Thanks to Abe and Josie of Vela Creations for passing along this red rover...or should I say, solar rover. It'll be powered by the sun and will also double as a battery bank for the dome by using six 8 volt batteries. We boosted the charging power of the solar panels by connecting them together as a chain, much like a battery chain. With this rather minimal solar array, it will take about a day to fully charge the rover and have a range of about 10 miles. This is a good distance for gathering building materials such as adobe, rocks, and sand, and hauling them to the building site. It will also get me to neighbors, the grocery/hardware store at the freeway, and the postal boxes. A future project may be to install a more powerful solar array on the roof for real time driving power. A wind turbine would be ideal for recharging overnight.
1 comment:
I really like that rover. My wife and I are planning on making the total switch to off the grid and self sustaining living in about ten years. That rover could come in handy on the land we want to purchase. About how much is its load capacity? We're a ways off from needing it, but it's good to have the info on hand.
Thanks!
Mike
Post a Comment