Although the adapters that come with Macbook Pros are rated for 85 Watts they rarely use that much energy. A Macbook pro browsing the web typically uses about 40 Watts. You should know that how much energy your computer uses depends a lot on what you’re doing or not doing. For example if I put my Macbook to sleep the power consumption rises to 42 watts for about 10 seconds as it prepares to go to sleep then the power usage is only 1 watt while the Macbook sleeps. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve really enjoyed having the green slim projector. Our specific model was the 235 that we bought from new egg and we were surprised to find that it also came with the wireless adapter. The adapter wasn’t much help to us as we use macs and you have to install the pc software for it to work.

The main selling point for us was that the green slim projector doesn’t use a bulb, but uses an LED laser hybrid light source rated at 20,000 hours. We bought the pk-10 a few years back and it only had an output of 10 lumens. It’s refreshing to have the output of 2,000 lumens.

With the high output came the surprise of high amounts of heat. The laser must push the majority of the light. The fan can be annoying if the movie was silent but we typically don’t have a hard time covering up the noise.

The zoom and auto keystone adjustment have been helpful features. All in all we’ve been vey happy with it.

Depending on the technology, peak power ratings for panels may not be what you achieve in practice. It’s important to know that the tests that deliver the peak ratings occur close to the north pole. The most important element of that location is the low temperatures. Mono-crystalline and Polycrystalline solar panels each loos around 15% of their peak when they are in a location with high temperatures, say on top of your roof with the sun beating down on it. So if you are looking to get the most out of your panels, keep them cool, and oh yeah, keep them in direct sunlight too.

I’ve actually yet to monitor my panels reading peak power. They’ve reached about 90% of their maximum output in cool weather in direct sunlight. In cloudy weather (Rainy days) expect outputs around 5%.

Another important element of getting efficiency or peak power from your panels is to run your system at a higher voltage like 24 volts rather than 12 volts. Using the higher voltage results in less energy loss as it travels through wires routed to your batteries or inverters. To save even more energy from escaping the wire, keep connections short; DC power dissipates quickly as heat with long wires unlike AV power, that’s one of the benefits of panels with inverters built in.

The tk45 has been a wonderful flashlight for me it’s all the power you could need in a compact flashlight. The other day I discovered an aspect that made it even more valuable. The biggest pain for me was charging the batteries- pulling out the holder then each of the eight AA’s. I would also have to replace a square of toilet paper that I use to keep the battery holder from rattling.

It doesn’t have to be that hard! The terminal at the center of the holder is positive and the circle outside is negative. All I have to do is use a couple alligator clips and it is it’s own charging cartridge!

Ideally electric cars would be solar powered. The Nissan Leaf has a solar panel built into the spoiler, but the specs aren’t mentioned. Why? Because sometimes, like in this case it’s better marketing to not mention the specs at all. Of all the costs of an electric car the most obvious is energy costs, and I have no doubt that the panel will provide more energy, but if we’re to be hones a solar panel the size of a spoiler couldn’t produce more energy than perhaps 50 watts to be very generous peak- enough to run the stereo at a mild volume.

So what the solar panel on the solar panel in Nissan leaf amounts too is nothing more than a gimmick that may sucker a few overzealous buyers, but the panel will never power anything more than your radio.

The watts up meter is intended for use with rc equipment, but with tolerance of 60 volts the watts up meter can work great for small solar systems as well. The “watts up” is essentially a dc version of the popular kill a watt meter.

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Many stores that sell solar panels can have them filtered by the cost per watt. Theoretically this should tell you the best value. There are a few things you’ll want to factor in as well when buying solar panels.

Cost of shipping. Ive found that some stores give you a teaser price. I call it a teaser price because if you are only purchasing a couple panels you can easily end up paying just as much in shipping as the cost for the panels. One store that seams to have reasonable prices and fairly low shipping costs is www.affordable-solar.com. They are about inline with amazon as far as pricing, but when you take into account brand things change.

Brand. Lowest price doesn’t always mean the best value. Chooses brand with a good warranty and track record.

There are three types of technologies that you might find in solar panels or solar cells:

• Monocrystalline
• Polycrystalline
• Amorphous

Monocrystalline Solar Panels

As far as efficency by square footage, this is the way to go. Monocrystalline cells also do a great job in high tempertures, only loosing about 12-15% of their power.

Polycrystalline Solar Panels

The power production in polycrystalline cells is reduced 14% to 23% kind of a high hit at almost 25% where you’ve got to have an extra panel to 4 to get the peak ratings advertised in direct sunlight. This could partialy explain why they are the cheapest solar technlogies.

Amorphous Solar Panels

Amorphous solar panels are the largest panels, or the least efficent per square foot. They are actually about half as efficent as polycrystalline or monocrystalline cells. They’re also the technology that you’re probably the most familiar with, probably the panel you’d find in your calculator.

Although the lifetime of panels or their cells is difficult to test for sure, it’s believed that amorphous cells loose quite a bit of there power after 15 years.

These are the panels that you see a top a lot of homes because they are so cheap at around $5/watt, and the greatest benefit of all is that they don’t become less efficent in elevated tempertures infact in some cases the input increases slightly in high tempertures.

Brand New TK45

Chances are you’ve already read the reviews of the Fenix TK45 prototype that came out around May. So in my Fenix TK45 Review I’ll skip what’s already been covered and focus on the final product as I received it in January of 2011.

Light Source

Producing the light are 3 Cree R5 LEDs the prototypes had used much cooler and slightly less powerful R4 Cree LEDs. When comparing the beam to that of my PD30 with a R4 Cree LED it’s very easy to notice the much more natural looking light from the TK45.

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Each fridge is different depending on the size and efficiency. I’ve got a 13 cubic foot or so manufactured around 2007. It uses almost 880 watts when you first plug it in, but it only pulls at that level for 10 seconds or so. Read the rest of this entry »