Check the power use of your loads carefully. That's the real problem that most people run into. Regular rope lighting is an incredible energy pig that will quickly drain your battery charge (inverter) or fuel (generator). Regular incandescent rope lighting uses about 4-5 watts per foot; 150 feet = 6...

Willpower here from Sno-Koan Solar... we will be back again this year with lots of solar power. We're planning our biggest array ever (~30kW) for our neighborhood, Nectar Village. Again we'll be offering our open-access community charging station. We're also putting up a second large array (~24 kW) ...

It's Burning man, not burning Lithium... so I'm going to suggest against connecting 36 volt lithium batteries directly to our 48 volt battery packs. Either use a 120 volt charger, or some kind of reasonable DC-DC charger; Outback's MX60 units, for example, can take in ~50-54 volts and convert it to ...

We aren't part of AEZ, but we are going to be located in the same type of block (double-depth block of real estate) that AEZ uses, which means roughly between D and F near either the ~8:00 or ~6:00 radials. let's hear it for lithium! MikeP as for charging---you are welcome to go directly from DC; bu...

Sounds like a nice scooter.

I'd actually stick with 120 volts---developing another 36 volt lithium battery management system would be a project. You can drop by Snow Koan Solar any time (daylight hours) and plug into one of our 120 volt outlets.

/wk

As for project financing----if you and other participants in your camp (or village) agree to buy a dome (or any other shared addition to a camp)... and split the cost of the item and transport costs--- you're doing the same thing we're doing. As for proximity, we organized our camp with other camps ...

Good point. Maybe people should stick with generators. Everyone likes the sound and fumes of a genset outside the tent all night. Philanthropic Oil companies and the friendly oil counties need our money. Anyhow...As for the arrangements we use, we gift all incidental charging for portable stuff, bat...

So our big solar array will in fact be used as a shade structure. In past years, we've used the space for tents, a cool room, battery chargers, chairs and couches (shade lounge), storage. Because of how stable the structure is, it's a great space in camp. The modules we use are sometimes new, someti...

Planned dimensions for our 24 kW array are: 95 ft wide x 22 ft deep x 10ft (high side) to 4ft (low side) tall. The modules put out around 13 watts per square foot (full sun). As for grouping multiple small modules, you just need to make sure the voltages are compatible, the wire is large enough, and...

nice, 6-axle? wow, that sounds big. What kind of battery pack? 2 years ago there was an electric-powered western saloon art car, it was built on a heavy-duty 48 volt utility cart frame. They doubled the battery pack to (16) 6-volt golf cart batteries. That thing was able to suck tons of power from o...

Oscillator, thanks for the props. This year we're planning the solar array to be a little bigger, around 24 kW. And we're planning 2 or 3 forklift batteries for the overnight/stormy weather power. I've worked on at least four electric art cars on the Playa. Each of them started as a very old electri...

Well... scratching my head for just 3 seconds... comfort and joy fits the bill for all of those points. Queer, vegetarian, and many guys involved with the faerie community. And a fun place on many levels.

Yes, we'll make 48 volts available again this year for artcars. The connectors for that will be SB120 (preferred) as well as SB350. We're all in favor of more electric artcars. Rolling around at 5 mph, most artcars need less power than your average golf car. Add a tiny bit more power for a good soun...

... and a little bit more info... for electric art-cars, I'd suggest a 48 volt battery pack and a PWM motor controller, Altrax, Curtis, Zilla, whatever. Speeds are low on the playa. 48 volts stuff is manageable. Definitely consider an onboard converter to supply either 12 volts (for 12 volt audio/li...

The charging station will have standard 120 volt outlets... plus a NEMA14-50 or two. Our own art cars use 48 volts, and we may plug in directly using anderson SB120 (gray) connectors. The bigger SB175 we usually reserve for 12 volt packs, and we use the SB350 for connecting our 48 volt forklift pack...

I prefer using my tried-and-true nuclear reactor that stays just about 93 million miles away.

Ourania: Sounds like you're off to a good start. (2) 30 watt panels will produce around 2 amps (charging current) each in full sunlight. If they stay in the sun, and the battery isn't full, they can put about 24 amp-hours per day into a 12 volt battery on the Playa. 24 amp hours x 12 volts gives you...

Captain Goddammit, you might be full of dust (or something else). Just a possibility. But we dust off our solar panels and keep them facing the sunny side of the playa. Over the past 3 years, I've worked with artists and supplied solar system that successfully powered 20 art projects on the Playa. Y...

I also drive one of those plug-in cars. Sourcing electricity for our vehicles isn't the problem... it's the oil. Battery electric cars have a key advantage: efficiency. The upstream losses producing gasoline are large enough that we'd be better off not messing with the oil in the first place. Extrac...

Solar Power on the Playa... anyone planning any interesting solar power installations on the Playa this year? Rather than setting up multiple smaller systems at disparate camps, this year we're evolving our solar power system. The camp I'm with, Snow Koan Solar, will be building an even bigger array...