Enewsletter # 93 - 6th February 2006
Index:
1) Introduction
2) Solar Courses
3) Solar Cookers
4) Sundaya Ulux Lights
5) SKYPE
6) Feature Article: Solar Lanterns
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1) Introduction
Welcome back to the New Year.
Hope you are all recovered from the Christmas and School Holidays! _____________________________________________________________
2) Solar Courses
Our popular weekend course for homeowners will take
place on 25 & 26th February. We are also holding
one in the Stanthorpe area on the 11 & 12th March.
For more inspiration: http://www.rpc.com.au/education/livingwithsolar.html
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3) Solar Cookers
As some of you know, our introductory order of solar
cookers got sold out in a few weeks late last year.
We have a much larger order (16 pallet loads) arriving
in a couple of weeks. Please be patient - models and
prices will be released in our next newsletter. ______________________________________________________________
4) Sundaya Ulux Fluoros
We now have a range of 6, 9 and 18W Ulux compact fluoros
in 12Volts. These are the Sundaya top of the range
fluoros with a replaceable tube. The tube is rated
for 10,000 run time and the ballast for 100,000 switching
cycles. More details will be on our web site in a few
days. All our top of the range Sundaya lights, lighting
kits are listed under SUN-XXX in our Price List. For
the Sundaya Portal Page on our web site go to: http://www.rpc.com.au/products/services/distributor/sundaya/sundaya.html
The Sundaya compact fluoros come with an ES17 (small
Edison Screw base) Sundaya chose this lamp base size
so that their 12V lights would never be connected to
a standard 230V AC lamp holder. This is an important
safety feature - I´d say extremely important
if you want to run both 12 and 240V lights in the one
house.
I know a lot of people may not want to change their
existing fittings, however, the Sundaya range is very
economical, functional and high quality.
There are several fittings available - the Apollo
is a better lamp holder which attaches onto your ceiling.
You can screw in an Extender cable with a pendant lamp
holder to bring the light closer to your table. If
you want to highlight a poster on the wall, the bendable
Extender will do the job! Need a desk lamp? Just screw
an Extender into a Tablo lamp base. A variety of lampshades
are available to add to your light. The red, green
or translucent lampshades add a touch of class and
warmth to your light. A Halo lampshade will direct
the light downwards for you. The Wally is a UV resistant
wall-mounted white lampshade. Have a look at our web
site for more details of all these products. ______________________________________________________________
5) SKYPE
Skype is a free `internet phone´ (VOIP) which
allows you to talk to other people with Skype for free.
You need a microphone and speaker and the software
is free and fast to download. Ideally you need Broadband/ADSL
but it will work with a good quality dial-up connection.
Overall sound quality is variable and generally not
as good as the phone. Text messages can also be sent
(similar to Messenger). We still prefer to receive
written messages by email but if you think a brief
conversation is more efficient, you can try and Skype
me on rpc-dl. If you want to know the price of something,
our Price List is available on our web site for Aussie
customers. Overseas customers are asked to email us
with their details and we´ll email you back a
price.
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6) Solar Lanterns
Over the years we have looked at many 'rechargeable
lanterns' for use in rural villages. There is a large
selection available from very cheap ones in camping
shops for under US$50 to fairly expensive ones (up
to US$250) for use in rural villages. Generally, they
look nice - quite similar to the hurricane kerosene
lantern. They often work well for a few weeks before
all the inherent weaknesses start manifesting themselves.
Generally, the weaknesses relate to the general low
quality and the inherent limitations of the design
concept. More specifically some of the problems include:
1) Cheap basic electronics to look after the battery
- e.g. protection from deep discharges and overcharging.
The electronics driving the fluoro tube are poorly
designed.
2) The battery and solar panel are usually too small
to allow the lantern to be run for 3-4 hours a night
after 2-3 days of cloudy weather. Otherwise the lantern
becomes too heavy and bulky if a suitably large battery
is used.
3) Low quality switches and connections which soon
corrode, particularly in tropical and marine environments.
Their 'portable' design often encourages their use
outdoors in the rain and even on small boats for fishing.
4) The general 'packaging' is for appearance and often
is not UV resistant, waterproof or impact resistant.
They tend to break the first time they are dropped
or knocked over.
5) The solar panel is often a cheap plastic amorphous
type which is not designed for long term use in the
sun. Good quality solar panels will come with a 10-25
year warranty!
To conclude, I think the overall concept fails from
the size and design limitations. If you equip it with
an 8-12kg battery, it becomes too heavy to market as
a 'portable' lantern. It is not cost effective to make
good electronics to look after the battery and the
tube for a single light. A larger system to run a couple
of lights is more cost effective than a single lighting
package.
As a company, we have not found a solar lantern which
we feel would be completely suitable for use in rural
villages. We feel one is better off buying a small
Sundaya lighting kit. The small kit includes a 14W
solar panel, a sealed battery (20-40Ah) in an enclosure
with a sophisticated charge controller, a couple of
lights with 15-30m of heavy duty cable. The kits are
largely 'plug & play' and can be installed with
limited tools and knowledge. Their cost is similar
to the more expensive solar lanterns on the market.
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That´s all for this month folks! Your comments
and questions are most welcome; however, there is no
need to send our newsletter back to us when you reply!
If you would like price or product information, please
tell us which country you are from if it is not evident
from your e-mail address. This allows us to assess
if local GST (tax) is applicable or whether 240 Volt
50HZ products will work in your country etc.
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Dave Lambert and the RPC crew |
