Category: DIY
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Project: Portable DC Toaster Oven – direct solar electric cooking to go
Hi folks, hope you’re doing well. In what is possibly a first, I am unveiling a new prototype invention – a mini PV solar electric toaster oven. It is lightweight, portable and I think would be fairly cheap to produce. It easily bakes or roasts bread, meat, vegetables and whatever else – all day using…
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18V tool battery bakes bread! Mini Oven prototype part 2
Is it possible to bake bread using an 18V Power Tool Battery? Recently, I set out to answer this question. In the back yard I set up a table and connected my mini solar electric PV2L oven to a Ryobi 18V power tool battery with alligator clips. After a few adjustments and a short wait,…
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Mini 100 Watt solar electric oven prototype – Simple Solar Cooking!
Can a single 100 Watt 12V solar panel supply enough power to cook or bake food by itself? I’ve been thinking about this question for years. A simple portable electric oven that operates off of such a small amount of power could change everything. Finally, after a long wait, the opportunity came to test the…
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Cooling Your Shed With Solar Power! Ventilation and Concepts
(Note: there is a more detailed YouTube video for this article posted down below) Is your shed (or chicken coop, outbuildings, etc.) getting a bit too hot in the summer time? Ventilating and cooling your shed with solar power is a fun project within reach of just about any DIY enthusiast. Believe it or not,…
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Risky Experiments in my Solar Workshop – Part 2: lithium cell phone batteries
Some time ago, a friend sent me a box of discarded lithium-ion cell phone batteries he had no use for. They would have ended up in the landfill otherwise. So I started a “side project” in which I intended to experimentally use these batteries for solar power. Normally I use LiFePo4 cells for solar power,…
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Using Solar Panels and Ohms Law to drive DC loads directly
Hi folks, I’m going to briefly cover some concepts that are helpful to understand when driving loads directly with PV DC solar panels: whether it is a fan, a heating element, an electric pump, hot water heater, and so on. We will use a heating element for this example because it’s simple and has no…
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Learn About Solar / DC Circuit Breakers in 5 Minutes!
I work with DC circuit breakers quite a lot, and had the urge to make a quick video primer about choosing DC circuit breakers and the various ins and outs of the process. This presentation tries to be beginner friendly while encouraging further investigation and independent research – which is the core part of DIY.…
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Buying Used or New Solar Panels? A few thoughts…
It’s very common for people to shop used solar panels. I personally have had the experience of buying both used and new, and learned a lot. If you’re interested, I produced a video a while back that includes commentary on this subject (posted to the right). On with the article! Used Solar Panels The most…
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Best oscilloscope for beginners? FNIRSI-1C5 first look, unpaid review
(The author purchased this item with his own money) If you wish to support the blog, here is an affiliate link to buy the 1C15 on Amazon Having worked on various electronics for 15 years, I never actually owned an oscilloscope. They took up too much room on the workbench and I thought they were…
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Low Voltage Solar Panels can cook food directly – And why it matters
Did you know it’s possible to cook food directly off low voltage solar panels? No inverter, no high voltages, no battery, no charge controller. It’s technically feasible, and I have done it several times now with prototypes developed in my solar workshop. The simplicity and efficiency of such a setup is nothing short of astounding.…
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PV to EV – why isn’t this everywhere?
Photovoltaic to Electric Vehicle – why can’t a person plug solar panels straight into his electric car (EV) in the driveway and charge it off the electrical grid? This concept means the car supports direct solar panel input natively, without much effort on the end user’s part. How much more green does it get, if…
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Making a cheap DIY HEPA Air Purifier
The air is dirty – fact. There’s a lot of stuff in the air that shouldn’t be, we won’t get into that here. Inside a typical home, it can be even dirtier. For this reason I have a lot of HEPA air purifiers in my home and shop. If you have sinus issues, asthma and…
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Making Hot Water if the Grid Goes Down – Cheap Easy DIY
Have you ever thought what you would do if the electrical utility power service was down for a week or a month, and you couldn’t easily get a hot shower? Believe it or not, there is a cheap and easy DIY solution. If you already have a few solar panels, they can heat water for…
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