Notes and links from Fri 24 July

Status: I fitted the tiny solar panel on the shed roof and it’s been powering the extractor fan for a few days. I think it’s made a difference — while the shed is not cool it’s definitely cooler when the sun it as its height. The panel says it generates 10w at 12v and I’ve been wondering what else of that voltage I can power from it. The bilge pump needs 36w but I knew USB starts at 5w so I ordered a cheap charging port like you’d install in a campervan. (I still haven’t got watts, volts and amps straight in my head so don’t @ me, I’m working on it.) It arrived today so I hooked it up and plugged in an old USB battery pack. I now have a solar power bank running in my shed, albeit in miniature. Clearly it’s of no practical use unless there’s a catastrophic power cut and we need to run a lightbulb off the battery, but as a proof of concept it’s surprisingly exciting. Just need to scale it up now. Meanwhile our neighbours have hired a bouncy castle for their kid’s birthday which is…