Hey guys and gals, I am trying to setup some cameras in a few locations that my family owns property. These locations do not have power, therefore I’m looking into using solar. According to AT&T We can use a mobile hotspot to connect cameras to the internet. They told me that we would likely use up to $900 worth of data per month unless we employed a NVR @ each location, remotely viewed footage at a minimum, and retrieved our footage by physically downloading it from a NVR. That kinda makes sense. My question is; Does the majority of electricity consumption from a NVR occur from the cooling fan and the hard drive constantly spinning? If so, does anyone know of a solid state hard drive that will work with a Linux based Hikvision NVR? Additionally, is it possible to have a cctv system with multiple cameras at multiple locations take a snapshot every 15 min and turn these shots into a time lapse video while still offering live view on demand? If anyone has advise on this, I would greatly appreciate your feedback. Lastly, If anyone can build such a system for us- we would be glad to purchase it! My family and I know that skilled trades are very valuable and we are prepared to compensate accordingly. Thanks in advance!
CCTV NVR on solar?
- Thread starter Sola boy
- Start date
Hikvision NVR itself will use around 15 watts of power. Each camera depending on which models you choose will use about 4-9 watts for the most basic camera. PTZ's will use way more. 20-60 watts depending on model. If you are streaming video then of course it will use alot of data. Each camera will do about two megs each. You will need to look at the upload speeds from the NVR side. Download speeds using AT&T should be no problem. Usually the Upload speeds are lower so you would need to have enough to have videos sent you either your phone or computer. To save on data for the internet connection you can have notifications set on the NVR where it will send you a picture when it detects movements from someone walking by. Just need to configure it carefully because standard motion detection goes off of pixel changes so branches of trees swaying to shadows of the sun will set it off so using intrusion detection or line crossing will reduce false alarms. Having a Acusense or DeepInMind unit will reduce it even more.
Usually if you are using a mobile provider such as AT&T is that they will not let you open ports. Best thing to do is to use the cloud access on the Hikvision. That way if the IP address changes then you are still able to view your cameras because the NVR will update the IP address with the cloud servers.
If you try an SSD to save power, make sure you look up reviews from reputable organizations like Anandtech to pick one that is low on power consumption, particularly while idle and while writing. Not all are created equal in this regard.
Remote access to a camera system that is hosted on a cellular connection is tricky. You will probably need a router or small PC on-site running a robust VPN client that makes an outgoing connection to a VPN server running at one of your homes where you have a static IP address. Better still if the device supports teamviewer or similar so you have a second way in. I did that for a lot of years at one of my dad's repeater sites before finally getting a fixed wireless internet connection fed in from the nearest town.
Remote access to a camera system that is hosted on a cellular connection is tricky. You will probably need a router or small PC on-site running a robust VPN client that makes an outgoing connection to a VPN server running at one of your homes where you have a static IP address. Better still if the device supports teamviewer or similar so you have a second way in. I did that for a lot of years at one of my dad's repeater sites before finally getting a fixed wireless internet connection fed in from the nearest town.
