by Woodpecker » Sat Mar 15, 2014 10:44 am
While I was researching Solar I found out it's about $2 per watt for a good panel.
Do not cheap out on the panel, make sure it's good for direct and indirect lighting.
A good panel will last 20 years, a cheap one maybe 2, it'll be bigger and do less. It's worth the money, IMO, to buy the good panels.
I ended up with 3 x 200 watt panels that are 4' x 2' and cost $200 each from Renogy on ebay. I got a 3 panel kit with a matching controller.
Controllers come in 2 flavors. Bypass and shut off. A shut off controller just turns off the charge power when the batteries are full. Easy to hook up and use.
Great for solar panels but not for windmills. A bypass controller shunts the excess power off into an element like a light or heater.
I had mine running into a 55 gallon water barrel as a water heater. It's a must have for wind generators but a waste of money for solar panels.
Lastly, batteries! Batteries, batteries, batteries. The best system in the world will starve without good storage batteries.
I have 8 x 6 volt, 210 amp AGM batteries. They are huge and heavy but I can run my entire full size RV off them for 3 days from a full charge.
I lived for 6 months running off nothing but the solar with a very small sun window. Without those batteries I never would have made it.
I bought 2 wind generators but there was no wind in the forest =)
