(Credit:
Amazon)
As some people insist on turning their cars into vehicular workstations, we can expect to see more peripherals to help make their offices more efficient behind the wheel. One under-utilized spot is the cupholder--and that's where this next item comes in.
The "Targus 100W Cupholder Style Auto Power Inverter" fits snugly in the space that alternately holds your coffee and powers your gadgets with 100 to 150 watts through its 120-volt AC plug, according to Uncrate. Additional convenience comes in the form of USB and PPS ports for mobile phones and other handheld devices.
The only downside is that you'll have to hold your beverage if your car has only one cupholder. But you didn't need those extra calories from that caramel macchiato anyway.
Inverter maker Xantrex on Monday announced an overhaul to its inverters that let people combine a renewable energy source with some back-up power.
Going off grid with solar--and batteries.
(Credit: Xantrex )Inverters convert direct current generated by solar panels or a wind turbine to household alternating current. When the power goes out, the Xantrex inverter draws on batteries to meet the household's load.
The Trace Series Inverter/Charger replaces its existing DR line that the company has sold since the 1990s which is most used in countries that don't have reliable power supply.
The updated Trace Series is more user friendly to operate and is more efficient in converting electricity to battery power and back, said Lloyd Gomm, director of marketing and product management for Xantrex.
The Xantrex Trace Series Inverter/Charger is designed to charge batteries from solar panels or wind turbine when there is a power failure.
(Credit: Xantrex )Many people assume that purchasing solar panels for a home includes a stack of batteries to run when the power goes out. That's typically not the case for customers in the U.S. unless they are willing to pay extra for back-up power.
When a house's panels are generating more electricity than the house is consumer, a "grid-tied" inverter will feed power back to the grid and make the meter runs backwards, subtracting from a customer's monthly bill.
Xantrex participates in both the grid-tied and off-grid market but Gomm said that the off-grid market is still appealing even though it isn't growing as fast.
"It's a market that that a lot of people don't focus on it but from a business point of view, you get an opportunity to earn some good money," he said. "Those markets don't require government incentives because the solution to the problem you are addressing is 'you don't have power.'"
Inverter maker Xantrex on Thursday introduced a device for gathering performance data on rooftop solar electric panels.
The Xantrex Gateway is designed to monitor the amount of electricity that solar panels generate and transmits that information to a person's PC through a home Wi-Fi connection.
Monitoring equipment is commonly used for large-scale installations at corporations or power plants. This gateway is designed specifically for people's homes or small-scale solar power installations.
Is your solar panel working at full steam? Xantrex Gateway gathers data and sends it to a widget via Wi-Fi.
(Credit: Xantrex)Gathering performance information is very important for solar panel homeowners.
State rebates can be tied to performance, and the payback on solar panels relies on them operating at full capacity.
Xantrex built a Yahoo widget that can log system performance on a PC directly from the Gateway and display information graphically.
The device also can be configured from a Web page to make automated e-mail reports or notify owners of problems.
Savor the irony. When there is a blackout, your solar power system will probably go out too.
That's because most systems are tied to the electrical grid. (In Germany, the utilities pay for this electricity, but in most states here, the utilities give you credit against any grid power you might buy.) To ensure that their workers don't get hurt, utilities shut off all devices that feed power into particular sectors of the grid when doing repairs.
Welcome to the Sunny Island.
(Credit: SMA America)To ameliorate that problem, SMA America, the U.S. group of a larger German company, has released a new version of its Sunny Island inverter. An inverter converts DC power coming from the panels into AC power that can be used in your home or fed into the grid. The company's Sunny Boy inverters are grid-tied. The Sunny Island line feeds the power into batteries instead.
"It's for vacation cabins, or backup systems," said Jeffrey Philpott, marketing manager for SMA America.
The new Sunny Island 5048U, announced at Solar Power 2007 taking place in Long Beach, Calif., has 20 percent more capacity than its predecessor. It can provide up to 5,000 watts of power. So in case you need to start a motor or something (think Charlton Heston in The Omega Man), the Sunny Island will do the job.
Like other inverter companies and even solar panel companies, SMA is trying to reduce the cost of installation and service. Installation is half of the cost of most solar systems.
"The installers like to go out once. They lose the money they made if they have to go out and fix something," he said.
SunPower, the fast-growing U.S. maker of high efficiency solar panels and cells, includes SMA inverters in its systems. SMA also sells through distributors.
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