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Re: [LUG] Low Powered Computers

 

Thanks for more info - your project makes a lot more sense now.
Putting a site on the mains can easily exceed £1k. I know of a farm on
Dartmoor that was finally put on the mains at a cost of £60,000 in the
90's!  And that's with the farmer doing much of the work himself!

So yeah, using what you've got makes an awful lot more sense now.

Funnily enough I received a currentcost thing today that measures
mains usage, so I've been playing around. Eventually I will hook it to
my server and have even more pretty graphs.

A flatscreen 22" monitor here uses about 30watts at mains voltages. My
server and big desktop with two monitors (and light, and various bits
and bobs on standby around the house including a MVHR) uses around
450w. Interestingly, the Sony amplifier I use with my desktop for 5.1
sound uses 80watts even before I put sound through it!

So.. I would progress with your solar idea. (Rectifier as well as
panels so it charges well). You can add more batteries in parrallel as
you get them, but whether the charging is enough for the use depends
on how often it's used and for what load.

You may also consider wind generation. Small units are available on
ebay if your site is suitable. (You mention woods, so may be not?)
That can feed into the same bank of batteries.

Sadly nobody's really invented "rain power generation" yet. We'd be
world leaders.

And for inet, if you have 3g signal, anyone with a smart phone can act
as a wifi gateway, so you or one of your team probably has that
already - unless you wanted a permanent solution.

I'd be interested in following how you get on if you ever do a web page.

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