Can a 5241E-Z12E be powered by solar panel and SLA battery setup?

M

MakeItRain

Pulling my weight
Aug 7, 2017
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Was wondering if a 75-watt solar panel plus a deep cycle 12V battery 40Ah would be enough to power a 5241E-12E for long?

I want to mount a camera near the street to capture plates, no continuous motion recording so power consumption should be at super minimum. It wouldjust capture snapshots.
 
How are you going to get the video back to your house?
If you have to run a wire, You might as well go with POE and you can run 300', or POE+ and I think it's 800', if I can remember right.
 
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Old Timer said:
How are you going to get the video back to your house?
If you have to run a wire, You might as well go with POE and you can run 300', or POE+ and I think it's 800', if I can remember right.
Click to expand...

I have some trick up my sleeves... involving periodic wireless upload with a low power raspberry pi. Remember, I only need pictures.... not a stream.
 
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Isn't PoE+ 800 meters, ~2400 feet?
 
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Basically, you can think of my project kind of like the Flock camera system. I'd like to build something similar where it is standalone.
 
The 5241E-Z12E power consumption would be as follows:
DC12v 2.5w @ no IR = 0.208A
DC12v 9.4w @ with IR = 0.78A

With a 12V SLA battery pack, let's say there are 19 hours in a day with no sunlight, then 19 hours x 0.78A = 14.82Ah of consumption per day for this camera. So sounds like I need a 40Ah SLA/LifePo4 battery.
Was wondering if a 75w panel can maintain the battery's charge for the day plus rainy days.
 
The cam would have to be powered 24/7 to work. It will always be pulling power even if it is not recording. I have no idea if it uses less power if it is not recording. But at night, you will be pulling the full wattage since you will be using the IR at 100%. Realize that relying on just snapshots alone for LPR can be hit or miss. Getting the triggers to be perfect could be next to impossible.

See this thread:

New to LPR? Considerations Before You Begin

Thought I would throw together a post on my experiences so far with LPR in an effort to help others that are considering running down that rabbit hole. There are some practical considerations you should know about LPR. I am approaching this from the position of using Blue Iris and Plate...
ipcamtalk.com ipcamtalk.com

A member here, @TRLcam, has done this kind of setup.

Mailbox Camera

A few months ago I was taking out the trash and while walking down the driveway I noticed a car stopping at our mailbox, opening it and driving away. It was dark so I know it was not the rural mail carrier. We live in a rural area and have had occasions of missing mail in the past. We don't have...
ipcamtalk.com ipcamtalk.com
 
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The Z12 will draw about 8.5Wh of power with illuminators on and approx 3.5Wh with them off. So figure ~6Wh average over 24 hours. 6Wh x 24 = 144Wh/Day.

Using this site: PVWatts you can determine how much sunlight would be expected to hit your panels for any given location. Its accurate too since it takes into account historical weather data. You need to plan for December usage since that is the month with the least amount of sunlight. For example if using for Birmingham AL for the location in that site calculator, a 100w panel would only produce 8kWh for the month of December or 266Wh a day averaged over the month. 266Wh (100w panel potential) - 144Wh (camera power draw) = 122Wh (excess). So yeah, a 100w panel would be enough to run the camera and dump excess power back power into the battery system which is what you want. Ideally though, you want to dump back into the system the same amount that you need to power the equipment in the same day. In other words, if your equipment is drawing 144Wh/day then you'd want to dump at least another 144Wh/day into the battery system that day. So a single 100w panel wouldn't meet this requirement using my quick calculations I described above. Keep in mind, those calculations are based in middle Alabama. The further north you go, the less sunlight available to hit the panels so the lower amount of power can be collected. If you are up in Minnesota for example, that 100w panel is only able to collect 6kWh for the month of December as compared to the 8kWh that the same panel will collect in middle Alabama.

As far as batteries, you can build your battery bank as large or small as you want but I'd spec out the battery bank to at least have enough juice (when fully charged) to run the system 3 full days with no sunlight at a minimum to cover yourself from lingering storm fronts, snow, rain, etc...

Your problem is you also need to run a radio 24x7 which will probably at least double the power draw depending on the radio. Probably looking at twin 100w panels at a minimum.
 
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PawelMatis said:
How many kWh do you average get with this setup? mine was getting about .34 kWh a day. is that normal?
Click to expand...
Who are you asking and what setup?

The answer to the question is it "normal" depends on panel size and location in the world.
 
While it's true that wind turbines can be visible on the landscape, it's important to consider their overall environmental impact. Wind turbines are indeed a form of green energy as they harness the power of the wind to generate electricity without emitting greenhouse gases or contributing to air pollution. If you're interested in alternative green energy options, you might want to explore solar energy as well. Installing solar panels combined with a good Solar Home Battery Storage system can provide a reliable and sustainable source of power while also offering energy independence and backup during outages.
 
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