Re: Being green in the field
- From: Greg Simmons <simmosonic@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:50:50 -0700 (PDT)
On Jul 30, 5:47 am, Sam <Sam.Mall...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm curious what tips any of you may have for being green in the
field. Is there any way to reduce your carbon footprint in audio field
production?
I have a portable solar power rig from these guys:
http://www.ctsolar.com/index.asp
Mine has a 32W panel and a 16A/h battery, and is shown here:
http://www.ctsolar.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=22
I bought it in late 2006, after doing a boringly intensive amount of
research. Apart from being well-conceived, packaged and tested, it was
a clear winner in terms of Watts/$, but the trade-off was a lower
Watts/kg figure. However, I was happy to lug a bit more weight in
exchange for the cost savings *and* the way it was all packaged and
ready to go.
I use it mainly to keep the batteries charged on my Nagra V. I have
two Li-Ion battery packs for the Nagra; each of which allows up to 10
hours in standby mode or up to 6 hours in non-stop recording mode
(when in good condition). Typically, I'll get about seven hours of use
from them. When on location, one battery is in the Nagra, the other is
connected to the solar rig being charged.
In addition to the CT Solar package, I added a 12V DC to 240V AC
inverter and a power board. Although slightly less efficient (about
90%), this allows me to connect all kinds of things to the system
using their standard AC adaptors/chargers, rather than re-wiring
things to power from 12V DC. I'd highly recommend doing that. However,
make sure you get a 'pure sine wave' inverter; I have a 'modified sine
wave' inverter, it's cheaper but produces a square wave output which
can produce a high frequency buzz in some audio gear when plugged into
it. It's okay for charging batteries and so on, but not for running
audio gear! My next purchase will be a slightly more expensive 'pure
sine wave' inverter - with less than 5% THD, these things are cleaner
than mains power.
I also added a 240V AC to 12V DC charger. This is purely a practical
decision; it allows me to recharge the solar batteries from any
existing mains system. It's not green, but it allows me to keep
running without having to disconnect and reconnect power leads. If
there is mains power around and my solar batteries are running low, I
simply connect the mains charger to the input of the charge controller
without interrupting the work flow. No need to power down, no need to
disconnect and reconnect things...
I wrote a magazine article and accompanying spreadsheet for those
interested in using solar power for laptops, location recorders and
similar. It was published in the Australian magazine AudioTechnology,
but I have a pdf of it here. If anyone is interested, I will send the
pdf and the accompanying spreadsheet.
- Greg Simmons
.
- References:
- Being green in the field
- From: Sam
- Being green in the field
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