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Post by ziggysdad on Oct 8, 2016 22:12:27 GMT 10
Successfully funded through Kickstarter and now taking pre-orders:
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shinester
Senior Member
China's white trash
Posts: 3,119
Likes: 3,578
Email: shiny@ausprep.org
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Post by shinester on Oct 9, 2016 4:53:19 GMT 10
Interesting.
Of course being someone who loves electronics and power gen gear, who already has too many solar charging kits small and large, I look at the specs.
2.5-5W of power, minus a little for losses. - not bad really. 6.4Ah internal battery - 23.7Wh with a 4hr charge.. charge a phone twice. LED lamp built in. cool. $180USD - basic unit $200USD - with duct [needed for shallow water]
Compared with Solar 10W folding panel = 25Wh in winter, 60Wh in summer = $29USD
or 10W folding panel with 1.9Ah internal battery $45
A battery bank is mostly unnecessary if you're charging items, the reason they have it for this gadget is that it has to be under water. In fact you waste energy charging a battery then your phone with the battery. I suppose you could charge one after you've charged your phone. Same goes with a rechargeable light which are a useful add on. The advantages with solar is that you don't need a flowing river/stream which allows you to go anywhere and it's far cheaper and you can buy it on ebay today. I can see how if you're kayaking up a river, then possibly. It's certainly cool looking, the nerd-accountant-want2be_engineer can't look past the lowered utility.
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Post by familyprepper on Oct 9, 2016 18:14:32 GMT 10
For generating power $/power I agree with shiney those small foldable solar panels can't be beat
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myrrph
VIP Member
trying to figure out how to change my nick :P
Posts: 1,075
Likes: 1,232
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Post by myrrph on Oct 11, 2016 16:43:57 GMT 10
redundancy. Its all about redundancy.
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Post by ziggysdad on Oct 13, 2016 12:43:25 GMT 10
I've been doing a little more research on the Estream and it appears less and less practical. It requires flowing water that is deep, but not too deep as you have to get into the stream and anchor it to the bottom with a peg lest it floats away.
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shinester
Senior Member
China's white trash
Posts: 3,119
Likes: 3,578
Email: shiny@ausprep.org
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Post by shinester on Oct 13, 2016 17:57:08 GMT 10
I like your investigations as whilst I have investigated this topic, I may well have come to the wrong conclusions. Thanks for your exploration and besides I love this power-gen stuff
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