Excuse my ignorance...

Hi,
I have been set a task from my boss which is a little out of my depth, hence this plea for help.
We want to set up an IP camera via a Wireless connection. There is no power available at the required location, so I am hoping to be able to put together a Solar box.
There is the camera (12v, 1.5A) the wireless bridge (unknown) and a small fan in the camera housing.
I was planning on a battery, charger/regulator and solar panel. My question is what sizes, etc.. I am starting to see that it may be possible to operate the set up purely from a big enough solar panel given sufficient sunlight (Perth, Western Aus) and given that it need not operate at night. But I am thinking it may still be best to have batteries involved.
All help and advice gratefully received!
Cheers Paul H

Hello Paul,
What you are proposing is certainly reasonable and a good solar application. I suggest you include a battery since solar panels do not produce a constant power throughout the day. If you use a timer to shut off the fan and camera at 6 PM and turn it on at 6 AM, then your watt-hours per day would be (12V * 1.5A * 12 hrs = 216 watt-hours, plus the fan of course). Early in the morning solar power will start at zero and peak mid-day. Depending on the air temperature and type of solar panel you use, you will need to include a "derate" factor. Typical solar panels will deliver about 80% of their rated power on a hot day at noon. Perth is located at nearly the same latitude as Tucson (32 degrees), so a panel facing due North and tilted to 32 degrees from horizontal should produce about the same daily power as here in Tucson, assuming your weather conditions are similar (sunny most of the time). NREL data for Tucson from 1961 to 1990 (from Solar Radiation Data Manual, available free online) shows Tucson averages about 4.1 kW-hrs per square meter per day in December. Since solar panels are rated at 1 kW/ square meter (normal sun intensity) this means you would average about 4.1 hours of full sun per day in December. The value peaks at 7.3 hours in April and May and drops a little during the summer (our "monsoon" season). You need to plan for the
On Feb 1, 12:23 am, "paul h" wrote:

Hi,
I have been set a task from my boss which is a little out of my depth, hence this plea for help.
We want to set up an IP camera via a Wireless connection. There is no power available at the required location, so I am hoping to be able to put together a Solar box.
There is the camera (12v, 1.5A) the wireless bridge (unknown) and a small fan in the camera housing.
I was planning on a battery, charger/regulator and solar panel. My question is what sizes, etc.. I am starting to see that it may be possible to operate the set up purely from a big enough solar panel given sufficient sunlight (Perth, Western Aus) and given that it need not operate at night. But I am thinking it may still be best to have batteries involved.
All help and advice gratefully received!
Cheers Paul H

Hello Paul,
Sorry, but my computer decided to post my message before I was done!. Continuing with the thought, you need to measure the fan current and include it, but just for the camera you need 216 watt-hrs/day. Designing for the worst month (December in the northern hemisphere, June in Perth), and using the 80% derate factor you would need 216watt- hrs/(4.1hrs*0.8) = 66 Watts of rated solar power just for the camera. You should apply another derate to account for inefficiencies in battery charging/discharging which will vary with battery type but can be 85-90% for lead acid batteries. Your battery capacity (in Amp-hrs) will depend on how many days of cloud cover you can expect in the worst case. Assuming you want three days operation with no solar power, you will need at least 1.5 Amps * 12 hrs/day * 3 days = 54 AH just for the camera. It is a good idea to avoid discharging the battery below about 50% for a deep discharge battery to achieve good battery life. If your three days of rain seldom occurs, you might get by with a 54 AH battery. I assume this is a fixed installation where size and weight is not a factor, so buy a golf cart battery or similar and you should be fine. I prefer sealed batteries (gel cell or better yet, AGM). Once you include the fan power, you will probably need something in the 80-100 Watt solar panel size and maybe a 75 to 100 AH battery. A charge controller will complete the system, they are available from lots of places and price depends on features. The better ones will have charge cycles that can be optimized for flooded, AGM, or gel cell batteries, and will prolong battery life, but the cheap ones are OK for some applications. Morningstar has a lot of good advice available online, as do some of the battery manufacturers. I hope this has helped answer your question.
Bob Butcher On Feb 1, 12:23 am, "paul h" wrote:

Hi,
I have been set a task from my boss which is a little out of my depth, hence this plea for help.
We want to set up an IP camera via a Wireless connection. There is no power available at the required location, so I am hoping to be able to put together a Solar box.
There is the camera (12v, 1.5A) the wireless bridge (unknown) and a small fan in the camera housing.
I was planning on a battery, charger/regulator and solar panel. My question is what sizes, etc.. I am starting to see that it may be possible to operate the set up purely from a big enough solar panel given sufficient sunlight (Perth, Western Aus) and given that it need not operate at night. But I am thinking it may still be best to have batteries involved.
All help and advice gratefully received!
Cheers Paul H

On Feb 1, 12:23 am, "paul h" wrote:
We want to set up an IP camera via a Wireless connection. There is no power available at the required location, so I am hoping to be able to put together a Solar box.
There is the camera (12v, 1.5A) the wireless bridge (unknown) and a small fan in the camera housing. ....

I might suggest that due to the high cost of solar that it might be wise to try to reduce power requirements as much as possible first.
You might explore other IP cameras, perhaps with the wireless built in, that don't require as much power. Another option might be to use a wireless camera that is not IP based and place the video-to-IP converter somewhere within range that has power.
I know I've seen consumer grade wireless security cameras that use less than 200 mA (.2A, 2.4W). If it was possible to use one of these in this situation then to power it with PV panels, 24/7 in the middle of winter (3 kWh/m^2/day insolation) might require (2.4W x 24h / 3 / .8 / .8) 30W of solar PV panels and a 20 to 50 amp-hour 12V battery.
If range is an issue with these low power wireless cameras then I'm sure adding an appropriate antenna(s) could help a lot. I've heard of people boosting their cell phones and wireless IP this way so I don't see why it wouldn't work for a wireless camera.
Anthony

On Feb 1, 9:33 am, Anthony Matonak wrote:

On Feb 1, 12:23 am, "paul h" wrote:
We want to set up an IP camera via a Wireless connection. There is no power available at the required location, so I am hoping to be able to put together a Solar box.
There is the camera (12v, 1.5A) the wireless bridge (unknown) and a small fan in the camera housing.
... I might suggest that due to the high cost of solar that it might be wise to try to reduce power requirements as much as possible first.
You might explore other IP cameras, perhaps with the wireless built in, that don't require as much power. Another option might be to use a wireless camera that is not IP based and place the video-to-IP converter somewhere within range that has power.
I know I've seen consumer grade wireless security cameras that use less than 200 mA (.2A, 2.4W). If it was possible to use one of these in this situation then to power it with PV panels, 24/7 in the middle of winter (3 kWh/m^2/day insolation) might require (2.4W x 24h / 3 / .8 / .8) 30W of solar PV panels and a 20 to 50 amp-hour 12V battery.
If range is an issue with these low power wireless cameras then I'm sure adding an appropriate antenna(s) could help a lot. I've heard of people boosting their cell phones and wireless IP this way so I don't see why it wouldn't work for a wireless camera.
Anthony

Depending on your climate, one of the most important things you can do is keep your batts. warm...or cool as the case may be.

On Feb 1, 11:58 pm, "Bob" wrote:

Hello Paul,
Sorry, but my computer decided to post my message before I was done!. Continuing with the thought, you need to measure the fan current and include it, but just for the camera you need 216 watt-hrs/day. Designing for the worst month (December in the northern hemisphere, June in Perth), and using the 80% derate factor you would need 216watt- hrs/(4.1hrs*0.8) = 66 Watts of rated solar power just for the camera. You should apply another derate to account for inefficiencies in battery charging/discharging which will vary with battery type but can be 85-90% for lead acid batteries. Your battery capacity (in Amp-hrs) will depend on how many days of cloud cover you can expect in the worst case. Assuming you want three days operation with no solar power, you will need at least 1.5 Amps * 12 hrs/day * 3 days = 54 AH just for the camera. It is a good idea to avoid discharging the battery below about 50% for a deep discharge battery to achieve good battery life. If your three days of rain seldom occurs, you might get by with a 54 AH battery. I assume this is a fixed installation where size and weight is not a factor, so buy a golf cart battery or similar and you should be fine. I prefer sealed batteries (gel cell or better yet, AGM). Once you include the fan power, you will probably need something in the 80-100 Watt solar panel size and maybe a 75 to 100 AH battery. A charge controller will complete the system, they are available from lots of places and price depends on features. The better ones will have charge cycles that can be optimized for flooded, AGM, or gel cell batteries, and will prolong battery life, but the cheap ones are OK for some applications. Morningstar has a lot of good advice available online, as do some of the battery manufacturers. I hope this has helped answer your question.
Bob Butcher On Feb 1, 12:23 am, "paul h" wrote:

Hi,
I have been set a task from my boss which is a little out of my depth, hence this plea for help.
We want to set up an IP camera via a Wireless connection. There is no power available at the required location, so I am hoping to be able to put together a Solar box.
There is the camera (12v, 1.5A) the wireless bridge (unknown) and a small fan in the camera housing.
I was planning on a battery, charger/regulator and solar panel. My question is what sizes, etc.. I am starting to see that it may be possible to operate the set up purely from a big enough solar panel given sufficient sunlight (Perth, Western Aus) and given that it need not operate at night. But I am thinking it may still be best to have batteries involved.
All help and advice gratefully received!
Cheers Paul H- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -

Many Thanks to all for the replies, very useful indeed.
Cheers Paul H

On Feb 1, 2:23 pm, "paul h" wrote:

Hi,
I have been set a task from my boss which is a little out of my depth, hence this plea for help.
We want to set up an IP camera via a Wireless connection. There is no power available at the required location, so I am hoping to be able to put together a Solar box.
There is the camera (12v, 1.5A) the wireless bridge (unknown) and a small fan in the camera housing.
I was planning on a battery, charger/regulator and solar panel. My question is what sizes, etc.. I am starting to see that it may be possible to operate the set up purely from a big enough solar panel given sufficient sunlight (Perth, Western Aus) and given that it need not operate at night. But I am thinking it may still be best to have batteries involved.
All help and advice gratefully received!
Cheers Paul H

Hi Paul:
You may wish to invest in a 12 vdc recycling timer. I use them for our solar street lights at night. They cost about $25 here in Thailand and manufactured by W.I.P. Electric which may be found on www.alibaba.com W.I.P. can also turn out just about any voltage you want. I find them very useful but one draw back is they don't provide a blocking diode if in the even you get your polarities mixed up the relay will pop. They have been kind enough to repair mine for free and return postage by EMS. Hope this helps.
Bob