Can I run systems in remote areas without AC power via solar panels?
Yes, but there are limitations in locations that are statistically cloudy. The UVB-1, YESDAS, MFR/UVMFR, and SPUV systems all run from DC power, but solar panels require a careful assessment of the total solar resource available at your site. The minimum number of available sunlight hours (shortest day of the year), along with the worst case total power (duty cycle) determines a PV or wind system size. There are vendors who can provide turnkey solar power installations, or you could build this yourself. The solar cells are connected to a battery bank via a “charge control module”, and the battery line is run to your instruments via YESDAS-2’s battery connection. One such vendor is www.northerntool.com which is a good place to look for these components. We have been careful to try to design all systems to run form DC power. However, some instruments such as the TSI and RSS require so much power (i.e. hundreds of watts) that running them off-grid is impractical. In these cases a small pr
