Going Green
One more thing we have in common is a belief in looking after the planet. We are but
stewards and one day we will have to answer for our charge.
Saving water and electricity is relatively easy and using less saves money too. We had a water
meter fitted as soon as we could, and almost all our lights are more energy efficient than standard
incandesent bulbs.
It goes without saying that when we have finished using an electrical item it is switched
all the way off. TVs and the like do not need to be left on stand-by. Yet even computers can
have a transformer running if you only switch them off with the 'front' button. This is because many
PCs have an ability called 'Wake on LAN' which means a remote operator can wake the machine up to perform
maintenance over the network. In order to be able to respond to this command the dormant PC needs
enough power to run its network card and fire up its main circuitry on command. A wonderful tool
in the commercial environment, but our PC was not on a LAN, not going to be woken remotely and therefore
needed no power at all when not in use. It therefore got switched off at the mains.
That machine has been replaced by a Mac mini. This has an external transformer and after shutting the Mac
down all the kit gets isolated. After all why run transformers for Mac, router and speakers
which are not going to do something useful for most of a day?
First Attempts at Going Solar
We investigated installing solar panels on the roof. Alas our main roof faces East-West
so the technology available when we first moved in was not going to achive all that much. We
considered the garden too, but there were too many trees causing shadows.
Solar technology has been evolving quickly and a year later, aided by a grant from the
Energy Saving Trust, under a scheme now discontinued, we were able to
install a solar PV array.
Slaying the Energy Vampires
Given that a major PV system seemed a long way off, we went for a small hit. There are lots
of rechargable things round the house each with its own mains transformer. We have found
ways to recharge some of them from the sun.
The power source
We have selected a 13W Topray "solar briefcase". This is available from a variety of suppliers and we decided not to pay extra for the optional multi-voltage device as everything we are really interested in runs at 12V.
The First Vampire to Fall
Selecting the car socket adapter for the panel one can then plug in the phone's hands free adapter and when the sun shines brightly enough the phone gets recharged. Proof of concept, and we can even get enough power to the phone just to listen out for a call in relatively low light.
Second Target
At the bottom of our garden, rather inaccesibly behind the tool shed, there is a water butt which has no tap. This 12V pump made short work of shifting the water to a more useful butt.
Not as cool as we wanted...
We need to keep certain things cool, most especially insulin. We have a mobile fridge to do
this should we be away from base for a while. It too has a 12V car adapter, but is rated at
42W. With the panel in full sun and the fridge in the panel's shade, it managed to lower its
internal temperature by 4°C. A disappointment, but this was only a "nice-to-have" extra.
A Long Term Plan
Eventually we will want to raise steam on our locomotive. This process requires a fan being placed on the funnel to draw air through the firebox. We need a 12V battery to power this and the battery will need recharging.
Getting Over Ambitious
Barbara prefers Michael without the beard and Michael prefers an electric shaver. The shaver though wants feeding 240V AC. It draws very little actual power so we have bought the lowest power AC inverter we could find. However it is rated at 150W so it might decide that the 13W it can draw from a well illuminated panel isn't enough. Still having the ability to produce AC from the car in an emergency is a nice option to have.
© M.J.R.Orton, 3rd Sep 2006.