SolarNetOne Advanced Solar Battery Backup System for Home or Business

This is a video I made with my husband Scott last week. He is giving a tour of a new solar powered battery backup system that he designed, the latest technology from our other company SolarNetOne. The system allows the home owner to power the house, sell excess power back to the grid, and have days of emergency back up power during power outages, for example from hurricane. We are currently planning a similar install for outside the US this year.



Are you interested in a system like this for your home or business? Let us know, and we will contact you when more will be available later in the year.

Cory Trusty
president @ Aquarian Bath
VP @ SolarNetOne

Our New Cell Phone Sized Solar Powered Aquarian Bath Webserver Runs on 5 Watts

The new Aquarian Bath web store was recently upgraded and given a new home on one of these palm-sized machines which are built with the power efficient processors designed for smart phones. The open source Cubieboard ARM based integrated computer serves as the bare metal for a Debian Linux based web, database, and email server. Drawing just 3 Watts 5 Watts under load, it is one of the most power efficient computing platforms available, allowing us to run our new website on solar power, courtesy of industry leader SolarNetOne.  We upgraded our server since this article was published last week to include an extra hard drive which draws 2 Watts in order to keep up with holiday traffic, therefore the server draws 5 Watts instead of 3 Watts.

In comparison, the average video card in a gaming computer draws about 100 Watts by itself. Another 150 Watts is required for the main computer. 250 Watts is also about the average power consumption for a typical server. An average compact fluorescent light bulb draws 13 Watts, more than 2 times the power of our new e-commerce website.  

With this new hardware upgrade, we also updated the shopping cart, reorganized and categorized many of our items and sections. We hope you find it easier to navigate. You can now shop by the following main sections Soap (and Shampoo), Natural Skin Care, Herbal Products, Gift Ideas, Flaxseed Pillows and Reduce Plastic. 

For example, this Gingerbread and Star Anise 2013  holiday soap set can be found in the soap, Gift ideas, and Reduce plastic section.  Thanks for reading and please check out our new site.  

Earth Day Computing Spotlight: SolarNetOne

I don't usually make posts about technology on this blog, but I am making an exception, because today is Earth Day and my husband, Scott Johnson, has invented a remarkable eco-friendly Solar powered computing system. The name of the system is SolarNetOne. The following is a short interview I did with Scott to introduce my blog followers to this project.

Cory: What is SolarNetOne?

Scott: SolarNetOne is a system we developed that combines a photovoltaic solar power source with some of the most energy efficient computing hardware available to yield a total package that is perfect for sites off the grid.

Cory: How is this solar powered computing solution significant to Earth day and reducing carbon footprint?

Scott: As the internet and the number of internet users grows, so does the global "power bill" for computing in general. Our system represents a big step forward in lowering and greening the total energy consumption of Information Technology. For example, a computer lab with five modern PC's would draw in the neighborhood of 2 kilowatts, while the Solar Net One, even with all its additional features, draws only slightly more than a 100 Watt light bulb.

Cory: What were the most important factors in choosing an Earth-friendly computer network design?

Scott: I would have to say a) power consumption and b) longevity of the equipment. The former reduced the load on the power grid or alternative energy system, and the latter keeps the electronics out of the landfills for as long as possible.

Cory: Is open source software and linux a significant factor into creating sustainable computer networks?

Scott: Absolutely. Our open development method means that many eyes see our code. I may write 100 lines of code to do a given job. If we were a proprietary software house, that would be the end of it. Instead, another programmer may know a trick I don't and bring the lines of code down to 50. Now the computer only has to work half as hard, with the processor using half the electricity to perform the instructions. Later, another programmer trims it down to 10 lines of code. Now we are using 10% of the energy to perform the same task. Expand this to cover millions of lines of code, and it adds up significantly. On a side note, this is why our software also runs significantly faster on the same hardware.

Cory: What is the best solution for someone that would like to have a green computing system for the home or office?

Scott: SolarNetOne or a variant thereof! Seriously, on a smaller scale, an energy efficient laptop can provide all the computing most individuals need, and can easily be run on solar power.

Cory: I know you have done a lot of computer hardware recycling in the past. Do you have advice for people who are throwing out computers that are too slow or are broken? Do you have any creative upgrading, recycling or reusing ideas to share?

Scott: FreeGeek.org is the champion of open source recycling. with many more chapters opening up, they are becoming a powerful force in computer
recycling.