Not in midwinter, but for at least half the year, solar works fine at high latitudes. The "not in midwinter" part makes it a bad idea to install expensive setups but if this is something small and relatively cheap, it certainly might be worth it to you for the long-day parts of the year.Now I am a northern boy and plan on moving even further north so the whole solar thing is not going to work for me.
That's a pretty common thing for off-the-grid people who want to use only small am'ts of electricity in non-super-remote areas, AFAIK. Really it *is* as simple as putting a good deep-cycle type battery into your car (I think I've read of someone who jury-rigged a mounting for a second battery so the car could keep its 'permanent' battery and a switch could be flipped when you have the 'house' battery in for charging. (You're using your car as a battery-charger instead of running a small generator; this makes sense if you are driving your car around a good bit anyhow, but not, obviuosly, if you are carless or don't drive much)Recently I saw a video of some guy that hooked up his extra battery to his car, and after about 40 miles of driving, it was charged up. Then he brought it into his house and used the power. There weren't any real details on how he did it, but I remember that it was a simple setup.
I've seen it and I think that it is a good idea. However, it is a good idea that you could do your self and save A LOT of money. It is very expensive for what you get, although it is certainly packaged quite nicely.Wallybear said:Who has seen this? Who is using it? Who thinks it is a good idea?
Yep, Just like a gasoline powered generator, you probably won't realistically save any money. But as an emergency power source, it can come in handy.Bubblingbrooks said:Using alternative power sources are not a way to really save money in many places of the country.
They can cost you more in the end or just break even.
I keep getting asked "so, how long will it take to recoup your investment?" which I admit is substantial. I put up a Whisper 500 turbine, and 16 170 watt PV panels. I have a 6000 watt inverter and 24 305 AMP/HR AGM batteries.k0xxx said:Yep, Just like a gasoline powered generator, you probably won't realistically save any money. But as an emergency power source, it can come in handy.Bubblingbrooks said:Using alternative power sources are not a way to really save money in many places of the country.
They can cost you more in the end or just break even.