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Might have changed their attitude since then as they posted in 2022 about a DIY guide on making a bike generator: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2022/03/how-

by erelong 17d ago

Might have changed their attitude since then as they posted in 2022 about a DIY guide on making a bike generator: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2022/03/how-to-build-a-practical-household-bike-generator/ https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2022/03/how-to-build-a-pra...

NewsaHackO 17d ago
I thought he was posting about some retro product until I saw the USB ports in the energy delivery. Weird that he edited his photos to look like that, and used retro components otherwise.
- physicalecon 17d ago
  The author does all sorts of odd-looking optimizations in order to make the web page run on a single host of cheap battery/solar powered compute. It does seem a bit extreme, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating: this website has been featured on the HN front page many times and I’ve not seen it ever falter. The same cannot be said for the many run of the mill “infinite scalability” cloud based SPA’s that make the front page – even those maintained by sizable organizations with hefty cloud budgets.
  - thenthenthen 16d ago
    It is an experiment, over the years various people have contributed “odd-looking” optimisations, its a great project!
    - schiffern 16d ago
      More info: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about/the-solar-website/#how https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about/the-solar-website/#h... https://github.com/lowtechmag/solar/wiki/Solar-Web-Design https://github.com/lowtechmag/solar/wiki/Solar-Web-Design https://homebrewserver.club/low-tech-website-howto.html https://homebrewserver.club/low-tech-website-howto.html IMO the only optimization they 'missed' is to pre-compress the static files and images on disk, since it's cheaper to decompress on-the-fly if the client doesn't support gzip. The could use zopfli to "extra compress" the most frequently accessed files, and use this as a solar dump load to usefully burn extra power when the batteries are full (perhaps compressing with gzip -1 when Pelican re-builds the static site, or even avoid pre-compression altogether during the build process. https://blog.llandsmeer.com/tech/2019/08/29/precompression.html https://blog.llandsmeer.com/tech/2019/08/29/precompression.h... https://github.com/google/zopfli https://github.com/google/zopfli https://github.com/kurtmckee/pelican-precompress https://github.com/kurtmckee/pelican-precompress
- sunshinesnacks 17d ago
  I think the photos look like that to achieve a very small file size. The whole site is hosted and a small solar and battery powered server, so every MB matters.
  - mrob 17d ago
    For photographic images, dithered PNGs have worse quality:size ratio than JPEGs. If you want small files and are willing to sacrifice quality you can turn the JPEG compression up or reduce the resolution.
    - sunshinesnacks 14d ago
      Yeah, looks like you are correct. It seems it was maybe as much about style/design as it was compression: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/06/rebuilding-a-solar-powered-website/ https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/06/rebuilding-a-solar... https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about/the-solar-website/ https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about/the-solar-website/ (Lots of comments at the bottom about image compression)
- schiffern 16d ago
  [dead]
KennyBlanken 17d ago
[flagged]
- idiotsecant 17d ago
  >Nobody is using lead-acid anymore, which shows how out of touch these idiots are with reality. For 5, if not 10 years LiFePO4 batteries have been the best option even for DIY systems Ok, but they often are lead acid batteries. I just bought an inverter off a guy with lead acid batteries. They exist like crazy all over the place because lead acid can be reconditioned effectively forever with proper equalization. If you have lots of solar and you value repairability with simple tools and simple skills lead acid still has a niche
- pocksuppet 17d ago
  When did lead-acid stop being cheaper than any version of lithium?
  - stephen_g 17d ago
    Pretty recently, maybe in the last year or so?. It's pretty crazy to see it - CATL have started selling LiFePO4 cells as low as US$63/kWh while lead acid tends to cost more than US$100 per kWh! Obviously a finished battery + retail margin is going to cost more than those figures but we're coming to the point where it will just be cheaper than lead acid on an amp-hour to amp-hour basis. Of course, on a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) basis, it was already cheaper quite a while ago (for the last 5 years I'd guess). It was a combination of LiFePO4 batteries having such longer cycle lives than any lead-acid chemistry, and the greater depth of discharge meaning you could use a lot more of the energy. So if you build a new lead-acid based system, you'd need almost double the amp-hours of batteries to supply the same amount of energy with a safe depth of discharge, and you'd still have to replace them much sooner. So you'd not only have to factor buying a lot more batteries with lead acid but also replacing all the lead acid batteries at least once while a LiFePO4 system would continue to operate.
    - emj 17d ago
wumms 17d ago
> Our dashboard also includes a 220V circuit. That makes it compatible with grid-powered devices (110V in the US, 240V in the UK). Retro-look nit: all are outdated nominal voltages. The US is 120 V (since the 1960s), while the UK and EU are 230 V (since the mid-1990s).
- bityard 16d ago
  If we are picking nits, almost every panel in the US and Canada is _both_ 120v and 240v. But even electricians here commonly say "two-twenty" instead of "two-forty."

by erelong 17d ago

NewsaHackO 17d ago

I thought he was posting about some retro product until I saw the USB ports in the energy delivery. Weird that he edited his photos to look like that, and used retro components otherwise.

physicalecon 17d ago
The author does all sorts of odd-looking optimizations in order to make the web page run on a single host of cheap battery/solar powered compute. It does seem a bit extreme, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating: this website has been featured on the HN front page many times and I’ve not seen it ever falter. The same cannot be said for the many run of the mill “infinite scalability” cloud based SPA’s that make the front page – even those maintained by sizable organizations with hefty cloud budgets.
- thenthenthen 16d ago
  It is an experiment, over the years various people have contributed “odd-looking” optimisations, its a great project!
  - schiffern 16d ago
    More info: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about/the-solar-website/#how https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about/the-solar-website/#h... https://github.com/lowtechmag/solar/wiki/Solar-Web-Design https://github.com/lowtechmag/solar/wiki/Solar-Web-Design https://homebrewserver.club/low-tech-website-howto.html https://homebrewserver.club/low-tech-website-howto.html IMO the only optimization they 'missed' is to pre-compress the static files and images on disk, since it's cheaper to decompress on-the-fly if the client doesn't support gzip. The could use zopfli to "extra compress" the most frequently accessed files, and use this as a solar dump load to usefully burn extra power when the batteries are full (perhaps compressing with gzip -1 when Pelican re-builds the static site, or even avoid pre-compression altogether during the build process. https://blog.llandsmeer.com/tech/2019/08/29/precompression.html https://blog.llandsmeer.com/tech/2019/08/29/precompression.h... https://github.com/google/zopfli https://github.com/google/zopfli https://github.com/kurtmckee/pelican-precompress https://github.com/kurtmckee/pelican-precompress
sunshinesnacks 17d ago
I think the photos look like that to achieve a very small file size. The whole site is hosted and a small solar and battery powered server, so every MB matters.
- mrob 17d ago
  For photographic images, dithered PNGs have worse quality:size ratio than JPEGs. If you want small files and are willing to sacrifice quality you can turn the JPEG compression up or reduce the resolution.
  - sunshinesnacks 14d ago
    Yeah, looks like you are correct. It seems it was maybe as much about style/design as it was compression: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/06/rebuilding-a-solar-powered-website/ https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/06/rebuilding-a-solar... https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about/the-solar-website/ https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about/the-solar-website/ (Lots of comments at the bottom about image compression)
schiffern 16d ago
[dead]

KennyBlanken 17d ago

[flagged]

idiotsecant 17d ago
>Nobody is using lead-acid anymore, which shows how out of touch these idiots are with reality. For 5, if not 10 years LiFePO4 batteries have been the best option even for DIY systems Ok, but they often are lead acid batteries. I just bought an inverter off a guy with lead acid batteries. They exist like crazy all over the place because lead acid can be reconditioned effectively forever with proper equalization. If you have lots of solar and you value repairability with simple tools and simple skills lead acid still has a niche
pocksuppet 17d ago
When did lead-acid stop being cheaper than any version of lithium?
- stephen_g 17d ago
  Pretty recently, maybe in the last year or so?. It's pretty crazy to see it - CATL have started selling LiFePO4 cells as low as US$63/kWh while lead acid tends to cost more than US$100 per kWh! Obviously a finished battery + retail margin is going to cost more than those figures but we're coming to the point where it will just be cheaper than lead acid on an amp-hour to amp-hour basis. Of course, on a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) basis, it was already cheaper quite a while ago (for the last 5 years I'd guess). It was a combination of LiFePO4 batteries having such longer cycle lives than any lead-acid chemistry, and the greater depth of discharge meaning you could use a lot more of the energy. So if you build a new lead-acid based system, you'd need almost double the amp-hours of batteries to supply the same amount of energy with a safe depth of discharge, and you'd still have to replace them much sooner. So you'd not only have to factor buying a lot more batteries with lead acid but also replacing all the lead acid batteries at least once while a LiFePO4 system would continue to operate.
  - emj 17d ago

wumms 17d ago

> Our dashboard also includes a 220V circuit. That makes it compatible with grid-powered devices (110V in the US, 240V in the UK). Retro-look nit: all are outdated nominal voltages. The US is 120 V (since the 1960s), while the UK and EU are 230 V (since the mid-1990s).

bityard 16d ago
If we are picking nits, almost every panel in the US and Canada is _both_ 120v and 240v. But even electricians here commonly say "two-twenty" instead of "two-forty."