
Show HN: A platform for sharing DIY solar projects - nikodunk
http://sunboxlabs.com
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foxhop
I submitted my silly setup which is just a 20watt sunjack and battery.

Sort of related: I just signed paperwork to install a $35k solar system on my
roof on Friday (20k after insentives). I'm so excited, I've wanted solar since
I was a 9 year old boy!

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toephu2
Wow 35k, what city do you live in?

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foxhop
I live in Connecticut in a residential area. The system is a 12kw, 35 panels.
This will cover about 75% of my annual energy usage. I have a family of 5.

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nikodunk
Hi gang! The "discussion: comments" numbers on the site are the combined total
from the original article discussion on Hackernews
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14821478](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14821478)
plus Reddit
[https://www.reddit.com/r/geek/comments/6ov9oc/200_solar_self...](https://www.reddit.com/r/geek/comments/6ov9oc/200_solar_selfsufficiency_without_your_landlord/)
– at that point I unfortunately didn't have comments on the site yet (...or
the site itself, for that matter). Yes, they're currently just hardcoded :P

The comments on the burningman thread are from this HN thread
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15216650](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15216650)

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otp124
Oh, I remember your original post! I’m glad you made this, as I’ve been slowly
bookmarking DIY solar posts, but good ones with detailed information (and
pics!) are hard to come by.

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nikodunk
Nice! Care to share some good ones here, or even submit them to the site?

I've also noticed a lot of people are building incredible stuff, and think
it's time we organize :)

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jansho
I remember from university how solar is great for cheap and cheerful power
applications, and fairly easy to set up. This platform is great idea! My 2
cents: can there also be a 'pitch-like' page or infographics explaining the
basic configuration of solar power for newbies? This could encourage beginners
to join in and share more, so there will be a nice diversity of simple hacks
and ingenious projects.

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Scoundreller
Next I want to see kits for turning my car into a micro-hybrid: A lithium
battery pack I plug into the cigarette lighter which will negate the
alternator for most trips.

We could make every ICE car several % more efficient overnight.

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pstuart
Interesting idea, but would it really work if the alternator is still
physically engaged?

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tyingq
A electrically actuated clutch pulley would solve that. But, many newer cars
already have, and need, a mechanical clutch pulley that disengages the
alternator on deceleration.

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Scoundreller
I assumed it would stop generating electricity (and therefore resistance) when
the batteries are topped-up. I didn't even realize they're mechanically
disconnected as needed.

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tyingq
Some are, but only on deceleration, to reduce wear on the alternator. It's a
mechanical clutch only.

AC compressors, on the other hand, do have electrically actuated clutch
pulleys.

So, if you have a car where the alternator has no clutch, you may be able to
retrofit an electrically actuated one. You would have to design the part that
decides when it's needed as well.

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antoniuschan99
I posted a comment on this project: [http://sunboxlabs.com/2017/10/07/stock-
sunjack-in-window.htm...](http://sunboxlabs.com/2017/10/07/stock-sunjack-in-
window.html)

Was wondering, what is the best option to power a NodeMCU on a battery.

The NodeMCU draws around 18mA in deep sleep. Problem I'm encountering is that
the current draw is so little, a lot of battery packs don't respond to it when
it needs to wake up.

I have tried several power banks, but only the Anker Astro E7 is able to
supply power consistently (Plan on getting a smaller battery next since the
Astro E7 is 25000mah).

Would using the sunjack setup work? Any fire hazards that might be of concern?

I'm planning on getting this solar panel to test:
[https://www.amazon.ca/ECEEN-10Watts-Charger-Samsung-USB-
Char...](https://www.amazon.ca/ECEEN-10Watts-Charger-Samsung-USB-
Charged/dp/B01CJ4UDJM/ref=pd_sbs_107_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=RGBCS8X1JJZ5DAWQW42E)

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egocentric
This is really cool.

    
    
      sunboxlabs.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com
    

and

    
    
      Note: Ad-blockers hide the Amazon links you should be seeing here
    

Also thank you for being so upfront!

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nikodunk
Of course!! The idea should monetize itself only if the guides actually make
sense. However, if this turns more into a solar software platform, the
affiliation strategy may not work so well haha.

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chrisallenlane
One thought regarding monetization:

I assume you're loading ads via JavaScript or something. (I didn't check.) I
too saw the notice regarding blocked ads.

It will be a cold day in hell before I disable my ad-blocker, but you can
easily manually insert affiliate links as well.

If you sign up for the Amazon affiliate program (which I assume you did), just
navigate to the item you're trying to sell, click the "get link" button (or
whatever) that Amazon provides for you, and you'll get a nice, shortened
affiliate link.

In my opinion, that is a really clean way to do things - you can just create a
plain-old HTML list of affiliate links. That gives you a mechanism for
monetizing your site, and doesn't require me to disable my ad blocker to
support you. Win/win! :)

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KGIII
Speculation: It may require more time and effort to do so. Time is very
frequently a scant resource and is even more rare when the project isn't
supporting itself financially.

Perhaps they can do both? When there is a specific product in mind, they can
link directly to it it with the affiliate links. When that's not needed, they
can just let the script scan the page and insert relevant results? Then they
can do so when they have free time.

That still takes time, but it may not take as much time? I'm speculating, as
stated.

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driverdan
Plugging a solar panel into a Anker PowerHouse is not DIY. That's how it's
designed to be used.

The PowerHouse is expensive. For real DIY you can buy a 3.6V 100Ah LiFePO4
prismatic cell for $125. Or you can buy 60 5Ah batteries for $80 on eBay.
You'll end up spending much less than $500.

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nikodunk
Prove it! Can you post a how-to? :)

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driverdan
I'd like to but I don't have time to do writeup that extensive right now.
There are a lot of other tutorials out there.

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JusticeJuice
A cool feature would be a way to 'request' a project. E.g. I'm interested in
lower power, low space, indoor growing systems. Would love to see any projects
hooking them up to solar.

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nikodunk
Just got a quick prototype of this up a few hours ago. Thanks for the input!!
So far no questions or requests, though...

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Heliosmaster
Hey OP, it sounds like there is some interest and maybe even a worthwhile
community here. My advice is to not reinvent anything special here. What about
transforming it into a forum? Every thread with a different project, with
different categories.

Doesn't have to be a forum, but something that you don't have to spend/waste
time to make and can still be useful to everybody :)

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nikodunk
Hmm that's really good input. Any other thoughts on this? I thought people
would be more likely to use it if they didn't have to sign in?

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Heliosmaster
I'm not entirely sure. What about a subreddit? There are already some similar
things (not about solar), e.g.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/](https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/) and it seems to
work out pretty well for them. I expect most of the HN crowd (or the relevant
people, anyway, who might not be on HN) are familiar with reddit already and
similar subreddits (/r/electronics, /r/hardware, /r/raspberry_pi, etc.).
Simple upvote system, and comments already baked in.

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drieddust
Awesome idea!!

It might be OH but is there a software which can let me simulate and
experiment with various configuration to maximize solar energy capture. I have
some tiny pieces of land which I want to use for harvesting renewable energy.
What I don't want to do is to buy equipment and then write it off as sunk
cost.

Software simulation seems to be the cheapest option but I don't really know
what is out there I can build upon.

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stadeschuldt
I submitted my SolarPi project:
[http://solarpi.tafkas.net](http://solarpi.tafkas.net)

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Faaak
Questions:

\- Couldn't find your installed power

\- Couldn't find the installation cost/"real time" ROI

\- Price of your kWh

\- temperature doesnt work

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nikodunk
Followed up with the poster. Hopefully he'll update soon!

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Scoundreller
Just wanted to say: very cool.

Since I see that you were powering a space heater:

Conductive heating/cooling is the future. Why heat an entire space when you
can buy an electric mattress pad and just heat your bed?

Soon enough we'll have cheap and convenient wearable heat-pumps with
individually controlled dials rather than senselessly heating/cooling entire
spaces.

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FooHentai
>Why heat an entire space when you can buy an electric mattress pad and just
heat your bed?

One reason is that breathing cold air overnight is bad for your health. IIRC a
recommendation is to keep it above 16C.

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maxerickson
In Scandinavia the lore is that the cold is good for sleeping. They stick
their babies outside to nap even when it is below freezing:

[http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21537988](http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21537988)

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shafyy
Kind of like HN for DIY solar. Nice!

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hijinks
all your outbound links are messed up tried to click on the solarpi

[http://sunboxlabs.com/2017/10/07/Demo%20at%20http://solarpi....](http://sunboxlabs.com/2017/10/07/Demo%20at%20http://solarpi.tafkas.net)

got that instead

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nikodunk
thanks, fixed. wasn't sure if this was something worth building in a scalable
manner, so there's still a lot of manual labor involved on my end, and a lot
of room for dumb mistakes :)

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mbloom1915
=D awesome! if anyone is looking to test further with a utility please reach
out (mbloom1915@gmail.com)

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agumonkey
Timely, I just soldered my first cells...

