Posted: 2/3/2009 6:04:26 PM EDT
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What do you guys think about this (heard their ad on Savage tonight):
http://www.mysolarbackup.com/ I am new to AZ (November) and planned to learn more about a solar set-up with battery storage but haven't had a chance yet. I am guessing with a little bit of homework you could build something a lot better for the same money - and you could tie it into your home electrical and actually benefit from whatever excess power it produces. Just a guess though. I'd be interested to hear from the AZ guys who either have done their own solar set-up or have looked into seriously and nixed it for some reason. |
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Ok I followed the link and read between the lines.
It's basically a 70 Watt solar panel with a big battery. The 1800 watts is the battery rating, not the panel rating. 70 Watts would give you around half a kilowatt-hour a day. i think that's about 5 cents worth of electricity/day. |
Yeah, my father-in-law looked at it and said you can do this a lot cheaper on your own without much trouble (he has solar for his RV - which as of yesterday is parked in my back yard - with the in-laws included  jk - I actually enjoy having them around). Thanks for the reply!
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I want to experiment with solar and wind power and like most things I do, I’ll try to learn hands on. I want to start small and cheap. My first goal is to have my computer room off the grid. Two computers, a television, an overhead light and two small desk lamps seem like a realistic goal. I’ll keep the ceiling fan on house power. I picked up small a 600w generator off EBay and I’m going make the blades out of a piece of 4” PVC pipe. I’ll mount the wind turbine on a 15’ or 20’ pipe in my back yard. Harbor Freight has a 45w solar kit for $200 (# 90599-1vga). The kit comes with a controller but I don’t believe it will work with a wind turbine generator so I’ll need a controller. I will start with two deep cycle batteries and a 1500w inverter. I am picking stuff up a little bit at a time and searching for the best deal. Start small and learn as I go. If it’s too much work or BS I won’t have too much invested to quit and I could always use this small setup when we go camping. If I feel like it’s something I want to stick with this setup will give me the basic knowledge to go bigger. You tube has good stuff on wind and solar power and the internet has a crap load of sites with info.
Hey dancelen if thats the case I have a mother in law I could let you have cheap. |
