Pineapple Kid
Kauai Hawaii
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Joined: 11/25/2002
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I am trying to do a bit of hands on education on solar systems.
I want to start small and power just my 5 outdoor 15w 115v lights that are on from 6pm until 12 midnight. Could I buy a 50w panel that would charge up 2 battery's during the day then run a 100w inverter to power the lights at night.
Will this work? If not what would I have to do different ??
I hope to learn some about solar playing around here in Hawaii and then add a solar system to my RV on the mainland. My small brain requires hands on education to get the concept.
Aloha
Pineapple Kid Kauai
2001 Dodge 2500 club cab diesel (California)
2003 Jayco 243RKS fifth wheel (California)
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Gale Hawkins
Murray, KY
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Joined: 07/22/2007
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Let us know how it works out. For about the same amount of money you may just want to get like a 300 watt inverter because I would not trust printed ratings to be good for 6 hours at near full load. Any experience while help seperate book facts from practical facts. 
Any heat created by the invert is wasted battery life so the quality of the inverter is important.
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bldrbuck
Boulder, Colorado
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Joined: 02/11/2001
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no it won't work. You need a good battery bank at least 4 6v golf cart batteries and about 500 watts of solar.
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mike4947
N. Syracuse, NY
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Joined: 08/26/2002
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Here's a few links to start your solar education:
http://www.backwoodssolar.com/
http://www.altenergystore.com/cart/university/index.html
http://www.windsun.com/
http://www.amsolar.com/education.html
I have to ask a question as most outdoor small lights such as those found for landscaping and pathways are normally low voltage ie...12 volt with a small plug in transformer to convert the 120 volt to 12 volt.
Are you sure they are 120 volt bulbs?
We've successfully cut off the transformer and wired sets directly to battery sources; eliminating the need for an inverter.
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hwybnb
Southern California
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Joined: 05/02/2001
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Solar is expensive. Whether the configuration you suggest works or not it begs a question. You are willing to spend hundreds of dollars so you can have outdoor lighting? What am I missing?
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kmb1966
Houston
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hwybnb wrote:Solar is expensive. Whether the configuration you suggest works or not it begs a question. You are willing to spend hundreds of dollars so you can have outdoor lighting? What am I missing?
Agreed. Is it "you going green", because it sounds like "your $green$ going"?
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quabillion
Fulltime Native Texan
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kmb1966 wrote:hwybnb wrote:Solar is expensive. Whether the configuration you suggest works or not it begs a question. You are willing to spend hundreds of dollars so you can have outdoor lighting? What am I missing?
Agreed. Is it "you going green", because it sounds like "your $green$ going"?
He will have the outdoor lighting "right now", But to think these panels and parts are now forever locked into this use only, is crazy.
These panels and batteries can be transferred into the RV once he has "a grip" on how it all works.
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Pineapple Kid
Kauai Hawaii
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Joined: 11/25/2002
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I have another reason to make the initial investment. In 1992 hurricane Iniki
left us without any electrical power for 3 months. This rig would run the little pump motor on my solar hot water system so it would make hot water for me and I would not have to take a bath in cold water for 3 months. I have apartments here and running the generator I can keep each refer running about 4 hours per day which would freeze the ice containers in each enough to keep the rest of the box cold. Investing in lots of generation capacity does not make $ sense as the hurricanes are not that often and our humid atmosphere kills generators fast
Like I said this is just an experiment, I plan to have a complete solar system in place in another year ( have to rebuild a section of the roof first to support it). We pay $0.46 per kilowatt hr here.
Like RVing this is not a money issue but a comfort one
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Gdetrailer
PA
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Joined: 01/05/2007
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Nothing wrong with the idea of some backup power. In my area we don't normally have many power interruptions but several weeks ago when the remnants of Ike blew through, many people lost power for days.
Even a high tech company I work for lost power for 4 1/2 days, no backup power, no backup plans just an empty building with employees milling around in the parking lot each day.
You will get many opinions on this subject here, personally I would suggest checking out THE OTHER POWER FORUM, they are a group of folks who are dedicated to RE living. Read all you can first then consider asking them some questions, you will get honest real answers not opinions but you do need to do some homework first (reading the forum).
On edit, it is far cheaper to reduce your power consumption first, consider relamping your outdoor lights with CFL (compact Fluorescent Lights) which will give more bang per watt. It is far cheaper to conserve than to add more power.
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DDkwac
around
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Joined: 07/28/2008
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Total power use would be ~60 amps @ 12v per day
A 50 watt panel would almost work if not for the problems including:
50 watt panels never really provide 50 watts for battery charging
If they did you would still need 10 hours of sunlight, having to follow the sun with the panel.
In theory, to get a reasonable lifespan from your battery bank you would need to oversize them about 4-5 times your expected daily draw, so a 240-300 amp capacity battery bank should be used.
I use about 60a per evening from a 210a bank (two 6 volt) . The batteries are now 2 years old and still ok.
note-I use 200 watts of solar panel and a mppt controller to recharge to account for overcast days.
Works ok for me so far.
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