Running a project on Solar

Hi,

I want to convert some of my aquirum monitoing project to use Solar power and wondering what luck other people have had with this.

I will be running an ESP8266 board (as its what i already have) and all its doing is every 60 seconds, taking a temp reading and then sending it via wifi to a logging station. So for most of the time it can sleep.

I have seen small 5 volt solar panels that can produce ~900mamp which should be plenty to power this and I was thinking a board like this Solar_Power_Manager_5V_SKU__DFR0559-DFRobot

Can any one tell me what capacity battery they have used to get 24hours run time? I can caculate at max power draw but was hoping to get some real world examples.

Cheers

Aaron

Battery life in hours is approximately given by (battery capacity in mAh)/(average current draw in mA).

Derate the manufacturer's stated battery capacity by up to a factor of two to allow for aging and abuse.

Hi,

Thank you i understand that, but I am curious what people are seeing as the average draw and what kind of size solar panel they have found works.

Its easy to work out in theory but I wanted to know what people experience running on solar in the real world.

No one but you has your setup.

If you want advice on your setup, post a circuit diagram, post the code (using code tags), and measure and state the average current draw.

Google can help you learn about other people's experience in the real world. Solar installations run from supplying total electricity needs for a small town, to a wristwatch or a calculator.

Run from a solar panel? How will the supervision work during night or cloudy days?
Does 900 mA, during sun, be enough for the wireless transmitter? I feel uncertain about that.

Battery, for the night time, so that's the question really to people have have made home automation / monitoring projects based on ardunio what the have found. What kind of size solar and batter power they ended up needing.

Yes I know you are stating quite obvious things.

As i said i was looking for some "real world examples" i very aware they will not be identical to mine but I also know the benefit of looking at project "similar" to get a idea of what might be involved.

I am not looking to how to do this, but exactly what i said (as been using google to) to get some real world examples of this. No harm in asking on a forum for others experience and if you dont have any then that's fine.

The best is that Your presentation is complete. Helpers assuming "this and that" will get lots to clear.

900 mA is likely produced during ideal conditions. What current does it produce when conditions are less good, light clouds etc.? How many Amp Hours can be collected and how many does the night running need.
Certainly not an easy equation found in a handbok.

The people who were successful in solar projects measured the average current draw of their project and chose a battery with sufficient capacity to power it during dark and rainy periods.

Those same people chose a solar panel to recharge their battery by looking up the average insolation (total sunshine) in their part of the world, and purchased a panel that supplies significantly more than sufficient current during the expected periods of sunlight, to power the project 24/7.

Until you take those very basic steps, you will get absolutely nowhere with your project.

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