They're here!

And I don't mean ghosties and ghoulies emerging from the TV set, wearing pilgrim hats either. My CPU fans arrived from China. Yes, I buy a ton of stuff from China because otherwise I'd have to make this bus construction last multiple years.

I had a little play with one of my two fans. After clipping the funky computer connector off, I attached it to my solar panel and angled the panel at the sun. Nothing happened! That's not surprising. I find solar panels to be very finicky things. (Insert usual caustic comment about the worth of this green energy stuff).

Returning inside the bus I connected the fan to an exhausted 9v battery. The fan picked up speed and blew quite a breeze, purring quietly.

Going back to all this green energy stuff, people have been fantasizing and fanaticizing about it for years. What do we find now? Reading in the news, Britain and many other countries have realized just what a crock this green energy thing is and how it's cheaper and more efficient just to build nuclear power plants instead.

As I have said before, the chance of running air conditioning from solar is nil. The blessed panels won't even generate usable power in daylight, half the time! Example, my 5W panel won't power a 50ma fan. I'm also concerned about the copious heat generated by the panels. The back of my 5W panel gets pretty hot when it's actually running my old, small CPU fan. I can't imagine the number of panels needed to power an air conditioner that has to cool not only the bus but the extra heat passed into the bus by scalding hot solar panels. It's worth noting that solar panels get less efficient the hotter they get!

I'm definitely thinking more in terms of charging a battery from the alternator that's otherwise isolated from the main bus circuitry. That should provide ample power for fans, phone etc. I did briefly consider a wind turbine but realized that most of the time, the wind would just not blow strongly enough. None of these free energy things seem to be worth the time of day.

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