who might be interested.
The other aspect to the site that should hopefully make it a bit different is that it will be 100% solar powered. That is, the webserver that hosts the site will be powered entirely by a solar panel.
This is a project I have looked at several times over the past 10 years but I was always put off by the price of PV solar panels but now they are much cheaper than they used to be.
For any geeks among you (like me), I am using a Raspberry Pi (very low powered computer) as the webserver, a 75Ah leisure battery for storage and a 100 Watt panel with charge controller which should be enough to keep the battery topped up even this time of year.
I am still waiting on some parts arriving to put it all together and I am also still building the site but hopefully it will be ready to go live early in the new year.
I am sharing it here because the more people I tell about it the more motivated I will be to get my finger out and get it up and running, lol

Sneak preview;

phil_b · « **Reply #1 on:** November 24, 2015 »

Looks like an interesting project.
I have a set of 26 solar panels here for the house, it is surprising how much they can produce even at this time of the year. Good luck with it.

seanbranagh · « **Reply #2 on:** November 24, 2015 »

I don't currently own my own house but when I do I will definitely be investing in them large scale.
Do you have a battery bank and inverters?
I am always curious (the geek in me) about how exactly those systems tie into the existing mains power in the house. Very popular now.

phil_b · « **Reply #3 on:** November 24, 2015 »

Hi. I have the 26 panels and the inverter on a large stand behind the house and a cable running to where the meter is in the outside box. The normal import meter that we all have was changed to an import/export meter by NIE. No batteries, when we are producing more than we are using in the house, the surplus is exported to the network and at night we import what we need. I think on average we use 11 units per day and on a good sunny day we produce around 40 so almost 30 is exported and we get paid for that. It has cut our monthly bill by around £30 per month, we get paid once a year for what we export which is around £250 and we get a payment from the government for producing green energy of around £1000 per year for 20 years. The system cost about 9k to put in and is on track to pay for itself in 6-7 years.

seanbranagh · « **Reply #4 on:** November 24, 2015 »

That is really cool. Definitely worth it for anyone who has a suitable location for the panels on their house.
Is there an option to have a battery bank with these systems?
I imagine the batteries would be very expensive to store that much power but I like the idea of having the option to operate totally off grid indefinitely in the event of a power failure, through the night etc.
We never know when the zombie apocalypse might come..

phil_b · « **Reply #5 on:** November 24, 2015 »

I don't think there is any way to store the power that wouldn't be prohibitively expensive. As I said, on a good day we are producing around 40kw, that is a lot of car batteries. And if the incoming supply from NIE happens to go off, our panels automatically shut down so that our exported electric doesn't fry some guy up a pole somewhere trying to fix the fault!

seanbranagh · « **Reply #6 on:** November 24, 2015 »

Yes, that definitely wouldn't be feasible with current battery technology.
The panels are becoming more popular all the time. I wonder on a nice sunny day in June, what percentage of the power we are all using is being generated by installations like yours.

RedLeader · « **Reply #7 on:** November 25, 2015 »

Fantastic idea. Do you have any info on the solar panel / charge controller? Is it off the shelf or a DIY electronics job. Also, how do connect it to the internet, just at the house and deal with a changing IP address?

seanbranagh · « **Reply #8 on:** November 25, 2015 »

Yep, I have all the details.
Solar panel and charge controller are just off the shelf. Both are currently in the post.
(I am not a big fan of building electronics myself as I always burn myself with the soldering iron

)

Panel;
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00PX63K58?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00

Controller;
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00MGNO712?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

I have lots of other small bits and pieces like fuse holders, battery connectors etc. I think I need to pick up some 15amp battery cable yet if I don't have any about.

Regarding the IP addressing and connection, I have had a /27 public subnet with my ISP (aaisp.net) for years. That is 32 fixed public addresses on my connection for me to use as I wish.
The upstream speed of the connection is about 10Mbit which is fine for hosting text and images. All video will be embedded from Youtube.
I already host all my own stuff at home, email server etc. and a webserver for about the past 10 years so the solar part is the only thing new to me (and the entire new website).
Yesterday I took the old, very outdated website down and replaced it with a preview (more motivation to get it finished.)

Location of the actual panel, charge controller, battery, Raspberry Pi server will be in the shed. Not ideal but the shed roof is the only place I can really fit the panel.
The Raspberry Pi will be connected wirelessly to the existing access point only about 8 feet away in the house . This will be a totally separate wireless network just for the webserver, for security as there will obviously be inbound access from the internet. No other devices will be able to connect to or even see this network.

I plan to include full details, photos, videos etc. of the project on the actual site once it is complete.

RedLeader · « **Reply #9 on:** November 25, 2015 »

Brilliant, thanks for the info. Looking forward to seeing how this goes.

I don't know what for but I totally see me buying a solar panel some time soon

seanbranagh · « **Reply #10 on:** November 25, 2015 »

Haha, yes, there is definitely something very appealing about using solar power.
I had the idea in my head years ago but panels were way too expensive to do it as a project at that stage.
I do want to get it up and running quickly before the days start getting longer again because I know if it works well at this time of year then it will definitely work all year round.
Realistically I have probably went overkill on the size of the panel and the battery capacity just to run a Raspberry Pi but I will probably add some lighting also (LED) both inside the shed and outside for the garden.

seanbranagh · « **Reply #11 on:** November 28, 2015 »

Most of the main components have arrived and I have hooked them up for testing.
I was impressed to find that even on a very dull day with the panel indoors against the window the battery is charging (slowly).
The new version Raspberry Pi (in the clear plastic case) is also much faster as a webserver than the old one I had originally tested on;

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Author Topic: Working on a new project and website. (Read 5774 times)

seanbranagh

Working on a new project and website.

phil_b

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seanbranagh

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phil_b

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RedLeader

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