How to use solar power

How to use solar power to improve your sound may seem a bit far-fetched and I began experimenting last year but first let me give you some background. I am an audiophile and this is my test system. The system comprises of 2 x 300 litre cabinets housing Tannoy 15″‘ 3818 Drivers. I am always looking for ways to improve my sound and I know that power is very important. I have been working with the idea of using solar power as the source to supply my equipment but also make it portable so it can be used for different applications.

The idea

Solar power is becoming more affordable and people are beginning to realise we are able to do many things from the power the sun has to offer.

I decided to make a portable unit to supply power to several components at the same time. As you can see from the picture, I have a light, a laptop, a mobile phone, a guitar amplifier, a guitar foot pedal and two batteries. Everything was easy to fit into a flight case and I was able to run the batteries for a few hours before a recharge was needed.

Audio system

The first thing I wanted to test was my own audio system. I wanted to hear what sound improvements there would be and I was quite surprised by the result.

The actual sound I heard from my system when using the batteries was in fact much better. The sound was very rich and at the same time smooth and clean with no rough edges and a pleasure to listen to.

The system played perfectly for about two hours but the battery went below the 11.5-volt requirement needed to supply the Inverter to give the 230 volts to supply the amplifier and CD player. We have clean power from the battery feeding the inverter which steps up this clean power to 230 volts which is clean power to drive any amplifier/cd/computer. So clean in and clean out. This is the difference between dirty mains supplying your amplifier/cd/s=computer etc.

Gigging

I am a musician and play guitar and was interested to see how the battery pack would work with my guitar. I used the same solar power unit and took it to the local park to see how it would perform.

The system worked great and we even had people wanting to dance to the music, which was very encouraging. For me to see the excitement we had created was great and I think it was because my friend was so good at playing my guitar and the weather was beautiful it all made the atmosphere to become let me say “electric”. It is always great to try Something new and this is what life is all about.

Camping

This is another use for the Portable solar power system because I tested it at 10:30 one summers evening. I used a light, a laptop and an iPhone in the middle of a fire whilst we made a barbecue.

It was a great experience because we were able to see exactly what we were trying to do. The field we were in had no lighting what so ever and we did not want to use the cars headlights.

As well as making a great Barbecue, we were able to listen to music check our emails and use our iPhones and we had the power to spare. It really worked out well and we also had another light but we did not use it because what we had was enough.

Convenient

The original idea was to develop a package that could be used anywhere and was able to supply power to drive different items but also to have a reasonable life before a recharge was necessary. If more storage is needed then it can be easily done by adding another storage battery.

If a quicker charging rate is required then it is very simple just to add a second solar panel to the system. It all depends on how quickly that you want to charge the batteries up. I found that a single panel with a single battery took about five hours to charge and a single battery with two panels took only two hours to charge. Now there is a way to make your audio system sound better because this type of unit can be easily installed in your home and fitted to an existing system.

Question

Have you ever tried something like this? Because if not then please do because it really makes a word of difference to the sound from your loudspeakers. There are companies such as Jeff Roland who specialise in power supplies and for more info please click here to read more.

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