Yooo Hoooo, Icu4daz! What's the wattage on your system?

[Marianne]

I found this quote from you tonight, in the kerosene lamp topic, dated 5/14. What's the wattage of this system, do you know? And how is it working out for you?

The solar panel ($160) came off of a electric fence and I took the electric fence charger out of the box. I got a deep cycle battery ($74) and a charge controller ($75). So now I am into this for just over $300, but then I got some 12 volt LED light bulbs which draw next to nothing and have a system that provides light to my entire 1st level of the farm house without any appreciable drain on the battery. This will allow you to be off the grid for quite some time...should you need to be off. There is essentially no fire hazard such as is with the kerosene lamps and it is self-sustaining for quite some time. Kerosene goes pretty fast and carries with it some serious odor issues and fire hazards so while it is handy to have them, *(and yes, curve the wicks) a small solar rig will afford you a lot of light for a long time without the fire risks...

 

[Icu4dzs]

Well, I guess it is smart to look at the unanswered posts from time to time.

To answer your question, my PV is a 12 watt PV. It charges a 200 amp/hr deep cycle battery. As for how it works, it is really nice. I am able to run some serious LED bulbs from it and only burn a few watts. I get lots of light in the house from it but now that I have my independent power system with 43,000 watts/day capability that little system is relegated to the emergency backup for the emergency back up.

It won't do anything big, but for LED light bulbs its great!!!
//BT//
Trim sends

 

[Marianne]

Perfect. And it's a good way to dip my toe in the water, too! I've already been watching our typical wattage usage month to month, comparing to last year's numbers.
We won't do a big system in this house as we plan on selling it in about three years to build our next home - couldn't afford it anyway! The plan of the moment is to build a very small earthberm home with more passive solar, etc etc to keep active solar needs to a minimum.

Thanks for the info!