PowerFilm Solar to Offer Custom Crystalline Solar Panels

AMES, Iowa, Jan. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- With the recent tariff introduced on imported crystalline silicon solar modules and cells, PowerFilm Solar is pleased to announce their US-assembled custom crystalline solar solutions under the brand Soltronix.

PowerFilm is a US-based solar company specializing in the design, manufacturing and assembly of remote, portable solar solutions using a variety of solar technologies. In the past PowerFilm has produced semiflexible crystalline silicon panels under contract with the Department of Defense and for various OEM manufacturers. The Soltronix brand makes these capabilities available for all interested commercial customers.

"This tariff will apply to all imported crystalline silicon panels (like GOAL ZERO GUIDE 10 PLUS SOLAR KIT ), while providing a small window for US-based assembly companies to import cells tariff-free. PowerFilm has been designing, assembling and manufacturing custom solar solutions for 30 years, including several projects using the crystalline solar material impacted by this tariff. This expertise makes PowerFilm well suited to assemble high-quality, semi flexible crystalline silicon modules in the USA providing customers with an alternative to paying the 30 percent tariff," said Dan Stieler, PowerFilm President.

Crystalline silicon is the most common type of solar or photovoltaic material, commonly found in utility-scale installations. PowerFilm has served consumers, innovative commercial clients, and the US government with a variety of solutions since being founded in Ames, Iowa, in 1988. PowerFilm's products are predominately made using amorphous silicon, a thin film flexible solar material much like a sheet of paper. With Soltronix, PowerFilm is offering their innovation expertise to customers seeking a crystalline silicon solution from a US-based company.

A great portable battery that charges two devices simultaneously and sports a built-in flashlight for emergencies.

Whether you're heading off to work or on a flight to visit friends and family, having a solid portable battery on hand is always a great idea — especially if you suffer from lousy battery life. I've had a chance to utilize Aukey's 12000mAh External Battery Charger these past couple weeks with my Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge, putting every feature to the test. Take a closer look at how this AUKEY POWER BANK performs and if it's a viable solution for your Android device.

The convenient portability of this backup battery makes it easy to carry around in your pocket, unlike its bulkier 10k Quick Charging sibling. Measuring only 5.98" x 2.13" x 0.67" and weighing in at 8.64 oz, it will fit nicely in a small purse, carry-on or backpack without hogging storage space. Colored completely black, its design is rather sleek — featuring Aukey's logo on the top that happens to double as the battery LED. The smooth exterior has a bit of grip to it, too — leaving little worry of drops.

Straight out of the box, it took around 4.5 hours to completely charge its internal 12000mAh Li-polymer battery. As it increases in life, the LED changes its coloring: 0-20% (RED), 20-60% (GREEN), 60-100% (WHITE). Aukey doesn't recommend charging your mobile device(s) and the battery simultaneously, however, to prolong the life of its battery. Featuring a 5V 2A input and a max output of 3.4A, both devices charged quickly enough for me — still leaving enough juice for a couple additional charges. Admittedly, I didn't get much use out of its built-in flashlight, but that's not to say that it doesn't have great purpose. For a weekend camping trip, I could see this flashlight being extremely handy, but it's certainly no MAGLITE.

Included with the Aukey 12000mAh External Battery Charger is a 13" micro-USB charging cable sans wall wart. Having a lengthier option included would have been nice, since I found myself just using an existing cable that was longer anyhow. Built-in is an automatic over-charge protection that will cut off the battery as soon as your device is completely juiced up. The power button is located on the side of the battery, and can be tapped once to simply check its battery life. To turn the flashlight on/off, hold it down for 3 seconds.
Final thoughts

I'm a big fan of the size of this portable battery from Aukey, along with having the ability to charge both of my devices at the same time. Its 12000mAh capacity is certainly enough to get me through a couple days without a charger, assuming I'm not glued to my phone the entirety of my getaway.

Aukey was kind enough to provide the Android Central community with an exclusive coupon code: WL8I3USF which saves you 6 bucks off this charger from Amazon. It's only valid until midnight June 7, so use 'em while they're hot!

Re-Shingle Your Roof - What You Need to Know First

The New York roofing is just one of the most significant and valuable foundational structures of the house since other systems and parts of the property depend on the New York roofer. Hence, you have to ensure that everything is in good form and functioning well in the New York roofingparticular that the shingles.

This indispensable part of the roofers New York must be maintained and maintain good condition not just to prevent future defects and damage to the property. Additionally, it is a very basic method to boost the value of their property on the market as well as guarantee 100\% functionality and convenience.

1 initial step to do so is through deciding if it is the best time to re-shingle your NYC roofing contractors. For instance, you need a thorough and proper evaluation of this New York roofing especially the shingles. You could do this on your own or you could also hire a professional New York roofing specialist in the assessment of your New York roofing. Should you find it tough to look at the shingles or you have no technical knowledge about it, you could always hire somebody to do the test job for you. However, if you want to embark upon a do-it-yourself undertaking, then you've got some signs to lead you to make the ideal option.

As an example, if you notice there are already curls, twist or cups in the shingles, you certainly need to think about re-shingling. There are also other sure fire signs such as fragile shingles that tend to give way with just a very light pressure applied. You can also notice some wave like formation or rippled rows with dull spots and wider in between spaces. These are highlights to consider which confirm and provide you the go signal for a replacement and proper installation of new New York roofing shingles.

Be certain you also consider your safety whilst working on your roofing contractors NYC specifically your shingles. Provide durable and robust ladder to support your weight and avoid any falls or accidents. Stay away from power lines and electrical cords which may jeopardize your safety while working. Be cautious to not step on nails and other loose shingles which might injure you in the procedure.

There are pre-fabricated kits in home depot centers that are basically manufactured as a way to help amateur or first-time do-it-yourselfers working on their roofing contractor NYC shingles. As an example, they could just stick to the instructional manuals for a step by step guide for the right commercial roofing NYC re-shingling undertaking.

There are also online videos and instructions that are made to guide and teach home owners hassle-free and simple ways to re-shingle your roofing companies NYC. Hence, you have loads of resources to select from that would certainly make your house project one successful and safe one.

Re-shingle your roofing company NYC. and avoid related home damage and defects that would deteriorate the value and worth of your premises. Know when to do this task and be certain you attend to it as soon as you're sure you needed a re-shingling home project. This will effectively make your home more comfortable and functional all throughout.

Shirts For Women - Finding the Right Style

For centuries t-shirts for men is a huge fashion statement. They come in an abundance of shapes, variations, and patterns. There is actually not really a restriction to the kind of occasion you will be attending, or whether you should wear a standard clothing for work tomorrow. A-shirt could allow someone understand what your pursuits are, the things they appreciate performing on the free time, the things they appreciate performing with their time. There is no one type of t-shirts sale that's better than the next, styles of tops range together with the moments although there are some common variations that never disappear.

Let us take a look at a recent trend and popular female design t-shirts online that is utilized nowadays. The thing that was once-popular inside the seventies has now initiated to become popular again today, the v neck top. They permit you to appear lean, they give off a persona of leisure which nearly all women want. There's not much more elegant and refined a clean white v-neck top. You would certainly be surprised just how many women and men benefit from the look of the v-neck top. You ought to enable your bustline to decide which v-neck fashion to get, as there are low and brief v-neck variations t-shirts sale. In case you have a larger bust, you will want to check-out a low V-neck design t-shirts sale.

Should you be a younger person, check out the traditional babydoll t-shirts for women style. These are generally tighter-fitting t-shirts for women that have tiny sleeves, and tend to utilize stretch cotton, and are faster in design to show off your waistline. Because of the layout, baby doll tops should simply be used in extremely casual surroundings. Many malls will promote babydoll tops, and you can even find them in everyday stores across the mall as well. Aren't getting stuck using a baby doll clothing within the winter or slip months as its far too cool to use.

Wearing t-shirts online as a woman shows that you're comfortable women. Most women usually wear gowns, skirts, blouses along with other things that do not let tops to become worn. Though by the end of the afternoon, girls are a lot like males, and they want relaxed apparel. If you tend to be the joke among friends and family, have a look at tops with interesting sayings or styles. You'll find tops with any type, color or design, or even funny versions too. Wearing t-shirts online that's supposed to be interesting shows a side of confidence.

If for whatever cause that you do not like or desire to use funny t-shirts for women make sure you take a look at crewnecks instead. Crewnecks appear a lot like a child doll top except that they are less fit. It was not before past couple of years that crewnecks are becoming common, has transitioned into the spotlight. Crewneck tops aren't limited by being worn underneath your clothing anymore. One of many biggest causes to wear this type of clothing is because you have the mobility of wearing it pretty much every day. The resources found in a team clothing must support shape what type of placing its right for.

Right now you ought to have a good understanding of tops for girls, in case you have a concept of the clothing you would like then you can possibly believe it is available anywhere. Regardless you actually want to make sure that you've obtained a few tops that suit your taste. The countless opportunities and styles are why are tops so exemplary for daily use.

RENOGY SOLAR SUITCASE

I always wanted to build something like this on my own and piece together choice materials, but never seemed to get around to it.

So I picked up a RENOGY SOLAR SUITCASE:

Essentially it is two 50 watt panels in parallel with hinges, with a pwm charge controller, mc4 cabling, angle stands, handle, cordura soft-case, etc. There is a smaller 60 watt version available too. Cabling is ok, and uses a 50A Anderson connector between the battery clamps and the main 15 foot cabling. So if you want a custom cable without cutting the existing wiring, you just need to get your hands on the anderson connectors to make up something else. Nice to see a 7.5A mini-fuse inline. Kind of wish they would have included a spare, but I'll hunt a spare down to have on hand.

When measured with my own ammeters and voltmeters, it seems to meet specs. One thing I like about Renogy is that you don't have to hunt for the specs on anything. It met specs of about 5.7A during bulk, and even saw 8A on a few edge-of-cloud incidents.

Build quality is generally good. Nope, not as good as my Sharp panels, but good enough and better than expected.

The pwm charge controller is mounted on a plate under one of the panels that can swing out. The plate itself is attached to the underside of the panel with velcro. This makes it easier to swing out and replace with a controller of your own choosing should you want to change it out. Initially, mine was so covered with velcro, and pushed in so hard, that I thought I was going to break the panel. Obviously, no leveraging force should be used, so I just pulled slowly and steadily to get it loose. When storing, I don't push the plate back down very hard, to make pulling the velcro apart for swingouts a LOT easier.

The main reason you might want to swing the plate out that holds the controller, is that when you pull out the angle-legs, it is nearly impossible to operate the controller tucked up so far behind the panel, unless you want to use a vehicle-creeper. When you pull the plate apart from the velcro, the controller can now hang vertically and is much easier to operate.

The second main reason is that the included controller, and EPsolar Viewstar, has ambient temperature compensation. I found that if I left it velcro'd to the back of the panel, the temp-comp was innacurate due to being so close to the heat on the back of the panel. By loosening the velcro hold, and letting it hang vertically, temp comp was much more accurate, and provided better cooling to the CC.
Ok, for most of us, the EPsolar Viewstar is on the very budget side of CC's. Yet I will give it this, that the capabilities it has for monitoring, load / light control, and the ability to custom set voltages for bulk/absorb/float, and even EQ along with changing the temp-comp rate too. It states that it will do EQ every 28 days, but I suppose if you don't want that, you can set the EQ voltage to the absorb voltage to negate that feature. And I'm not sure if merely pulling the battery leads will reset that, so in a portable application of less than a month, it may not kick in at all. Note that in the manual, they use the term "boost" for what we know as "absorb".

The EPsolar also has timeouts for boost/absorb, rather than measuring end-amps, so that may not be suitable for your situation. One possible work-around that I do is merely set my float voltage the same as the boost/absorb voltage with this CC. My plan is to put my Morningstar or Xantrex controllers in there, but so far, the EPsolar CC isn't giving me any trouble.

If I were taking this thing into the field, I'd make darn sure I had a backup charge controller, or obviously just use one that you prefer instead. The swinging plate makes it easy to mount your own.
Behind each panel's junction box appears to be a single schottky bypass diode - I think. While the system worked out of the box, I took the liberty of resoldering the wire connections in the junction box, and clean up a few "frog hairs" from around the charge controller connectors. It wasn't bad, but I wanted to make sure all connections were absolutely solid. I keep it stored in the case with a towel, not only to keep the panels clean, but to cover them as well during initial setup. This means placing the towel over the panels, attaching the clamps to the batteries, and the whipping the towel off the panels matador style for a little flair.

So far I'm pretty happy with it. Still, hard core portable users may think twice about carrying around glass panels, and opt for something like a flexible panel setup instead. I have had every intention of putting together something like this myself with higher quality components, but as a professional procrastinator, I bit the bullet and went pre-assembled.

Not Happy With Your Business Blog Performance? Try These 5 Tips:

Not Happy With Your Business Blog Performance? Try These 5 Tips:

For many companies, blogging is akin to content marketing. Of course there are many other content marketing tactics besides blogging, but because of the ease of publishing, promotion and optimization, it’s one of the more popular ways to connect with customers through content.

And yet there are challenges for many of the businesses that rely on blogging as an essential part of their content marketing mix. If you’re not happy with the performance of your business blog, here are 5 basic, yet often overlooked steps for making your blogging more effective.

Is Your Business Blog Running on Empty? Here Are 4 Ways To Fill the Tank

Is Your Business Blog Running on Empty? Here Are 4 Ways To Fill the Tank

I’m a bit of a risk-taker when it comes to my gas tank. If you cared to check, most days you will find me driving around with the gas light on.

In fact, I’ve done this so long that I have it down to an art. I know how many miles I can go, and even how the car starts to drive when I’m operating on fumes.

"Why, why on earth would anyone do this, you might ask. The answer is simple … because so far it’s worked. I haven’t found myself on the side of the road unable to keep going."