1366 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

Not all devices are created equal. What is the quality control process at Konfulon? I know it’s good at Apple, and Samsung. But Konfulon?

 

[dasmo]

I’ve seen these in action. If I was to get a big battery it would be this brand. https://www.bluettipower.ca

[Mike K.]

Airlines are starting to ban power banks.

2025 article:

In January 2025, South Korean airline Air Busan banned power banks in overhead cabin luggage after a fire destroyed an entire plane, and Japan’s National Institute of Technology reported that accidents related to mobile batteries leapt up by 160 percent between 2020 and 2024.

- https://www.timeout....eres-why-022526

Not good. Robot says fires are on the rise. That Glasgow building survived for generations with all sorts of operations within. Until a battery powered vape at a vape shop took it down.

[Mike K.]

Why aren’t name brands with assured quality control and device certification not producing these products to where consumers are likely to use and choose them over no name Chinese competition?

[lanforod]

Airlines are starting to ban pretty much all batteries in checked luggage and some are banning powerbanks etc. even in carryon luggage. That powerbank would not be permitted on Lufthansa.

[Mike K.]

We’ve had several gadgets show up without a CSA stamp or ULC stamp or Western equivalents, if applicable. They go straight back to where they came from.

Take note of items in your house especially electrical, and see if they have a legit QC mark. If they don’t, reconsider your choice.

[Matt R.]

I’ve seen these in action. If I was to get a big battery it would be this brand. https://www.bluettipower.ca

We have a large one made by Liteheli we keep in the seacan and use for road trips, if I had to buy another one I would buy an even larger one! We keep the modem and router plugged into a small APC branded unit for the small power outages. Who cares if the fridge works as long as we have wifi in the house!

[dasmo]

Hydro has been so good at getting power up and running here I have never ponied up the $1500 for a real unit. 

[Mike K.]

OK, well I bet it's under 20% then. All ENERGY.

Electricity is under 20%, from all sources.

I confirmed today, that electricity provides 13% of BC’s energy.

87% is fossil fuels. And we haven’t factored in how so much of BC’s electricity is now being imported, with import generation coming from natural gas-generated sources.

[Mike K.]

If you have 16 panels on your roof producing 400w each (etc), that’s 6,400w of generation, or 7 million watts produced in a year if you have 1,095 hours of sunshine, which is the average for Victoria’s core.

Every year, an average fridge will consume 4.4 million watts.

Is my math correct here?

[Tony]

Solar array annual energy (kWh/year)

If you have:

• 16 panels 
• 400 W each

Solar panels produces energy, 6,4kW, peak sunlight day times.

 

The array will generate in the range of 7,000–8,300 kWh per year.  (6.4x 1100 to 1300 peak sun hours per year)

 

 Fridge annual energy use (kWh/year)

 

Modern fridges vary a standard modern fridge uses 400 - 600kWh per year

 

A 6.4kWh solar array will be able to power about 15 modern refrigerators.

 

If I got the numbers right.

Edited by Tony, 16 March 2026 - 04:56 PM.

[Mike K.]

Hmm, here’s a resource:

You can easily determine how much power your refrigerator uses by multiplying the voltage by the amps. However, as was previously indicated, refrigerators operate continuously throughout the day. Therefore, you must split the wattage of your device by 1/3 to determine its typical power consumption.
E.g. 115 volts (V) x 4.5 amps (A)= 517.5 watts (wattage)
517.5 watts divided by 3 = 172.5 watts (average power usage)

To see how much power your fridge uses in a day:
172.5 watts x 24 (hours a day) = 4,140 watt-hours, or 4.14 kilowatt-hours (daily power usage)

- https://www.tcl.com/...efrigerator-use

So 4,140 watts x 365 is 1.51 million watts, right? And that’s the lower to mid range for consumption.

What am I getting wrong here in my numbers on the earlier post? I might be multiplying the wrong numbers? Am I not multiplying the panel generation wattage correctly?

6,400 watts x 3 hours x 365 is 7M. No?

[Tony]

If the solar panels produce 7000 to 8300kWh a year the fridge used in the example uses 4.14kWh a day that is !511kWh a year.

The solar panels can power 5 of those fridges.

[Mike K.]

Ok, thank you.

I’m still not sure if I’m getting this right. That’s a heck of a lot of energy for a fridge.

[Tony]

Modern fridges vary in energy consumption, an efficient modern fridge uses 400 - 600kWh per year.

 

A fridge that uses !511kWh a year is not very efficient.

 

Home energy use approximatings on a yearly basis:

 

HVAC (heating/cooling) can exceed 3000kWh

Water Heater 700-900kWh

Clothes dryer 500-1000 kWh

Lighting 300-400 kWh

[Victoria Watcher]

The Australian Energy Regulator has released more details about the Government's plan to offer free power in the middle of the day for some Australians.

The Solar Sharer Offer will be available from July first for Australians in Queensland, New South Wales, and South Australia, with other states to follow.

The program will be part of the Default Market Offer, which is a price set by the regulator that retailers need to offer customers, acting as a benchmark for electricity prices for the next financial year.

So how will it work?

Australia's rooftop solar story is staggering; panels on about 4 million households and businesses across Australia are regularly the biggest source of power in the grid.

That wave of solar energy floods the electricity grid during the day when the sun is shining, at times so much that the grid can not handle it all, and some of it goes to waste.

[Mike K.]

A Nova Scotia wind farm run by friends of the Liberal Party required $206 million in public financing since no private lender would touch it, says the CEO of the Canada Infrastructure Bank. Ehren Cory said the costly venture was deemed too risky: "Private lenders alone were unwilling to provide the required financing."

- https://www.blackloc...isky-for-banks/

[Victoria Watcher]

- https://www.blackloc...isky-for-banks/

 

 

At hearings in Ottawa on Wednesday, the head of the Canada Infrastructure Bank refused to state the interest rate on the $206-million loan to a wind farm project that’s being managed by a company owned by the family members of three former Liberal MPs and a former Nova Scotia Liberal Party leader.

 

The examination of the deal by the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities was launched after The Chronicle Herald revealed that Roswall Development Inc., parent company to Renewall Energy, which will be selling the power from the Mersey River wind project, has deep Liberal connections.

“Mr. Cory, do you believe that taxpayers who pay your salary and who fund these loans deserve to know the terms of a $206-million loan that appears to benefit Liberal Party-connected insiders?” asked Leslyn Lewis, Conservative MP for Haldimand—Norfolk, for the third time at the standing committee’s first hearing.

 

Canada Infrastructure Bank chief executive officer Ehren Cory responded, “ Mr. Chair, the loan benefits Nova Scotians because it creates renewable energy in the province and consumer choice to buy clean power. That is who the loan benefits. To be very clear, we are extremely transparent with our owners, who are all of you, with all of our money.”

 

 

 

The loan announced this month is to Slate Asset Management, which will own the 33-turbine Mersey River wind farm being built on former Bowater-Mersey lands now owned by the province. The wind farm is also getting $25 million from Natural Resources Canada, which, according to the department, takes the form of “a conditionally repayable contribution agreement where funding would be repayable based on profits generated from the project within the first five years of operation.”

https://www.saltwire...all-development

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 21 April 2026 - 06:49 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

They’ve hit the mother lode.

 

We may no longer need to rely on foreign batteries to power our electronics. Geologists have announced that the Appalachian Mountains could be hiding a sprawling multibillion-dollar cache of lithium that could last the US hundreds of years.

 

“This research shows that the Appalachians contain enough lithium to help meet the nation’s growing needs,” declared US Geological Survey Director Ned Mamula in a statement.

 

According to a map by the institution, this East Coast mountain range houses around 2.5 metric tons of this battery precursor, most of which is concentrated in the Carolinas, Maine and New Hampshire. Total value: around $64.4B dollars.

 

 

 

 

https://nypost.com/2...-for-328-years/

 

 

 

 

With this recent mineral motherlode, USGS officials estimate that we could supply 1.6 million grid-scale batteries — enough to power 130 million electric vehicles or supply 180 billion laptops for a collective thousands of years of global use.

 

It could also fuel 500 billion cellphones, the equivalent of 60 devices for every person on Earth.

 

All told, this haul is enough to replace 328 years of imports at least year’s level, providing “a major contribution to US mineral security, at a time when global lithium demand is rising rapidly,” said Mamula.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 04 May 2026 - 07:10 AM.

[phx]

 

 2.5 metric tons

 

 

 

I believe they missed some zeros with that figure. 2.5 tons isn’t much.