Since we bought our off-gird cottage 2 years ago and set it up with solar, I can't quit! We were in the US on the weekend and Harbour Freight down there had a screaming deal on solar panels. 45 watts with a stand, charge controller and a couple of 5 watt flourescents for $139. The stand is flimsy until I spent 10 minutes on it with the mig welder doing the joints solid.
Even with the long shadows of an evening sun, the trickle charge out of it brought this battery up from 12.2 volts to 12.5 volts (once the clips were removed) in a matter of less than an hour. Free!!!
I find solar no different than horsepower. The more we get, the more I want!
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
I love this stuff. There's a company in the U.S that is about to release solar panels that plug into your standard 110V outlet. They are designed to "give back" energy. In other words, they will slow down your meter. You can piggyback them for more output. I think that's a great idea since here in Ontario (and likely the rest of Canada) we are getting bent over for electricity. I hope they sell them here. They will be available at the big box building stores over there.
I hear ya Todd on the bent over part,but if Ont. hydro has less usage due to all the solar stuff, they are just going to "bend you over" a little furrther & with "NO LUBE" this time to try & recover their losses. It's a NO WIN system, you save on one end & they'll screw you on the other to get the $$$ back!!!
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Some times I wake up GRUMPY, but today I let her sleep in !!!!!!!!BLACKSTOCK Ont.
i love it i need to get set up for my bus and am lookin forward to it sounds like that stufff was pretty cheap,do you use it with a inverter? gotta couple of those from cambodian tire,Zantrex 1000,is harbor freight like princess auto?
i love it i need to get set up for my bus and am lookin forward to it sounds like that stufff was pretty cheap,do you use it with a inverter? gotta couple of those from cambodian tire,Zantrex 1000,is harbor freight like princess auto?
This was an extra special coupon deal but they still have $149 coupons for the same setup and I think that price is good for at least another month.
We use an inverter at the cabin but only a 400 watt because all we run is lights, ceiling fan, small bedside fan, heating pad etc. Originally we had a 2000 watt inverter but sold it because the fan ran continuous on it and I couldn't see any reason why we should use power 24/7 to run the fan. Now we buy these little 20 dollar Canadian Tire Xantrex 400 watt jobs. The fan kicks in once you start using about 25-30 watts and over. I like it because when I hear the fan running often it means someone left a room and forgot something turned on!
Harbour Freight is just like Princess except their prices are exceptional. I get all their sale flyers emailed to me. They have amazing deals if you are patient. Granted, some of the stuff is cheap junk and I just try to avoid that. However, the solar panels are the same as what we got at Canadian Tire 2 years ago and we are very happy with those ones. Best deal we got at CT was 30 watts for $149 Canadian plus tax. These were 45 watts with a stand for $139 US and no tax/duty at the border because we were down for 4 days. Also, the charge controller with the 45 watt is a better unit that includes a volt meter.
A setup like this would be perfect for a bus.
Tonight I started to build my second solar frame and turntable setup. This one will go on a pole at the lake, with it setup that anytime someone walks by during the day, they can rotate the panels to aim them at the sun. They are far more efficient for much longer each day that way. We have 60 watts setup there now on a turntable.
The turntable is the swivel part from underneath an old swivel rocker with some modification.
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
We're spoiled with cheap and clean hydro in MB...and ironically our utility wants us to use as little as possible! With a not so popular statement, our cheap hydro doesnt give us alot of incentive to be efficient or creative! the technology for these PV panels is getting better and better...still not cost effective where we have power access here, but if rates get higher it'll make more sense! It'd be fun to design/live in a net zero energy house...
ak
edited to add, p.s. take a look at "solarwall" i've used this on one of our projects, a single south facing wall around 30' long heats a 3 bay garage (1000sf)...for close to free!
-- Edited by ak 67sd on Wednesday 1st of September 2010 11:52:41 PM
