sharkbait8574 wrote:I've been looking on ebay (and craigslist) but I am not finding the best of prices (on ebay after shipping is added). We'll visit the junkyard on Thursday after work, I just worry about how we are going to remove the windows. I'd love to add solar, but what can one actually run off solar?
Yes.. you do have to be patient. I found most of my stuff on E-Bay.
On the solar... it really depends. You don't really run anything directly from the solar panel. You are running from a 12VDC Deep cycle battery which is being charged by the solar panels. The more panels the more power and the quicker the battery charges to replace what you are using.
That being said, you can run any size inverter you want to run a microwave for instance.. or a coffee pot, TV, lighting or etc.. I have a 1500W inverter (DC to AC converter) ann can run a small 800W microwave to pop some popcorn or heat something for a few minutes. I tend to use my gas stove for coffee, as the coffee pot is a huge energy drain.
In my case I have 200 Watts of solar power that can get about 10 or 11 hours of sunlight. That is enough to get over 150 Amps over the course of the day and recharge the battery plus some (the battery is a 115 amp hour battery). It is kind of like a gas tank... need to store more to use more and you need more panels to keep up with more usage in the same day. I may get a second battery and another panel. I will see how it goes this way first.
In my case, I run a 2.3 Cubic Foot fridge all day and a 12vdc stereo occasionally. At night, I run a few 12VDC led lights and a 22" LCD TV. The fridge is always running. The battery will keep the fridge going all night until the sunrises as long as I don't use too much power for other things. If I run my generator on a warm night to keep the AC on... it also charges my batteries and runs the fridge. I can go off the grid for days and use little or no gas depending if I want to run the AC or not and how well I manage the power usage.
I hope this helps. :-)