With enough electricity, mountaineering is more interesting.
Mountaineering, electricity is a kind of just need.
Night lighting, navigation, and phone calls all need electricity. If there is no electricity, you will be flustered.
The mobile phone can talk and navigate. It’s troublesome without power.
If the power is abundant, mountaineering will be more interesting: in case of beautiful scenery, you can take photos and videos; If you are interested, you can use UAV aerial photography at will; For recreation in the camp, you can use a projector; Heating, you can use electric heating.
With electricity outdoors, you can do more and more wonderful things.
But it’s not easy to keep the power on. What if the power bank can only last for one day, two days, or more?
To solve this problem, power generation is the positive solution, but it does not use love to generate power, but relies on portable, low-cost, and lightweight power generation methods. This article will teach you how to do it and help you get more fun in the mountains.
Power generation mode: solar energy is the first choice
In the wild, power can be generated by using wind, fire, water, hand, and solar energy, but only solar energy can be portable, lightweight, and easy to operate.
Solar energy: portable, lightweight, and easy to operate:
1) portable. At present, solar panels are foldable, which is convenient for storage and carrying;
2) Lightweight and low-power boards are generally 0.2kg, and high-power boards for large teams are 5kg;
3) Simple, spread out, aim at the sun, plug in the line to work, anyone can learn. Just unfold the solar panel against the sun and plug in the charging equipment to work.
Thermal power generation is a supplement, which can meet the requirements of simple operation, but it is not very good in portability and lightweight, because generators + gas and oil basically start at 20 ~ 30kg, which is only suitable for such scenes in the base camp.
However, because this power generation method has high power and fast speed, it is also reused. As for the portable firewood stove, although it does not need oil, the power is too small, it can fill a headlamp, which is not universal.
Compared with solar power generation, the portable thermal power generator has a high weight and poor portable performance, but it has high power and good timeliness.
Other power generation methods have defects in these three aspects: wind or hydropower generation is not portable and complex; Hand power generation is only enough for emergency lighting.
Although thermal power is still used in some mountaineering camps, more and more people are turning to solar panels for power generation because it is more convenient, quiet, and cheap.
Next, let’s talk about how to use solar panels to ensure an endless supply of electricity.
Step 1: know the daily power consumption
Obviously, the first step in providing enough power is to understand daily consumption. If you don’t require accuracy, you can check the average value we provide. If there are many devices, the calculation is necessary, but the calculation process is not complex.
Approximate consumption – if the journey is not long, the electric equipment is stable or the working time of the electric equipment is not high, in fact, the accurate calculation is not required, just knowing the approximate is enough:
Mobile + lighting: 15 watt hours wh
Above + camera: 25 watt hours wh
Above + UAV: 90 watt hours wh
Above + projector: 150 Watt hours wh
If you belong to one of the following situations: team leader, super long route, super lightweight player, and much electric equipment, you need to accurately calculate the daily consumption. The method is very simple, just understand a few concepts:
Watt hour (WH) – a unit for measuring power. The higher the value, the more power can be provided (the longer the powered equipment is used). This unit can be seen on the power bank and battery. The so-called once electricity in daily life is 1000WH watt hour, and the power of a power bank is about 50wh.
Volt (V) – voltage unit, marked on the battery.
Milliampere hour (MAH) – it is also a unit to measure the power supply capacity. It is basically only used for mobile phones. MAH ÷ 1000 × Voltage V = watt hour wh (milliampere needs to be converted into ampere a during calculation, so it is divided by 1000). If the power indicated on the mobile phone battery is 4200 MAH and the voltage is 3.7 V, the power that the battery can provide is 15.5 watt hour wh (4200 MAH ÷ 1000) × 3.7 V).
Watt (W) – a unit to measure the power generation (consumption) capacity. The larger the value, the stronger the power generation (consumption) capacity. It can be seen on household appliances and solar panels. tile × Time is watt hour. For example, 10 watt solar panel can generate electricity for one hour, and the power generation capacity is 10 watt × 1 hour = 10 watt hours (loss shall also be considered in practice).
Estimate power consumption – convert the daily power consumption of your electric equipment into watt hours, and then add up:
Mobile phone: 12.9 watt hour wh (3500mah ÷ 1000 × 3.7V × 1）
Camera: 9 watt hours wh (1250mah ÷ 1000 × 3.6V × 2）
Flashlight: 2 watt hours wh (2 AA rechargeable batteries No. 5, exhausted in three days, 2000mAh ÷ 1000) × 1.5V × 2 ÷ 3 ）
Headlamp: 1.8 watt hour wh (3 No. 7 AAA rechargeable batteries, exhausted in two days, 800MAH ÷ 1000 × 1.5V × 3 ÷ 2）
Cumulative power consumption of the above four in one day: 25.7 watt hours wh
Step 2: estimate the generation time and actual generation power
With different routes, sunshine, weather, and time arrangement, sunshine time and power generation efficiency will change.
6 ~ 8 hours of power generation time – from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., a total of 9 hours are suitable for power generation. It is not difficult to set aside 6 hours for power generation every day.
Among them, getting up in the morning and having lunch at noon is the prime time for power generation. The charging board can be exposed to the sun at 90 ° as far as possible. If you need a lot of electricity, you can also fix the board on your backpack and generate electricity while walking.
40% ~ 60% of actual power generation – the nominal power of the solar power generation panel is the peak value under the most ideal condition. Generally, it can only reach 40% ~ 60% of the power in actual use.
It can be simply estimated as follows: 40% in the mixed weather of yin and Yang in the plain; 50% in sunny plain days; The plateau is 60%. For example, 10 watts of solar panels are used to generate electricity in the snow mountain base camp. Because it is a plateau, the actual power generation can reach 6 watts.
Step 3: select solar panels with sufficient power
It is very important to buy solar panels with appropriate power: the power is too small, the power is insufficient, the power is too large, and it is inconvenient to carry them.
Approximate consumption – if the journey is not long, the electric equipment is stable or the working time of the electric equipment is not high, in fact, the accurate calculation is not required, just knowing the approximate is enough:
10W solar panel, generating about 24 watt hours per day, can support mobile phone + lighting + camera.
38W solar panel, with a daily power generation of about 91 watt hours, can support mobile phone + lighting + camera + UAV.
63w solar panel, generating about 151 watt hours per day, can support mobile phone + lighting + camera + UAV + projector.
Calculate the solar panel power – if the midway power failure cannot be accepted, the accurate calculation shall be carried out and allowance shall be made. According to the estimated time and power generation efficiency in the second step, combined with the daily power consumption, the results can be calculated.
For example, if the daily power consumption is 25.7 watt hour wh, it needs 11 Watt Solar panels to meet the demand (power generation efficiency is 40%, power generation is 6 hours, 25.7 ÷ 6 ÷ 40%).
The above three steps are used in turn to calculate the electrical equipment that can be carried – in fact, there may be solar panels, and estimate how much electrical equipment can be carried. The above three steps can also be reversed to know how many power consuming devices you can bring. For example, 12 Watt Solar panels generate about 29 watt hours (12 KWH) a day × 40% × 6）.
