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Dude Boathouse for the win.

Bad part is one good storm and all your equipment = shit.

No clue about the solar cells.

Not every battery and solar cell is the same. It's pretty hard to tell you how many without knowing the specifications.

You can estimate the maximum power the equipment would use (assuming a totally "in the box" software studio):

Quad-core mid-range PC: 250 W
LCD Monitor (24"): 50 W
External audio: 10 - 50 W (if you have one)
Power amp or active monitors: 50 W
Subwoofer: 100 W

Total: 500 W

Some of those figures may seem low, but keep in mind that this is for continuous (RMS) power that you would actually use, so it doesn't matter that your sub can theoretically deliver 700 W of peak power or whatever.

Still, the best thing for you to do is measure, not estimate. Get yourself a Kill-A-Watt for 20 bucks, plug your equipment in for a day, and see for yourself how much total electricity you've actually used. It wouldn't surprise me if it's actually a lot less than the estimate above.

The math is pretty straightforward after that. 1 watt of power used continuously for 1 hour is 1 watt-hour (W�h). To run a 500 W rig for 8 hours you'd need 4 kWh of energy.

Sometimes energy ratings on batteries or cells are in A�h (ampere-hours). Just multiply by the output voltage to get W�h. If a 120 V battery advertises 2 A�h, that gives you 2.4 kWh of energy.

In all likelihood, you could run the entire rig with a standard car battery and inverter. Keeping the battery charged is the tricky part. Assuming you get roughly 10 hours of daylight, and something like 80% efficiency for the charger and inverter combined, you'd need upwards of 16 30-watt solar cells at $200 a pop for a 500 W rig; not exactly cost-effective, and this isn't even taking into account cloudy days or days when you're in the zone and working for 20 hours. You might need 20 or 30 cells to really be on the safe side. But it's hard to say without a true measurement, because your rig may not really require 500 W or at least not require it constantly.

Personally, I'd just stay the hell away from solar power right now and get a proper generator. Solar cells are big, bulky, expensive, and designed to provide enough power for something like a light bulb, or maybe supplementary power for a car to slightly improve fuel efficiency. Trying to run an entire studio that will be used daily on solar power alone sounds insane to me.

think id be getting a laptop and some awesome headfones for that.

quote:

Originally posted by ******** I wouldn't expect to write continously but having more than one battery backup.. then charging.. how long would it take to drain a car 12v or the like.. I think your 30 watt estimate is a little high.. 30 watts are selling for less than 100$ now. So It'd still be in the thousands. Although I think the price of cells will come down a bit.. There is potential for tidal (drag behind generator - not difficult with sail if you arn't in a rush to get somewhere (this stuff hasn't been used much) also the idea of wind generator on a sailboat. 200 watt cells sell for like $500 - I have two 200 Watt systems (small slightly modified logitec z2300 but might opt for just one on the boat. - As I may not have space for taking too much stuff with me) An inverter can be got for less than $150 easy. Still expensive but you also have a solar generation system. A 200 watt wind generator system runs for less than 400 http://www.ruihongshop.com/shop/pro...products_id=321 Also the benifit of an electric outboard, so that that electricity can go to use when not being pumped. I'm geussing like 1 or two 200 watt cells with a wind and wave geneator - should be sufficient - just a question of how many batteries a 26' or so boat can hold comfortably. Hmm very suprised to find that 746 watts is = to 1hp... this still gives a potential for a couple hours of motor operation on a backup charge but running the operation live would require atleast 4 cells. for a little over 1 hp operation But apparently due to I geuss "momentum" 1hp can help a boat attain hull speed. so if the boat was geared to about 800+ watt generation (2 cells and 2 wind station, and a drag) ??? good reason for the two is to balance weight? need to rationalize this... any suggestions of course are welcome.. but I'm guessing an ideal setup would be for 800 watts or more.

Dude, when you get all this done, i want to see pictures man! Alternative / obscure sources of energy are a thing i'm interested in. i mostly look into stuff about cars, but running a studio/home type stuff will be interesting to see also, ive seen other stuff like hydrogen powered houses and such, but that general has a large one time chunk of money requirement.

quote:

Originally posted by ********

You're kind of all over the place here.

Solar cells are expensive and large and the typical cost really is about $5-$6/W. Sometimes you can find something on sale because of government rebates and such, like this charging kit (throw away the garbage included charge controller), $320 for 60 W - still over $5/W.

Wind power is pretty sketchy. Huge risk factor there. If you want to invest in that, make sure you're only using it at a supplemental level and that you can gather up enough juice from other means if necessary.

You could, in theory, buy a whole whack of car batteries and just switch them when they run out, but the problem is (a) you don't know when they're going to run out and might suddenly lose power, and (b) you still have to generate as much power as you're consuming or else you'll eventually run out of batteries. And trust me, you do not want to have to be swapping car batteries all the time; even if it's only once every couple of days, it's going to drive you crazy.

My advice, if you really want to do this and have the coin and a big enough boat to support it all, is to get:

- 2 car batteries or heavy-duty camping-type backup batteries (in case one dies unexpectedly); 3 if you're paranoid but any more is a waste of money;
- 2 inverters, with low-voltage disconnect (again, in case one blows up, you don't want to be stuck without power)
- 1 UPS rated at at least 1 kVA (which will only give you about 500 W; this is just to give you enough time to switch the main battery if one does run out; it also serves the secondary purpose of helping to clean up the power you get)
- At least 300 W worth of solar cells (keeping in mind that most of the time you won't actually get anywhere near 300 W out of it)
- Your 200 W wind generator (which would hopefully give you some extra juice as night, but might give you virtually nothing on some days)
- A charge controller to actually charge the battery and prevent overcharging; do not cheap out here, get something good like the TriStar that is designed for wind power and can actually divert the current)
- A small propane or diesel generator (so you have a reliable emergency power source - you can find a 5 kW one for as low as $600-$700, and you WILL need it at some point)
- A good multimeter, to help put the beast together and do some diagnostics when something goes wrong

And there are probably a few other things I forgot, things which would become very obvious when setting the rig up.

You might be able to spend less on the solar cells and/or dispense with the wind turbine, depending on how much power you really need. Again, measure, don't estimate. The $20 for a Kill-A-Watt is well worth it.

This shit is a lot harder than it looks. It's easy enough to charge a battery, but running continuous power off the rig is another story entirely. That's why most people just shell out the $3000 or so for a big-ass marine generator and call it a day. Setting up a reliable rig of solar and/or wind power is greener, I guess, but it's going to end up costing just as much, at least in terms of cap ex.

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