Average power consumption indoor module

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Grinch
Posts: 15
Joined: 14 Jul 2014, 21:20

Average power consumption indoor module

Post by Grinch »

Hi,

I've learned that the indoor module requires too much power to use batteries. Anyway I have no other option in my garden, so I'm planning to run it with a solar panel (together with a 3G Router). To get the right dimensions for the systems and batteries I need to know the average power consumption of the module. I already did some measurements with a multimeter and found out on idle it drains 10-30mA and during a measurement peaks up to 200mA. But unfortunately I don't own better tools to get an average of an hour or so. Has anyone done this or more information? Would be very appreciated.

Thanks
Hache-eLle
Posts: 5
Joined: 22 Jun 2014, 03:23

Re: Average power consumption indoor module

Post by Hache-eLle »

Leave the indoor module connected to a power point and purchase an additional indoor module instead?
Grinch
Posts: 15
Joined: 14 Jul 2014, 21:20

Re: Average power consumption indoor module

Post by Grinch »

My garden is 8km off, so an additional indoor module is not really an option ;)
falkio
Posts: 76
Joined: 25 Apr 2013, 13:10

Re: Average power consumption indoor module

Post by falkio »

Your 3G router will definitely drain more power than the weather station!
Or get a big 12v car battery p.e. 120 Ah and attach a USB car charger to it. So you have a 5V USB power source.

With a mean power consumption of 100mA@5V=0,5W this battery should last 120 days.
Grinch
Posts: 15
Joined: 14 Jul 2014, 21:20

Re: Average power consumption indoor module

Post by Grinch »

The 3G Router drains ~100mA on 5V on idle, so yes more, but compared to the 10-30mA of the weather station it's still not dramatically more, or in other words it makes a difference whether its average is closer to 10 or closer to 30mA on idle :)
Anyway, I guess I'll just size the system to be heavily overpowered (thinking of a 30Wp panel and a 30Ah/12V battery) to be on the safe side.
A big car battery has 2 downsides: I need 2 of them to exchange, which costs as much as the whole solar system and there is no street, so you have to walk and carry the battery the last 500m :|
I also tried an external battery for charging mobiles and tablets. You can get them with up to 22.4Ah on 3.7V which should last for a few days, but the problem is they have an auto-power-off and it seems Router+Weatherstation when on idle do not trigger the "systems attached" mechanism so the battery cuts voltage after a few seconds and goes to standby.
Matze
Posts: 77
Joined: 27 Mar 2013, 13:31

Re: Average power consumption indoor module

Post by Matze »

Grinch,

Have already found a solition on this?

Thanks
Grinch
Posts: 15
Joined: 14 Jul 2014, 21:20

Re: Average power consumption indoor module

Post by Grinch »

Well, as I posted earlier, I got a 30Wp solar panel, a solar charge controller, a 30Ah 12V AGM battery, a 5V voltage regulator with 2 USB Outputs and a Huawei E5220 UMTS Router. Already did a short test with a smaller battery at home to test the router and power supply. I will mount the solar panel after my vacation end of september. The solar charger counts the Ah of the attached systems, so when it runs for a while it should be easy to tell the average system power consumption. But that then includes voltage regulator and umts router. For the station alone I have no option to measure average power consumption.
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