Just an update...
I now have power on to the obs.
My plan had always been to power the observatory on solar, espacially when originally it was going to be well out in the paddock. As mentioned earlier, I had to bring the observatory into the house yard to protect it from a windsucking horse, and that is really what made the difference...
A few weeks ago I started having problems with my 38AH battery pack that I power my laptop with. It turns out it dropped a cell... probably from cycling it too deep when using the lappy
. It was a jump starter pack, so the battery was a cranking battery rather than a deep cycle.
So I had a few options:
- Buy another jump starter pack
- Buy a more appropriate battery (and charger, etc) for the job but keep it portable
- Install solar on the obs now
- Put power (240V) on to the observatory
I quickly decided the portable battery option was not preferred. It is great to have the scope always set up but shuffling batteries before and after sessions is a pain (how quickly we get lazy!
). So I decided to start the solar design.
This is where some tough decisions had to come in. To run the whole obs on solar for the periods of time I wanted it to be capable of (8 hours per night) was becoming problematic. The biggest user is, of course, the laptop. Without that, solar would be quite viable.
So I priced getting the power run out to the obs and it was a fraction of the price especially if I dug the trench myself. So I now have power onto the obs, which will power the laptop directly, but I can now also move the chargers for my power tank and jump starter pack into the observatory so I'm not shuffling batteries.
Going solar may still be an option down the track, just to run the scope and dew heaters.
Al.