Solar Power?

[CezzaXV]

Hi everyone,

I've recently been dipping my toes into electronics. tbh I'm not that good but I'm getting better and I enjoy learning.

During some recent web browsing, I found this product on Amazon: http/www.amazon.co...6996705&sr=8-11

It's a solar charger for a 12V battery. It's got me wondering. Are these solar chargers any good? I was thinking about the possibility of fixing it to the side of side of my main tank to gain power when the lights are on, maybe enough to power another small set of lights/a small filter etc on another small tank (I have a 17L going spare).

Been considering setting up a shrimp and/or betta tank.

Your thoughts?

 

[OldMan47]

Energy conversion, no matter how efficient your arrangement is, always has losses involved. Converting electricity to light and then converting that light back to electricity which is then converted to chemical energy in the battery and finally back to electricity is just too many conversions to be anywhere near reasonably efficient. It would be cheaper, in terms of energy consumed, to just plug in the extra lights that you are contemplating. If you get to use sunlight to charge the battery that would be different. At least the energy charging the battery would not be using electricity to do so.

 

[CezzaXV]

My window faces north and gets very little sunlight. My tank light on the other hand, is on several hours a day and I wouldn't be keeping it on for the sake of charging the solar panel. I was just going for the brightest light source available to me in the room I have.

 

[shrimply]

It would be cheaper, in terms of energy consumed, to just plug in the extra lights that you are contemplating.

But the energy is being converted to light energy anyway, if some of the escaping energy can be converted back into chemical energy and used again, how is £0 more expensive than plugging it in and using electricity.

However, I'm not convinced it would work just because of the energy produced from the light and the amount you would need, but I'm no physicist.

I always thought that for both my snakes, and fish. That some of those solar power garden lights ( Red or Blue) would make nice night lighting. They would charge up during the day and then switch on automatically when the lights go off and stay on till the battery was drained. Again I don't know if its practical or not. The ones I've seem might not be bright enough to make it practical.

 

[CezzaXV]

I'd likely be looking to wire something up myself rather than go with an off the shelf solution. LED strips or spotlights, something similar. Maybe a small filter if there'd be enough power. I'm considering keeping shrimp (which have a low bioload) or land-based crabs so the lighting is not essential, and in the case of the shrimp a filter would be desirable but not 100% necessary 24/7. If I went with shrimp I'd likely be looking at things like java fern, anubias, moss etc which are easy to grow without needing lots of light.

 

[Bungy]

I'd likely be looking to wire something up myself rather than go with an off the shelf solution. LED strips or spotlights, something similar. Maybe a small filter if there'd be enough power. I'm considering keeping shrimp (which have a low bioload) or land-based crabs so the lighting is not essential, and in the case of the shrimp a filter would be desirable but not 100% necessary 24/7. If I went with shrimp I'd likely be looking at things like java fern, anubias, moss etc which are easy to grow without needing lots of light.

CezzaXV, It a difficult one for us fishkeepers to save energy to fuel our hobby, my fish-house tanks plus my 8x2x2 foot malawi tank results in a £160 per month lekky bill.....! I have recently installed 16 x Solar panels on my roof which is currently generating around 2.3 kw on a sunny day - this easily runs all my tanks/lights/pumps and enough for the TV/PC and even dishwasher/washing machine. It was a FREE installation so cost me absolutely nothing - I effectively rent my roof space out to the solar provider and any unused lekky gets pumped back to the grid for which they receive payment - I use what i

 

[Bungy]

I'd likely be looking to wire something up myself rather than go with an off the shelf solution. LED strips or spotlights, something similar. Maybe a small filter if there'd be enough power. I'm considering keeping shrimp (which have a low bioload) or land-based crabs so the lighting is not essential, and in the case of the shrimp a filter would be desirable but not 100% necessary 24/7. If I went with shrimp I'd likely be looking at things like java fern, anubias, moss etc which are easy to grow without needing lots of light.

CezzaXV, It a difficult one for us fishkeepers to save energy to fuel our hobby, my fish-house tanks plus my 8x2x2 foot malawi tank results in a £160 per month lekky bill.....! I have recently installed 16 x Solar panels on my roof which is currently generating around 2.3 kw on a sunny day - this easily runs all my tanks/lights/pumps and enough for the TV/PC and even dishwasher/washing machine. It was a FREE installation so cost me absolutely nothing - I effectively rent my roof space out to the solar provider and any unused lekky gets pumped back to the grid for which they receive payment - I use what I need from what the panels generate, if I need more, this is taken from the grid. My lekky bill has now dropped to around £65 per month and will get better as the daylight hours increase and better summer weather comes.
Its certainly worth looking at.

Hope the helps

Bungy

 

[OldMan47]

Well done Bungy. I find that I am torn between technically accurate answers, as I gave earlier, and answers that take into account who pays for what in a system as you have illustrated. If someone else is willing to pay for the energy conversion technology, entirely different answers may well apply.