{"id":190,"date":"2026-04-02T06:44:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T06:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/?p=190"},"modified":"2026-04-06T16:12:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:12:49","slug":"solar-can-really-help-in-an-emergency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/solar-can-really-help-in-an-emergency\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar can really help in an Emergency."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When I was a teenager, I bought solar cells from an Allied Radio catalog and mounted them on top of my portable radio.&nbsp; It worked pretty well and was popular on the beach.&nbsp;  Years later I loaned it to a neighbor in our apartment complex, and he stole the solar cells off the radio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"338\" height=\"271\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-191\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image.png 338w, https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-300x241.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 338px) 100vw, 338px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Years later I saw a Hoffman solar radio on my dad&#8217;s countertop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"483\" height=\"249\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-192\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-1.png 483w, https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-1-300x155.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 483px) 100vw, 483px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I bought this &#8220;Emergency&#8221; radio almost 50 years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I&#8217;ll never forget being deployed with the Air National Guard and I ended up in the middle of the dessert with a dead cell phone battery and had to run a 60KW generator to charge my Cell phone.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-193\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-2.png 600w, https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-2-300x225.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I bought these solar charged battery banks thinking they&#8217;d help.  They had several problems that limit their usefulness.  You cannot leave it out in the weather and will be damaged by a passing rain shower.  The battery struggles with the rise in temperature of being in the sun.  The solar panel was too small and produces too little power to be useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"279\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-3.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-3.png 600w, https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-3-300x140.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I bought and carried a folding USB solar panel similar to the one above with me after that.&nbsp; Over the years those USB panels got a little bit bigger and a lot more efficient to where they&#8217;d push a couple amps so I gave them to my siblings for emergencies.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The rigid solar panels 80-100W were getting reasonably priced so a couple years ago (2012 ish) I started buying them a couple at a time until I had twelve of them in my garage.&nbsp; When I quit my full time job in 2017 I laid one of them on the roof in the winter for a couple days to gather some data.&nbsp; One of my requirements is to provide 200WH of power for my CPAP. &nbsp; I have enough battery for a couple days, but going without it is not an option.&nbsp; After a couple days I found out that one panel in the winter sun was not going to provide enough power.&nbsp; I grabbed a second panel and bolted them together making a 200W 36V array that should provide approximately 360WH of power per day in December. (The worst month.)&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"330\" height=\"189\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-4.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-196\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-4.png 330w, https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-4-300x172.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 330px) 100vw, 330px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since I sleep at night with a CPAP the power has to make a round trip into and out of a battery which has a significant cost.\u00a0 But I can also live on six hours of sleep if I have to.\u00a0 During the summer months those two panels produce almost 900WH\/Day which can keep our battery powered refrigerator running and have enough left over for Cell Phones and USB charged lanterns. It is my opinion that <strong>all homes <\/strong>ought to have these two panels to provide USB power for the occupants during an emergency.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>30ma at 0.5V 3each<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bitsofknowlege"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219,"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions\/219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mavogt.online\/newwebsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}