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General Issues > Power Supply

More Power Options ?

Does it make sense to refurbish a solar system every few years by swapping rechargeable lead acid battery cells and cleaning the panels in order to cope with these problems? Probably not, if it can be avoided. In our specific case, it would be cheaper and more reliable by far to run the whole station on ordinary primary cells, like industry standard D-size alkaline or lithium batteries. Sound ridiculous?

Whether or not it makes sense to run a seismic station directly from primary cells strongly depends on the system´s total power consumption. Almost no seismic system can run successfully on primary cells for more than a few weeks. We propose that the rural version of the RED System‘s sensors run on primary cells plus a tiny (postcard sized) solar panel for many years at a stretch. Is this a realistic goal?