Solar powered Equipment?

I'm allowed to make a bunny habitat in the old pig field and as my mom has told me no more tanks, I'm going to include a bit of an aquaponics system where I'll be using plants in one 'tank' as filtration (with mesh wrapped around so the rabbit doesn't over eat them) and the filtered water will go to the 'pond'. Because there's such a small selection of cold water fish, I'm planning on using sub tropical.

Has anybody used a solar powered heater?

I would be concerned with temperature fluctuation during nights, unless you can use some battery?

That's why I was thinking too. I know some solar paneled things like lights build up charge during the day. Maybe I could solar paneled lights and put them around the heaters panel

Hi , i tried a bit of experiment a while back with solar panels , i brought a 4ft by 2 ft panel in from the states and put a 12volt reg on it to charge a 12volt car battery however could never get any real amount of power output even on a bright sunny day . I did get it to run a few led lights in the garden , but found that during the winter output was very poor . Now this was at least 10 years ago and there has been massive advances in this techknowledgey so it might be worth a try . You have me thinking i might research this again

robert wrote: Hi , i tried a bit of experiment a while back with solar panels , i brought a 4ft by 2 ft panel in from the states and put a 12volt reg on it to charge a 12volt car battery however could never get any real amount of power output even on a bright sunny day . I did get it to run a few led lights in the garden , but found that during the winter output was very poor . Now this was at least 10 years ago and there has been massive advances in this techknowledgey so it might be worth a try . You have me thinking i might research this again

I definitely think it's worth researching for everybody with ponds........ power cuts wreak havoc on fish keepers and I'm surprised that there isn't more info on it.

My dad is currently looking into a wind turbine to power his pong, better in my opinion in ireland as we always have wind, not much chance of sun I will find out how things are shaping up with it and see if its worth doing.

I think a wind turbine might be a bit for a sneaky, low cost project.
But let us know how it goes anyway.

my brother in the uk built a wind turbine using a car alternator to charge batteries ,cant remember what he used it for, long time ago . What about the ones you see on live aboard house boats and mobile homes ,might be worth looking at

robert wrote: my brother in the uk built a wind turbine using a car alternator to charge batteries ,cant remember what he used it for, long time ago . What about the ones you see on live aboard house boats and mobile homes ,might be worth looking at

I'll look into it

www.popularmechanics.com/science/environ...iature-wind-turbine/

Thats got me thinking

A Savonius windmill (these are a vertical axis windmill) would be the best option for a DIY..........although not particularly efficient, they are quite cheap to build and are very reliable and do not need to be mounted high.

You could also think of installing a heat-exchange engine that extracts heat from your lawn (say) or a nearby stream.

Or whatabout a black matrix water heater with suitable control electronics and as a buffer tank..................if the pond is big enough then the specific capacity of water could be sufficient to keep the temperature up quite well.

The reason I suggest these is from my past experience of working on the design of such things, and their controllers, in view of them being feasible to build DIY.
A solar photovoltic panel is not something you can make at home, but the others above are.

ian

igmillichip wrote: A Savonius windmill (these are a vertical axis windmill) would be the best option for a DIY..........although not particularly efficient, they are quite cheap to build and are very reliable and do not need to be mounted high.

You could also think of installing a heat-exchange engine that extracts heat from your lawn (say) or a nearby stream.

Or whatabout a black matrix water heater with suitable control electronics and as a buffer tank..................if the pond is big enough then the specific capacity of water could be sufficient to keep the temperature up quite well.

Couldn't find information. what's a black matrix water heater? I have no electricity there
The reason I suggest these is from my past experience of working on the design of such things, and their controllers, in view of them being feasible to build DIY.
A solar photovoltic panel is not something you can make at home, but the others above are.

ian

interesting idea here

www.instructables.com/id/72-hour-Emergen...h-Tank-Heater-for-1/

Using the sun to heat water as the water runs through a pipe matrix over a black panel..........solar panel.

Now, a solar panel does need an electricity supply to pump water....................but that is where a small electrical generator (such a Savonius wind turbine) can come into use to power the water pump and control system.

Obviously, non of this comes out of a box from shopping in Lidl (well..........knowing Lidl and Aldi, one never knows )..................... but it is just food for thought.

Photovoltaic cells (solar cells) that can generate enough energy to power a heater are going to be pretty expensive. I don't however know the present cost of these things............and you really cannot make them at home.

ian

Well from what I can tell so far even a wind turbine to produce enough power to power my 5ft would cost on the region of 1000 dollars in the states. And you would need 6m per sec of wind to power it constantly which happens about 70 per cent of the time here in the West.

Haven't even looked at battery storage yet for holding charge for what is not being used all the time.