logoalt Hacker News

Gibbon1today at 1:18 AM3 repliesview on HN

Solar panels I think are too high tech for them.

I remember reading about low tech efficient cook stoves for poor countries and thinking the misses would rather have an induction burner, microwave, and an ice chest running off a solar panel.


Replies

rgmerktoday at 4:13 AM

I would too...but an off-grid solar and battery setup sufficient to run the induction stove and microwave is still well into four figures - cheap for a developed country resident who wants some basic comforts in their wilderness lodge, but still well out of reach for a subsistence farmer in the poorest parts of the world.

show 1 reply
getpokedagaintoday at 1:51 AM

The server the article is being hosted on is battery powered via solar. You can see it's charge percent on any page the server sends back to you.

https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/power/

mslatoday at 2:49 AM

> the misses would rather have an induction burner, microwave, and an ice chest running off a solar panel.

Those would definitely be hits.

Also, solar panels are old. Bell Labs demonstrated the first practical silicon solar cell in 1954. At some point, you're just trying to split (possibly nonexistent) hairs for an aesthetic, as opposed to making a principled stand against technology.

https://www.aps.org/apsnews/2009/04/bell-labs-silicon-solar-...