I do agree with you about the electricity in the woods, but you have to think about those emergencies situations. I just had a customer purchase the Gobe system. And she wanted it just in case her son gets bite by a snake or if a mountain lion comes around. I think that we should not go to the woods to bring more problems with us, but we should use the wisdom we have to bring what is needed like solar power. Plus what if you fall and twist your ankle that you cannot walk and then you are up in the mountains and your girlfriend can't carry you, and it is getting dark. You would be crawling and then you would really be up a creek because you thought you wanted to be one with nature. And by the time you get back to the doctor, it will be really bad than if you just had that extra juice to make a emergency call to a ranger to helicopter you to a hospital. Going into the woods is a place to relax and get away from problems. But so many people have actually died in the woods for numerous reasons and then some other couple come walking by two or three weeks later and see a dead body. And they have their phones and they call the police. Y As you can see having solar power or batteries or even electronics in the woods is not bad, it is when we forget to mediate and quite our minds to the sounds of nature that we tend to forget where we are. If you are looking for quality solar power, check out livecofriendly.com They carry solar power but also agree that we should think of a camping trip as a adventure with nature not electronics but also take safety and wisdom into consideration. Here is a link that might be useful: Portable Battery Chargers

150W Halogen - are you lighting a playing field? But a Cree LR24 has 3200 lumens vs 3000 for a 150W halogen (and for 44 watts). Life expectancy is 50,000 hours or 25 years at 2000 hours a year (which is 40 hours a week). I'm not saying a LR24 is as small as a 150W halogen and a quick check of price puts it at $350 (but that is a whole fixture not just a bulb). But there are adequate LED bulbs for a lot of applications. I've never used a 150W halogen personally and I'm curious in what residential application you would want that much light from a pinpoint source - better not look directly at it. My hew house doesn't have a fixture that could take 150W and I don't own a single lamp that is rated that high. So I don't think you can honestly say that 150W halogen is within the realm of what most people have in their house except perhaps in special applications. It is ok for a basement in a keyhole light as a really cheap way of lighting a big space ... but don't look up. I don't even have 100W bulbs - I think 75 is the most.

Easy, high-yield, portable conservation: 1) Compact fluorescents. Install these wherever you have lights that you leave on for a while. Lights that are turned on briefly and then off should still be incandescent since it takes a lot of power (relatively) to start a CF bulb and the short cycles significantly shorten their lives. 2) Low flow shower heads and flow restrictors on faucets. "The Incredible Head" is cheap and available at HD. It is easily installed with a wrench and some Teflon tape and is a really nice aerated showerhead. 3) Dry clothes on a rack or line. Towels will come out as stiff as a board, but that can be cured with a 2-3 minute tumble in the dryer. Line dried sheets smell much better than their machine dried version and are a summer treat at my house. 4) Install timers. If you forget to turn off the bathroom fan or an outdoor light, you can install a timer. These kinds of minor changes can be installed with simple tools and you can ask the people at Big Orange for instruction, if needed. 5) Eliminate phantom loads. Put transformers on switchable outlets so that you can switch off "phantom loads" when you aren't using them. Or just unplug the dang things. Same goes for your cable box and video/audio equipment with LED and time displays. 6) Water heater timers. If you have an electric water heater, install a timer. They are readily available at HD and easy to install. Set it to heat the water before your shower time then shut off so that water isn't unnecessarily reheated and kept hot while everyone is asleep or away from the home. 7) Insulate outlets and switches on exterior walls. I'm not sure what this will save you, but it's really easy and the little insulators cost about $.50 a piece. Not quite as portable, but still easy: 1) Honeycomb blinds. These can improve the "R-value" of your windows more than replacement with the best quality window and cost much less. 2) Caulk and air-infiltration proofing windows as much as possible. Improving door weatherproofing may be possible, too. 3) If you have a clothes drier, clean out the vent. 4) Close the damper on your fireplace. Keep it closed. Get a decorative fake plant or something. Can anyone add to this list?

Hey Ya'll, I'm back with an update and a new question. First, it turns out the bench supply I used did not actually fry itself but went into a constant voltage memory status, that needed to be cleared by multiple on/off switch cycles. In the meantime I purchased a 60w(24v/2.5a) single supply that i tried to use but had to return because it just didn't have enough pwr. The inrush current was just to high. So I got a 100w (4.5a) and it worked well. I also put a diode and cap in parallel. Now forward a month, it stopped working. It seems that the 100w doesn't have enough pwr now. Im assuming its the overvoltage light is blinking and the fan doesn't spin that fast. The solar panel ckt doesn't move it neither. Can a sign of a bad motor/brushes be that it needs more juice? The fan blade never looked like it was balanced right and Im curious if that might have taken its toll on it.