Solar Powered Refrigerator

After talking about how you can cook outfield using solar power cooker, I'm going to introduce you another great invention to allow you to go greener. You can use this amazing product together with your solar cooker outdoor! It'll totally change the way you go camping forever. This device is – Solar Powered Refrigerator!

Solar powered mini refrigerator, also call solar powered freezer is another way you can use solar energy to improve your life. Many great products are invented to go green, using free solar energy to replace electricity. Usually people tend to get a solar powered mini refrigerator due to the size. They do not need a huge refrigerator and it's too bulky to bring out. A small, compact fridge will solve this problem, plus it's cheaper.

Solar Refrigerator How It Works

Back to the basic question – how does a solar refrigerator works? I guess lots of people are wondering. Well, the answer is … there's no different! The fundamental is still the same, be it a normal kitchen fridge or a solar powered fridge. Both use the refrigerant, let's say – Freon to cool down the temperature.

Freon is constantly flowing throughout the refrigerator to cool it, and it's in liquid form. Once the temperature inside the fridge rises, the freon will absorb the heat and change to vapor. The vapor moves into a compressor which will compress the vapor and cool it back to liquid state, and this goes on.

What's consuming lots of electricity and power is the compressor. It is working 24 x 7 non stop and it is powered by electricity. The difference between solar powered refrigerator is that the compressor is powered by batteries. These powerful lead batteries will be charged in the day, and continue to function at night.

Advantages of using Solar Refrigerator

So what are the advantages of getting a solar fridge? Not only it is portable, you can fit to anywhere you want. I have once fit my solar fridge inside a RV before going for a long tour. In the day, I just bring it out to charge. At night, I can enjoy the cold beer, listening to music and enjoy life.

Long term saving is the main benefit. Most of my friends who purchased a solar refrigerator was to save money. Let me say this upfront. A good solar fridge doesn't come cheap. However, you can use it for a very long time. It'll work like a normal household fridge and you'll need not pay a single cent on the bills anymore.

Thirdly, which I personally find it is the most important reason, is to save the Earth. I'm writing this blog to show people how they can do their part to save our dying Earth. I believe the people want to do their part, just that many of them do not know how to do it. There are so many solar devices around and I want to create awareness to the world. Start using solar energy, go green today

Disadvantages of using Solar Refrigerator

Despite having many advantages, I'll reflect truly about the disadvantages of solar refrigerator. The biggest headache is the lead batteries. They are heavy, comprises of lead acid which will deteriorate after several years. Once the batteries gone bad, you have to get them replaced, which incurred additional costs.

Other than that, there's no need to maintain the solar fridge. Just leave it in the sun, and it'll serve your for years

Solar Refrigerator DIY Kit

If you want to maximize your solar refrigerator's life, you can integrate Solar Parabolic Cooker's method to make it more effective. That is, keep the fridge under shade. Do not put it under the blazing sun. This will degrade the batteries and fridge fast. Instead, use mirrors or reflective materials to reflect the sun's ray to the solar panel.

You have to adjust the mirrors once a while to face the sun. This can be troublesome, but if you setup well, your solar fridge can last many years more.

Another method is to rewire the solar panel. Some of my friends setup the solar panels outdoor, while leaving the solar fridge inside the house. They hook it up to a long wire. This is much more convenient. However, you do have to check if the batteries are charging regularly. There may be poor contacts due to bad connections of wires.

Solar Refrigerators List

Enough saying, I'll show you some examples of the most popular and reliable solar refrigerators currently on the market. These fridges are well received by the users and if you want more details, you can just click on the photos.

Sundanzer Solar Powered Refrigerator (8 Cubit Ft)

Sundanzer Solar Powered Freezer (5.8 Cubic Ft)

Sundanzer DCRF134 (4.7 Cubic Ft)

Sundanzer Solar Powered Fridge (1.8 Cubic Ft)

EcoSolarCool Solar Fridge (6.2 Cubic Ft)

EcoSolarCool Solar Freezer (7.1 Cubic Ft)

Going Green

There are many ways of going green if you want to. Using solar energy is the best way to do it. This energy is abundance and free, easily accessible from any parts of the world. By changing your living habits slightly, you can save not the tons of money, you are saving your future generations too!

I started this blog "How Can I Use Solar Energy At Home" just to show people different ways of leveraging solar energy. If you have better ways, I really hope you can leave a comment below to tell me about it. We can throw in different ideas and perhaps, who knows, we can change how the world lives from this small, humble community.

Solar Powered Cooker

This can be a fun post, suitable for both adults and children. Why? Because it involves cooking, using solar heat!

If you are living in hot, tropical areas like me, and likes to camp, preparing and cooking your own food can be fun. I really enjoyed those days when I deserted my city life, ran off to the countryside and spent few weeks living raw.

When I was young, I used to have frequent BBQ sessions with my buddies and classmates during the weekends. We were young and did not know much about what solar heat can do. Basically we prepared our food and lighted fire with charcoals. We spent hours chatting, drinking and eating BBQ chicken wings.

When I grew older, I joined the army and learned how to prepare my food out in the wild. We used mass tin (aluminum tin) to boil water through solid fuel. It's very effective and power efficient. The trick is to dig a hole in the ground, placed the solid fuel inside and put the mass tin over it, just nice to cover the hole. This way, the heat will be trapped within the hole and makes cooking faster. The fire will not be seen by the enemies as well. Not only that, I find the taste of food much better when comparing with home cooking.

Since then, I went camping frequently, usually over the weekends. I would bring my ipad along for reading and entertainment. The fun part was still the food preparation. Sometimes, my friends and I would go fishing, captured and cooked the fishes right away. Other days, we would just bring the food and cooked over there.

Solar Cooker Plans

One mistake I made over the years was not investing in solar cooker earlier. Imagine this. You decided to have a getaway this weekend. You brought your camping gears, fishing rods, coffee, ipad and food. When you reached your camp site, you unpacked, and set up your tent.

Soon, you'll have nothing much to do, except preparing for your meals. You enjoyed the natural fresh air, listened to the music and chopped your food. Everything's so "wild". When it comes to the cooking part, you just set up your solar cooker and put your seasoned food in there. Nothing else needs to be done. You can hike for a while, and when you are back, your food is ready. How nice!

How Solar Cooker Works?

This is the basic question anyone will ask. Solar cooker, as the name says, use solar energy from the sun to cook our food. Have you ever use a magnifying glass to ignite a matchstick? The rays from the sun is concentrated on a spot of the matchstick through the magnifying glass. After a while, that "hot spot" becomes so hot that a fire is started. A solar cooker works in the same way.

Solar Cooker Design

The solar cookers, also call solar oven, uses the sun's heat for heat up the food. The cooker is designed in such a way that it will trap the heat better than normal pots. All the solar pots are made of black, dark material for heat retention. When food is placed inside, it'll get hot much faster.

The principle is the same as green house effect. The UV, or ultraviolet light pass through and the infrared rays are trapped. These rays are capable of boiling water, and cook food with fats and proteins.

To maximize your cooking speed and effectiveness, you can use the black pot to store your food or water. After that, put this black pot inside a glass box to trap the heat, or infrared rays. This will trap the heat well. Lastly, use mirrors or any reflective surface materials to divert the sunlight to the glass box. This will enhance the heat trapped, make your cooking process much faster.

Types of Solar Cookers

Just using the black solar pot may not be good enough to cook food. It may take ages before the food is cooked. To speed up the process, innovative ideas had been tried and tested. There are generally 3 types of ways to effectively use a solar cooker.

1. Solar Box Cooker

Solar Box Cooker

This is the most common and widely used method. This method traps the heat from the sun inside the box to cook the food. Usually, this solar box will be big enough to store several pots that can be used simultaneously. The disadvantage of this method is slow. However, it can be handsfree after you've put all your pots inside this solar box.

2. Solar Parabolic Cooker

Solar Parabolic Cooker

The second way is to use a solar parabolic cooker. This method works like a magnifying glass, which concentrate the sun's ray onto the pot. This will thus heat up the pot faster and at a higher temperature. However, you need to keep adjusting the position the solar parabolic cooker to face the sun, and constant monitoring is required.

3. Solar Panel Cooker

Solar Panel Cooker

The third method is the hybrid of the previous two, and probably the best. The black pot is placed inside a box that has curved shiny, reflective surface that will force the sun's ray onto the pot. Like mentioned previously, this will enhance and speed up the cooking process.

Solar Cooker for Kids

Solar cooker in fact is a very safe method to cook. It doesn't require any fire or oil, and thus even small children can try cooking rice or hotdog using this method. The design is simple, straight forward and a good learning experience for kids.

Many parents tend to bring their children out camping and show them how to make use of Earth's natural resources to live. Cooking food is once of the best way and in fact, in countries such as China and Africa, they are using this method to cook in their daily life.

Solar Powered Cooker Homemade

If you prefer to make your own solar cooker, just follow the steps below. However the results will not be as good as the real solar cooker.

Steps to homemade your solar powered cooker:

Get a complete black pot with a cover. If you do not have, use a black spray or paint to paint it. Black color will trap heat better.
Put your food inside the pot and use a plastic bag to wrap the whole pot. This serve as the glass box to trap the heat better.
Lastly, use mirrors to divert the sunlight to the black pot.

Although this method can be used, it is highly not recommended. If the procedure is not done correctly, fire can be ignited easily. So be very careful if you want to DIY. I strongly suggest you invest in a certified solar cooker, and use it for life. You can save lots of money once you stop using gas or electricity to cook. I'll highlight some solar cooker below. You can click on the picture for more reviews and details.

Sun Power Cooker Parabolic

Portable Sun Power Energy
Solar Cooker

Gaiam Solar Sport
Camping Oven

Global Sun Oven

SOS Sport Solar Oven Combo

Solar Flare Dual Parabolic
Solar Cooking System

Over To You

So, do you have any experience in using solar cooker? Any special tips or recommendations that you'll like to share with the readers? I'm sure they are interested in your experience. Just drop your comments below. Thank you!

Solar Powered Calculators

One piece of small and useful equipment that can be used at home in our everyday life is the solar powered calculator. This small device may not be something big or significant, but if you are talking about going green, this is one of the easiest devices you can start with.

Solar Powered Calculator History

Calculators were invented many centuries ago. The first official mechanical calculator ever recorded was invented in 1623 by Willhelm Schickard using Napier's bones. This calculator can add and subtract using gears.

Ever since then, many great inventors are coming out with more complex calculators that able to do complex problem solving, including formulas. The real breakthrough was the solar powered calculator. It was invented in 1978, as Royal Solar 1, Teal Photon and Sharp EL-8028. Later, smaller solar powered calculator was invented such as Casio Mini Card LC78, sized of a credit card.

After the first solar powered calculator was launched, it became a huge success. Thereafter, almost every major calculator brands incorporated with the solar technology because it was widely accepted by the world.

Solar Powered Calculator Facts

Just like other normal solar powered devices, solar powered calculators have a piece of solar panel that converts light energy into electricity. The earlier version of solar powered calculators do not have any on/off switch.The designer did not feel a need to. The design is simple. If the surrounding lights are bright enough for you to see the display, it's bright enough to power up the calculator.

However, the main drawback was the incapability of working in dark areas. Once the clouds are overhead, or the sudden flickering of lights, your solar powered calculator will automatically goes into Off mode. Not very effectively!

From then on, technology improves. Many calculators firm made a hybrid version of new solar powered calculators by adding rechargeable batteries to it. During the day when there's light, the batteries are charged. When the lighting are not bright enough, the calculator will automatically draw its power from the batteries, without losing our data.

Solar Calculator Battery

The new solar powered calculator comes with batteries nowadays. This is to make sure the calculators can work even in dim lights. Usually calculator consumes very little power to operate, and therefore there's no need to replace the batteries at all.

By using photovoltaic panel, usually install on the top of the calculator, it'll absorb light and converts it to energy that is stored in the rechargeable batteries. These energy is then used to power up the calculator and the cycles go on. A solar powered calculator requires only 1.5 to 2 volts of electricity to power up and work.

Solar Powered Calculator Not working

Many people complain that their solar powered calculators not working after a while. One of the most common reason is because it is left in the dark for a period of time. The battery simply die off. Try to recall the last time you charge the battery. If it was years ago, the battery could probably had "melted" inside the calculator and it would be time to get a new one.

However, if it was left in the dark for maybe 1 to 2 months, the battery could have been flatted and all you needed to do was to bring it under the sun and left it to charge. Once the battery is fully charged, your solar powered calculator will come back to life once again!

Solar Powered Calculator vs Battery Powered Calculator

There's not much difference between these two types of calculator, except that the solar powered calculator needs not have battery change at all. As previously mentioned, all types of calculators consumed very small power, and solar powered calculators are able to charge the battery and re-use it over and over again.

For battery operated calculators, once the power is drained off, you have to purchase new batteries and have them replaced. If you want to go green, go with the solar powered calculators, especially if your work or studies need to use calculators frequently.

Solar Calculator Cost

If you think that solar calculators are costly, you are way wrong. In fact, solar powered calculators are cheaper, especially in the long run. One simple reason: there's no need to purchase additional batteries for life!

I've listed some solar calculators below. You can just click on the images for reviews and more information.

Casio FX-300

Canon 12-Digit Calculator

TI-36X Scientific Calculator

Calculated Industries 4019
Calculator

Texus Instruments TI36X

Casio DM-1200MS

Over to you

So what type of calculator you are using currently? Care to share the good and bad points of it? I'm sure the readers will be interested. Just let your comments below. Thanks!

Building Your Own Solar Water Heater System

The most common piece of solar equipment that is installed in our house is perhaps the solar water heater. Since young, while I was traveling inside my father's car, I've always noticed a big, bulky, shiny object on top on the roof of the houses in my neighborhood.

"What's that?" I asked my dad.

"Son, it's solar powered water heater, using it to heat up the water and keep the water warm." answered my father.

I did not really bother about it much at that time, enjoying my hot water bath and taking things for granted.

It was when I started watching Discovery Channel and realized our Earth was dying. We (Earthlings or human) were expending our Earth resources exponentially year after year, creating huge pollutions and cutting down our trees massively. I started to find ways to save the Earth, trying to do my part and create awareness to warn others.

If you are living in a house with a rooftop, and you want to do your part in saving our Earth, you are in luck. I'm going to show you how you can start your "Captain Planet" mission.

Solar Water Heater Advantages

First of all, if you have a rooftop, you can start by installing a solar water heater. It comprises mainly of 2 components – a huge water tank for storing water, and solar collectors. Once you get your solar water heater system installed, you can start enjoying your free hot water for life. There are many other advantages such as:

Free supply of hot water – just the initial setup cost
Easy to install – you can DIY or pay others to install for you
Fully automatic – No need to turn on any switches. You'll get your hot water right from your tap
Space-free – The water tank will not take up any spaces inside your house. It'll be installed on your rooftop.
Save the environment – This is perhaps the most important factor. You can help by burning less gas. Use natural solar energy instead.

Needless to say, most of the people installed solar water heater to reduce or cut their electricity and gas bills. Nothing wrong with that. Whatever reasons you have, just go ahead and install one!

How Does Solar Water Heater System Works?

Before you decide whether it makes sense to install a solar heater at your house, you need to know how solar water heater roughly works. I'm not going to go into the details, as it'll bored everyone (including myself). I'll try to explain as simple as possible to make sure you know the basic of solar water heater system.

I'll break down and explain in details below, but this is how Solar Water Heater System will be:

Solar Water Heater System

Active
- Direct Circulation System
- Indirect Circulation System
Passive
- Integral Collector Storage Passive System (Batch Heater)
- Thermosyphon System

Our main solar water heater system can be classified into 2 groups: Active and Passive System. The main difference between the 2 groups are active solar water heater system comes with circulating system, such as pumps and controls while passive solar water heater system doesn't.

Since active solar water heater system comes with circulating system, so what's the difference between direct and indirect? As the name suggests, direct circulation system pumps water directly through the solar collectors before going into the homes. It makes use of electrical controls to do that. And 1 important factor to take note is that direct circulation system is used in areas where the water doesn't freeze during winter.

For indirect circulation system, antifreeze or heat exchanged fluid is pumped through the solar collectors instead of water. As you can guess, these antifreeze fluid has lower freezing point and therefore can maintain in liquid form during the winter. These antifreeze will be heat up through the solar collectors and bring these heat to a huge water tank (heat exchanger) and heat up the water inside before pumping the hot water back to the homes. This indirect circulation system is perfect for places with freezing winters.

Passive solar water heating system works much simpler. For integral collector storage passive system, also called batch heater, water tank is built directly on the top of the roof of the house. Sun's warm is heating up the water inside the tank directly, and water flows to the home through gravity or minor pumps. This is what my neighborhood is using, convenient and direct!

For thermosyphon system, the main water tank is separate from the solar collectors. The solar collector does have a small tank of water. As the water heats up, it becomes lighter and travels down to the main water tank. Cold water is then pump up to the solar collector's water tank and the process continues. The hot water from the main water tank is then pumped into the house.

Solar Water Heater Panels

After having some basic understanding of the types of solar water heating system, it's good to know the fundamentals of the solar water heater panels as well. When we talk about panels, we are referring to the heating devices that face the sun directly. It is this panels that heats up the water, or antifreeze and considers the most important elements in the whole solar water heating system.

There are 3 different types of solar collector panels, listed below:

Flat-plate Collectors – dark colored absorber plate with glass cover. Mainly use for solar pool heating.
Integral Collector Storage System – made of black tanks. Cold water passes through, gets heated and back to the main water tank.
Evacuated-tube Solar Collectors – made of parallel rows of transparent glass tubes. Can trap heats and temperature can go up to 350^oF. Consider the best among all.

Solar Water Heater DIY

If you are technically strong, and understands the basic electrical and mechanical drawings, you can go ahead and do-it-yourself. Many people are treating it as a hobby, converting their homes into environmental friendly, energy saving homes. You just have to call your nearby agent, purchase the parts individually and assembler yourself.

However, do take note of the safety precautions, such as falling from your roof, injury while carrying the heavy water tank and overheating. I strongly suggest you download this ebook an read through to have better understanding before deciding whether to engage an external agent or DIY.

Solar Water Heater System Cost

The cost of the solar water heater system varies from countries to countries. Some governments encourage their people to install solar heater, and greatly subsidizes for them. China, for example, manufactures solar panels, and therefore can be installed cheaply.

No matter where you are in the world, if you have sufficient sunlight in the day, or even 9 months a year, it is definitely worth to install one. The prices of gas and electricity goes up year after year. With a solar heater, you just have to pay for the initial setup cost, the usage will be free. You can use as much as your water tank can hold, without worrying about a single cent anymore. In long run, you will see a substantial amount saved! Not only that, you are saving the environments as well. Trust me, go for it!

I'll list a few solar heaters below. You can click the photos for reviews.

Solar Water Heater System

Gulf Stream Solar Kits for medium Family (3-4 people)

Complete 2 Panel Hybrid Solar Water Heater Kit

GLE Solar Water Heater

30 Tube Spilt Solar Water Heater Collector

400 Litre Solar Water Heating System

AO Smith SUN-80 Residential Solar Water Heater

Your Thoughts

So what do you think of solar heater? Good to install? Maybe you've already install and will like to share your experiences below? I'm sure other readers will be interested in your opinions.

Solar Energy Powered Watches

Solar Energy Powered Watches

One of the easiest way to leverage the solar energy, and everyone can do immediately without high cost is by using solar energy powered watches. When I was young, I still remembered my first watch was a solar energy powered digital watch, given to me by my father. I was so happy at that time I promised myself to use this watch for life. I believed that as long as there was sun around, the watch would never die. True enough, I did use the watch for many years until it wore out. This watch made one of the best investment I had in life.

How Do Solar Energy Watch Work?

Solar Energy watches work exactly like normal watches. They are powered by electricity from the battery build inside the watches. The special thing about solar energy powered watches are, these battery is a rechargeable battery.

Normal watches are using "one time use" battery, and have to be replaced every 1-3 years. For solar powered watches, the battery can be charged over and over again. Now here comes the interesting part. To charge the battery, you have to use light energy. There is a small piece of solar panel build on the face of the watch meant to be exposed to light. When being exposed, the light energized the electrons inside the battery and starts recharging till the battery is full. That's why solar powered watches are also called light powered watches.

At night, when there is no visible or strong light, the battery will kick in. The watch will run by the rechargeable battery. In the way, your watch will start charging in the day, and runs by battery at night. The process repeats and your watch will never die.

In fact, as the technology improves, some powerful watches are able to go into complete darkness and still work for months and up to years! These watches are mainly for explorers or people who seldom see light.

How Long Does A Solar Energy Watch Last?

Many people are curious about this? Can a solar energy powered watch really last forever? Well, I'll like to say, no. The reason is simple. Solar powered watch doesn't just make up of the rechargeable battery. It has many sophisticated mechanisms as well.

Although the battery can be recharged over and over again, other mechanisms will fail. Have you seen a watch that still work well, but the belt or chain breaks off? Have you ever wear your watch and accidentally hit on something, cracking or scratching the surface of the glass? I bet you have!

So even thought the sun can charge your solar watch, if any of the parts fail, your watch fail. But you don't have to worry much. The quality of watches nowadays are of the highest quality, and it can easily last over 10 years or more.

How To Charge Solar Watch

To charge your solar watch, you simply just wear it in the day. You need not purposely face it to the sun, or under bright light. The solar panel will capture any light shine on it and convert to stored energy.

However, as a comparison, it is definitely better to charge under the sun than under lighting. Sun's solar energy is much powerful and stronger. For 1 minute of charging under the sun, you need up to 11 minutes of charging under fluorescent light.

How Reliable Are Solar Watches

The reliability of watches depend on several factors, such as the usage, environment and brands. Under normal circumstances, watches can last easily over 3-5 years. More expensive watches can last longer than $10 watches, due to the design and parts used.

For solar powered watches, the designs are slightly more complicated than normal watches. The parts used are of better grades, and 1 important factor is, once the watch is sealed, it doesn't need to be opened up again.

For normal battery operated watches, the watch has to change battery once a year. Frequent tearing up and assembling of watches will cause higher wear and tear, and greater risk of water intrusion. I've seen many cases of seal leaked due to mishandling during battery changed and the parts inside the watch get rusty.

With solar powered watches, you do not have to open up your watch at all, and therefore, the reliability of these watches are much higher!

Popular Brands of Solar Powered Watches

Do not have the impression that solar powered watches are made by cheap, low quality manufacturers. Only the top brands in watch industry can afford to invest massive amount of money in their R&D, which produce the toughest solar watches of the highest grade. I've shortlisted some of the brands, together with the solar watches they produce below.

Casio Men Solar Watches

Casio Men's AWGM100B-1ACR G-Shock Tough Solar Power Atomic Watc	Casio Men's GW9200-1 G-Shock Riseman Alti-Therm Solar Atomic Watch	Casio Men's GWX8900B-7 G-Shock Tough Solar Multi-Band Atomic Watch

Seiko Men Solar Watches

Seiko Solar Chronograph Compass Black Dial Mens Watch SSC079	Seiko Solar Alarm Chronograph With Date Men's Watch SSC095	Seiko Solar Alarm Chronograph Men's Watch SSC093

Casio Woman Solar Watches

Casio Women's LWS200H-8ACF Solar Runners 120-Lap Digital Sport Watch	Casio Women's LWS200H-4ACF Solar Runners 120-Lap Grey and Pink Digital Sport Watch	Mns Waveceptor Ana-Digi w/Blk Resin Band 100M

Seiko Woman Solar Watches

Seiko Women's SUT015 Dress Solar Watch	Seiko Women's SUP016 Two Tone Solar Black Oval Dial Watch	Seiko Women's SUT057 Dress Solar Classic Watch

Tough Solar Power Atomic Watch