Completing the Solar Circle: Building a Small-to-Medium Off-Grid System After learning the basics and diving into the technical theory behind voltage, current, and system design, I reached the final step in my solar journey applying all that knowledge into a working system that met my needs. I wasn’t aiming to go off-grid entirely. I didn’t need to power a fridge or cook with the sun. My objective was clear: use solar energy to reliably charge tool batteries, run lights, and keep USB-powered devices operational without drawing from the main grid. This blog shares how I put that into practice and what I learned along the way. The Core Setup: Panel, Controller, Battery, Load Every solar system needs four basic components: Solar Panel – To capture the energy. Charge Controller – To regulate and protect the system. Battery Bank – To store usable energy. Load – The actual devices you intend to run or charge. I worked with 12V solar panels wired through PWM charge controllers, which were mor

Ladies & Gentlemen welcome back once more. Following on from low-voltage solar systems and small-scale setups, this blog focuses on the technical side of solar energy how voltage, current, and capacity interact, and what it means when you're building real-world solar projects for DC devices or considering AC alternatives. These aren’t just academic principles they’re practical tools that anyone working with solar power needs to understand to build reliable and safe energy systems. Series vs Parallel: How You Wire Matters When connecting solar panels or batteries, series and parallel configurations produce very different results: Series Connection increases voltage but keeps the amperage the same. Example: Two 12V panels in series = 24V system. Parallel Connection keeps voltage the same but increases amperage. Example: Two 12V panels in parallel = 12V with double the current. This choice affects everything from charge controller compatibility to cable thickness and system safety. For sm

.DC Solar Pannel Uses Ladies & Gentlemen welcome back once more! Over the past few years, I’ve been exploring the use of solar energy in small-scale, low-voltage systems starting with little more than a curiosity and a few off-the-shelf components. The aim was simple: to understand how sunlight could be converted into usable electricity, particularly for small devices like DC fans, battery packs, and garden lights. What began as an experimental learning process has now become a useful part of how I approach sustainable technology. This blog introduces the basics of what I’ve learned using simple tools, showing how these systems can offer practical solutions for day-to-day energy needs. Direct-Powered Devices: The Simplicity of a Solar-Powered Fan One of my first experiments involved powering a small DC fan using a single solar panel. No battery, no controller just sunlight, wiring, and a load. This setup taught me how immediate and responsive solar energy can be. The fan only runs when

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome back. Today’s article is a special one. This one isn’t just about learning it’s about watching something come alive. We’ve talked about LEDs before, and how they can be used to light up displays or function as signals. But this time, I took a leap. I wanted to explore what artificial light could do when it wasn’t just lighting the way but growing something. This blog is about the journey of testing, measuring, and adapting indoor grow lights, and how that slowly grew into something much bigger than I originally planned. The project started modest inside, in a dark room, with little more than a shelf setup and a few tubs of soil. The plan was simple enough: get a few bell pepper seedlings going using LED light bars I had picked up, powered via a spare power bank. Everything was set up with care. I mounted the lights above the trays, used reflective materials to push the light evenly across the canopy, and made sure there was good airflow. I didn’t have high

Learning about Artifical Light: The Colour spectrum & Indoor Growing. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome back. Today, we’re diving into an exciting topic one that touches every part of life as we know it: light. But more specifically, artificial light, and the fascinating ways it can impact not just our vision or atmosphere, but the growth conditions of plant life. This has been a real journey for me. After learning about LEDs and how they can be used in creative displays or visual indicators, I became curious about something deeper could these lights be used to grow life itself? Could they be adapted into something practical, like growing plants indoors or even establishing a mini eco-system in a small space? That curiosity turned into a hands-on project that’s taught me a lot about light, colour, measurement, and planning. Like many of my LOLACRAFT projects, this one didn’t start in a lab or with expensive gear. I looked around the house and gathered what I could an old power bank, a few

Fixing What Once Was Broken. LOLACRAFT: LED Basics – Learning to Fix Simple Things Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the first entry from LOLACRAFT, the hands-on, crafty division of Lunacare Cymru. Born from a spirit of reimagining and repurposing, LOLACRAFT celebrates creative repair, practical electronics, and learning through doing. In this article, I revisit the humble LED the Light Emitting Diode and the unexpected journey that began with a broken toy and a spark of curiosity. What is an LED? Before anything could be rewired or reused, I had to understand what I was working with. An LED, or Light Emitting Diode, is a small component that emits light when a direct current flows through it. Unlike incandescent bulbs, LEDs are extremely efficient, generating light without the waste heat. They’re polarised, which means they’ll only function if current flows in the correct direction positive (anode) to negative (cathode). They’ve become a core part of modern electronics, found in everyt