Solar Experimentation 2011

Earlier this year I found a portable solar power company, Goal Zero, that designs and distributes very practical portable solar panels.  They use super efficient monocrystalline photovoltaic cells which are the best on the market today.  I bought one of their kits from Amazon, Guide 10 Plus Adventure Kit + 4 AA batteries, after doing a lot of research and tested it while on vacation in summer 2011.  The Nomad 7 solar panel works as advertised.  It charges AA/AAA batteries with the Guide 10 device, and directly charges my Android phone, iPod, Nintendo DS, Nook Color, and all portable small devices that can use the built-in USB interface.

So on 17 December 2011, while out X-mas shopping my sister called me and said CostCo has some GoalZero solar gadgets on display.  So I serendipitously saw Goal Zero display at my local CostCo store.  This was a special event for the X-Mas 2011 that had many more of the Goal Zero products.  I was able to physically touch and inspect many of their products. The quality of their solar panels and designs are excellent.  I was really surprised at how small and light the Boulder 15M panels are.  The Boulder 15M mono-crystalline solar panels are 17-18% efficient which is really impressive.  See the GoalZero Learn page for details.  I ended up buying an additional Nomad 7 solar panel, a Scout 150 Power Pack, two Boulder 15M panels, and a Luna light on 12/24/2011.

After making the impulsive purchase, I started testing the Scout 150 with the two Boulder 15M solar panels chained for total of 30W of solar panels.  Given the time of year, this equipment has been performing as expected.  I attained a 60% on a sunny day (6-hours of quality sunlight) in late December (12/28/2011) which has the poorest quality of sunlight of the solar year.  Based on my observations, a 100% charge of the Scout 150 Power Pack would require about 10-hours of quality sunlight in Dec/Jan.  I can see getting a 100% charge from the solar panels in May-July which has much better solar radiance at our geo-location.

As a side note, I have been able to keep my Chromebook and Acer netbook (AAO L110) off-grid for 3-days in a row and recharging (not to 100% though) them both from the Scout 150 Power Pack.  This has been quite a fun time for unplanned solar experimentation.

Interestingly, this inspired me to start planning and scaling up to a self-designed solar power storage system with much more capacity. I saw some Kirkland deep cycle batteries while at CostCo for really good prices.  Approximately $63 for 85aH and $83 for 115 aH marine deep cycle batteries.   According to my research on the Kirkland batteries are made by Interstate which is an excellent battery manufacturer.  My next experiment dubbed Winter2012, will be a fun learning experience with the science and engineering of solar power and power storage.