wanted: power and money saving engine

Crazy4Ilona · Post by **Crazy4Ilona** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 8:13 pm

I've just registered to this forum, so hello to everybody, how's it going?

To keep the cracks among you cracking, I've got a little question for you:

I am planning to set up an internet connection on an island where they don't even have regular electricity. The satellite dish isn't the problem. You might have guessed it:

The system is supposed to run on solar power. So I need computers that are

(a) low in energy consumption,

(b) cheap,

(c) not so much out of date. (But no need for 3D gaming engines with a lot of horsepowers here: if they run Opera under Linux, that will do the job)

Any recommendations?

I would be very happy if someone could help. Thanks in advance!

nexus_7 · Post by **nexus_7** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 8:34 pm

Welcome.

That sounds pretty cool.

I would check into this stuff: http://www.viaembedded.com/index.jsp#

Low low power requirments.

Greg

smb · Post by **smb** » Sun Apr 18, 2004 9:09 pm

yea, check into the via eden stuff, or maybe soemthing along the lines of Citrix terminals.

pseizure2000 · Post by **pseizure2000** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 12:15 am

Hmmmm....I would look into mobile computers which are made to use as little power as possible.

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Mon Apr 19, 2004 6:24 am

I'm sure you've checked the usual solar mafia sites like real goods for what they are doing - but using work stations that are self renewable - like lappies - seems like a good idea

of course we won't be able to REALLY help you until after the island is fully inspected

welcome to PCA sound like a fun project!

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Tue Apr 20, 2004 12:02 am

Welcome,

Where is this island at, does it have wind

Are you planning to be there along time? Will the systems be in use many hours of the day ect..
Do you have other needs for power too? More info please.

If you have wind, then building your own windmills might be a better option in the long run. I am assuming you are already planning for batteries and an inverter for the solar system.

It cost me about $170 or less for the wire and magnets to build my wind gennie. It's not up yet, still have some building to do on it and a small tower. People building similar units are getting 300-400 watts and even higher from these home builds. They actually work better than the comercail ones like Wind-air 403's (I think that's the name of em). Unlike the sun, the wind blows anytime not just durring the day and It's really cheap compared to solar pannels. Cheapest I found was about $500 for 180 watt pannels (new) compared to maybe $200 tops for my 400watt wind gennie. Combinations of both is best.

Also many AC motors can be converted to gennies by simply grinding down the armatuer and installing some magnets on it, the coils are already in place. Add cheap blades and mount in the air. Good power very low cost. Junk garbage disposal motors I think are suppose to be really good for this.

Course you get ac power, but cheap and simple to convert it to DC and charge batteries.

I mention that because it might be more cost effective in the long run to beaf up your power system than to buy low power computers.

Of course, if your on some covert operation in the jungle islands, then you may not want a wind mill atracting attention