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Show HN: A platform for sharing DIY solar projects
- nikodunk 9y agoHi gang! The "discussion: comments" numbers on the site are the combined total from the original article discussion on Hackernews https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14821478 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14821478 plus Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/geek/comments/6ov9oc/200_solar_selfsufficiency_without_your_landlord/ https://www.reddit.com/r/geek/comments/6ov9oc/200_solar_self... – at that point I unfortunately didn't have comments on the site yet (...or the site itself, for that matter). Yes, they're currently just hardcoded :P The comments on the burningman thread are from this HN thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15216650 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15216650
- otp124 9y agoOh, I remember your original post! I’m glad you made this, as I’ve been slowly bookmarking DIY solar posts, but good ones with detailed information (and pics!) are hard to come by.
- nikodunk 9y agoNice! Care to share some good ones here, or even submit them to the site? I've also noticed a lot of people are building incredible stuff, and think it's time we organize :)
- jwiley 9y agoI liked your original post as well, and appreciate the DIY site, nice work. I didn't read your new write up extensively, but if you haven't I strongly suggest mentioning some feedback I remember from from your earlier posts: - the need for appropriate fuses to avoid fires - the need to weight the solar panel appropriately to prevent it from flying off due to wind A fire or injury due to a flying solar panel would unfortunately provide much more negative publicity than the positive publicity of this site. References: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15222194 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15222194 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14824702 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14824702
- ndunkel 9y agoThe solar panel is ziptied to the roof now! Thanks for the feedback everyone on that from last time. The fuse situation isn't handled yet, though I will do this soon. Thanks!
- Scoundreller 9y agoJust wanted to say: very cool. Since I see that you were powering a space heater: Conductive heating/cooling is the future. Why heat an entire space when you can buy an electric mattress pad and just heat your bed? Soon enough we'll have cheap and convenient wearable heat-pumps with individually controlled dials rather than senselessly heating/cooling entire spaces.
- abraae 9y agoIt's an interesting idea, but if your house has decent insulation to minimise heat loss (e.g passivhaus https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house) then it's perhaps more practical just to hear the entire space. Oh, it helps too if your house is not a mcmansion with vast internal spaces.
- KGIII 9y agoI have a large house and it uses both active and passive solar. Even the trees are situated to give ideal results. If you're curious, it is an envelope house and oriented to make maximum benefit with the Sun. The second floor overhangs the bottom floor which blocks the peak solar energy from hitting the windows. It produces more energy than it uses, and also uses a couple of turbines. There is a room in the basement that is dedicated to controlling it all and is where the battery banks are all stored. Caveats: I didn't do much of the design myself, except the initial drawings and consultation. I didn't install any of this myself. I'll poke at lots of things, large voltages are not one of those things. It isn't a matter of being ecologically sound, it is practicality. I lose grid power both frequently and with long durations. I like my modern conveniences. Solar and wind were my options, though I have a whole house generator if/when they aren't adequate. It isn't ever going to be financially a cheaper option. Never. I'm never going to break even, it will never cost me less than mains power. This is also because I will continue to be on the upgrade cycle, my installer happily lets me trade my old stuff in. It is, however, much less expensive than homes with similar sizes. The house is on zones and heated according to use. I have no AC as it isn't required. The passive solar and the external temperatures means it never gets very hot here. I'd be happy to answer questions, but I really don't know much about it. I had it all done for me and barely understand it. There is an in-place monitoring service that tells me what is going on, but I keep that firewalled from the 'net. It lets me see what is doing what, how much energy is stored/produced, what gets pushed out to the grid, etc... As I said, it's not meant to be green nor will it ever be cost effective. I've only produced more energy than consumed for the past few years. I often have no mains power for a week at a time. Using a generator for that long wasn't really conducive to my lifestyle. The installation wasn't cheap. I live near Mt. Washington, on the side of a mountain, and wind is a serious issue and I get 3 to 4 meters of snow every year. The best I can offer is pictures. I haven't invested much energy into learning the details and I have absolutely no intentions to try working in it myself.
- Scoundreller 9y agoNext I want to see kits for turning my car into a micro-hybrid: A lithium battery pack I plug into the cigarette lighter which will negate the alternator for most trips. We could make every ICE car several % more efficient overnight.
- pstuart 9y agoInteresting idea, but would it really work if the alternator is still physically engaged?
- tyingq 9y agoA electrically actuated clutch pulley would solve that. But, many newer cars already have, and need, a mechanical clutch pulley that disengages the alternator on deceleration.
- Scoundreller 9y agoI assumed it would stop generating electricity (and therefore resistance) when the batteries are topped-up. I didn't even realize they're mechanically disconnected as needed.
- tyingq 9y agoSome are, but only on deceleration, to reduce wear on the alternator. It's a mechanical clutch only. AC compressors, on the other hand, do have electrically actuated clutch pulleys. So, if you have a car where the alternator has no clutch, you may be able to retrofit an electrically actuated one. You would have to design the part that decides when it's needed as well.
- drieddust 9y agoAwesome idea!! It might be OH but is there a software which can let me simulate and experiment with various configuration to maximize solar energy capture. I have some tiny pieces of land which I want to use for harvesting renewable energy. What I don't want to do is to buy equipment and then write it off as sunk cost. Software simulation seems to be the cheapest option but I don't really know what is out there I can build upon.
- mbloom1915 9y ago=D awesome! if anyone is looking to test further with a utility please reach out (mbloom1915@gmail.com)
- shafyy 9y agoKind of like HN for DIY solar. Nice!
- foxhop 9y agoI submitted my silly setup which is just a 20watt sunjack and battery. Sort of related: I just signed paperwork to install a $35k solar system on my roof on Friday (20k after insentives). I'm so excited, I've wanted solar since I was a 9 year old boy!
- toephu2 9y agoWow 35k, what city do you live in?
- nikodunk 9y agoawesome. it's going up now!!
- nikodunk 9y agoboom. you're up! added some specs to your submission, too. nice kit!
- foxhop 9y agoHey Niko, since your just starting out with this Solar Project site, I was wondering if you would entertain the idea of switching out Disqus comments for Remarkbox, a service that I'm trying to launch. If we put Remarkbox on sunboxlabs it would really help me. You can reach out here if you are interested http://russell.ballestrini.net/contact http://russell.ballestrini.net/contact ref: https://www.remarkbox.com https://www.remarkbox.com
- stadeschuldt 9y agoI submitted my SolarPi project: http://solarpi.tafkas.net http://solarpi.tafkas.net
- nikodunk 9y agoawesome project!! Going up now!!
- stadeschuldt 9y agoIf you need more background or a write up, let me know (I submitted my email address too).
- nikodunk 9y agoCool! You're up! I guess the platform's for software projects too now :) I've emailed you for a more in-depth write up – if you have any more images of it in action hit me up!
- Faaak 9y agoQuestions: - Couldn't find your installed power - Couldn't find the installation cost/"real time" ROI - Price of your kWh - temperature doesnt work
- nikodunk 9y agoFollowed up with the poster. Hopefully he'll update soon!
- egocentric 9y agoThis is really cool. sunboxlabs.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com and Note: Ad-blockers hide the Amazon links you should be seeing here Also thank you for being so upfront!
- nikodunk 9y agoOf course!! The idea should monetize itself only if the guides actually make sense. However, if this turns more into a solar software platform, the affiliation strategy may not work so well haha.
- chrisallenlane 9y agoOne thought regarding monetization: I assume you're loading ads via JavaScript or something. (I didn't check.) I too saw the notice regarding blocked ads. It will be a cold day in hell before I disable my ad-blocker, but you can easily manually insert affiliate links as well. If you sign up for the Amazon affiliate program (which I assume you did), just navigate to the item you're trying to sell, click the "get link" button (or whatever) that Amazon provides for you, and you'll get a nice, shortened affiliate link. In my opinion, that is a really clean way to do things - you can just create a plain-old HTML list of affiliate links. That gives you a mechanism for monetizing your site, and doesn't require me to disable my ad blocker to support you. Win/win! :)
- KGIII 9y agoSpeculation: It may require more time and effort to do so. Time is very frequently a scant resource and is even more rare when the project isn't supporting itself financially. Perhaps they can do both? When there is a specific product in mind, they can link directly to it it with the affiliate links. When that's not needed, they can just let the script scan the page and insert relevant results? Then they can do so when they have free time. That still takes time, but it may not take as much time? I'm speculating, as stated.
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- JusticeJuice 9y agoA cool feature would be a way to 'request' a project. E.g. I'm interested in lower power, low space, indoor growing systems. Would love to see any projects hooking them up to solar.
- hijinks 9y agoall your outbound links are messed up tried to click on the solarpi http://sunboxlabs.com/2017/10/07/Demo%20at%20http://solarpi.tafkas.net http://sunboxlabs.com/2017/10/07/Demo%20at%20http://solarpi.... got that instead
- nikodunk 9y agothanks, fixed. wasn't sure if this was something worth building in a scalable manner, so there's still a lot of manual labor involved on my end, and a lot of room for dumb mistakes :)
- antoniuschan99 9y agoI posted a comment on this project: http://sunboxlabs.com/2017/10/07/stock-sunjack-in-window.html http://sunboxlabs.com/2017/10/07/stock-sunjack-in-window.htm... Was wondering, what is the best option to power a NodeMCU on a battery. The NodeMCU draws around 18mA in deep sleep. Problem I'm encountering is that the current draw is so little, a lot of battery packs don't respond to it when it needs to wake up. I have tried several power banks, but only the Anker Astro E7 is able to supply power consistently (Plan on getting a smaller battery next since the Astro E7 is 25000mah). Would using the sunjack setup work? Any fire hazards that might be of concern? I'm planning on getting this solar panel to test: https://www.amazon.ca/ECEEN-10Watts-Charger-Samsung-USB-Charged/dp/B01CJ4UDJM/ref=pd_sbs_107_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=RGBCS8X1JJZ5DAWQW42E https://www.amazon.ca/ECEEN-10Watts-Charger-Samsung-USB-Char...
- agumonkey 9y agoTimely, I just soldered my first cells...
- jansho 9y agoI remember from university how solar is great for cheap and cheerful power applications, and fairly easy to set up. This platform is great idea! My 2 cents: can there also be a 'pitch-like' page or infographics explaining the basic configuration of solar power for newbies? This could encourage beginners to join in and share more, so there will be a nice diversity of simple hacks and ingenious projects.
- Heliosmaster 9y agoHey OP, it sounds like there is some interest and maybe even a worthwhile community here. My advice is to not reinvent anything special here. What about transforming it into a forum? Every thread with a different project, with different categories. Doesn't have to be a forum, but something that you don't have to spend/waste time to make and can still be useful to everybody :)
- nikodunk 9y agoHmm that's really good input. Any other thoughts on this? I thought people would be more likely to use it if they didn't have to sign in?
- Heliosmaster 9y agoI'm not entirely sure. What about a subreddit? There are already some similar things (not about solar), e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/ https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/ and it seems to work out pretty well for them. I expect most of the HN crowd (or the relevant people, anyway, who might not be on HN) are familiar with reddit already and similar subreddits (/r/electronics, /r/hardware, /r/raspberry_pi, etc.). Simple upvote system, and comments already baked in.
- driverdan 9y agoPlugging a solar panel into a Anker PowerHouse is not DIY. That's how it's designed to be used. The PowerHouse is expensive. For real DIY you can buy a 3.6V 100Ah LiFePO4 prismatic cell for $125. Or you can buy 60 5Ah batteries for $80 on eBay. You'll end up spending much less than $500.