Power outages, bad weather, some thoughts...

[BigHonu]

Nice write up.

AA's are a nice format, but I have found that they, along with D's, are the first to go during an emergency situation. So if you rely solely upon that format, be sure to have some stock on hand all the time.

Regulated vs. Unregulated. Yes, regulated gives you constant brightness over time, and is generally preferred in normal use. However, in an emergency situation, a unregulated or direct drive light may give you 'light' over a longer period of time. Sure, brightness will decrease with voltage, but you may still have some light while the regulated light has cut out. Of course, circuit design and efficiency play a big part, but it generally helps to keep both types around.

Hope things around you are improving.

 

[jimmy1970]

Or you could just stick with regulated multi level lights and switch to a lower output level for increased runtime.

James....

Nice write up.

AA's are a nice format, but I have found that they, along with D's, are the first to go during an emergency situation. So if you rely solely upon that format, be sure to have some stock on hand all the time.

Regulated vs. Unregulated. Yes, regulated gives you constant brightness over time, and is generally preferred in normal use. However, in an emergency situation, a unregulated or direct drive light may give you 'light' over a longer period of time. Sure, brightness will decrease with voltage, but you may still have some light while the regulated light has cut out. Of course, circuit design and efficiency play a big part, but it generally helps to keep both types around.

Hope things around you are improving.

 

[waddup]

two words:
car charger.

qft.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=QFT

 

[sqchram]

two words:
car charger.

Almost, but not quite - now if you had said this -

'four words: battery powered battery charger'

that would have been the ticket - see cars are limited by the fuel you can supply them - now with a battery powered battery charger with rechargeable batteries - well - you know what I'm getting at here.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/261262

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Almost, but not quite - now if you had said this -

'four words: battery powered battery charger'

that would have been the ticket - see cars are limited by the fuel you can supply them - now with a battery powered battery charger with rechargeable batteries - well - you know what I'm getting at here.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/261262

just get a manual transmission then you can push the car to spin the alternator to charge the battery :thumbsup:

 

[waddup]

solar.


(i win right?)

 

[John_Galt]

solar.


(i win right?)

Nope. Not with 16-20 inches of snow. And especially not if you were stupid enough to mount them on your roof.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

solar isn't cost effective for uncommon power outages lasting less than just a few days. A generator would be more suitable I would think.

 

[waddup]

my understanding is that newer solar panels provide *juice* even if its cloudy

ive seen lots of quite small 12x12" quite cheap $50 portable panels.

with some thought and solder im sure an easily portable device could be built for $80 that would charge a battery in 2 hours even if it was snowing.

the fact that its easily portable would mean we could place it in the stongest light for those 2 hours.

but im no scientist

 

[T0RN4D0]

I am tempted to buy a nice generator and hook it up with the house wiring in case of longer black outs. We had two short ones, but with the low temps it sucks not being able to use the cetral heating, because the pump isn't working. We do have a wood stove in one floor tho so we won't freeze heheh :]

And i can simply recharge my batteries on the cars battery with my hoby charger. :]


But still, having electricity is nice and a generator would be really nice when everyone is in the dark and you have everything running normal. :]

 

[BillP]

Pair of Trojan T-105 6V golf cart batteries in series, charge maintained by trickle charger or solar panel. 225ah of 12v power waiting to be put to use. I keep mine in a warm, albeit slightly drafty room in the basement.

 

[Lightcrazycanuck]

Pair of Trojan T-105 6V golf cart batteries in series, charge maintained by trickle charger or solar panel. 225ah of 12v power waiting to be put to use. I keep mine in a warm, albeit slightly drafty room in the basement.

+1 You will be able to charge alot of batteries with that setup.