Survivalism 101: Solar panels

[Captain Maltese]

One of the trickier issues in an unregulated environment - be it the end of the world or a hike through the wilderness - is the need for electricity for the modern human's many handy devices. A portable radio, a flashlight, a cell phone. Much as I loathe the concept of someone sitting in a tent on a mountain watching a movie, it is hard to deny the usefulness of communication if you lie there with a broken leg. Batteries can in theory last a while if you use them sparingly, but 'a while' can mean not long enough in a bad situation. Also, a battery has yet to be invented that will retain its charge indefinitely. A year old AA battery might not work even if it is still in the wrapping.

How much better to be able to keep the batteries reloading continuously. Which brings us to solar panels. Actually, let's stop at an older device first - the hand crank. These are as old as the battery, but have fallen out of fashion although they still exist. For very simple devices such as old style flashlights, extremely basic radios and so on. They are even available for cell phone charging, but you get a lot of physical exercise in return for not a lot of charging and the mechanical force in play does not promise well for long time use.

Solar panels, then. They finally made it not just from science fiction to working technology, but from hi tech to consumer technology. The dedicated person can actually invest in the gear needed, cover a part of his house with solar panels and more or less turn the house off the city power grid. It might take a decade to cover back the cost, but it is doable. In this thread we'll look at smaller stuff.

Solar panel system can tentatively be sorted into mono (looking for a better word), flexible and permanent installations. They all have a sun-sensitive screen, a battery, a control unit of varying complexity, and the cables/connections to tie it all together. This post will give a brief overview while later posts will look at samples.

Monos are the very simplest kind of device, like a calculator with a tiny solar panel. Or a lamp. This kind of electronics is now very, very cheap. It has in common a very low need for current, a very small battery and zero flexibility.

A flexible system allows you to plug in a number of devices to either run them directly or charge up their batteries, and may even offer alternative ways to charge the battery. A solar powered USB charger is a perfect example of this. There are however also similar systems for plugging into your car, which is all kinds of handy. However, I also define flexible as portable so it does fit on top of a backpack at least when folded.

A permanent system is everything a flexible system is except portable, but generally larger both in the size of panels and in the number of batteries involved. With more current comes the need for a more complex power control system and battery charging getup; depending on a number of size factors anyone with some technical skills can rig up a small installation while the big jobs may require an electrician's license depending on where in the world you live and what the conditions of your insurance are. At that point we are however talking about enough electric current to run your everyday house applications like big screen TVs and vacuumers.