For years Before Jan (BJ) Alan came to the cabin for most of the month of August. In those days, no cellphone or laptop was needed (he was only away for a month after all), in August it is light more or less until 8 p.m., and since after dark he would sit in the screened porch drinking beer with friends, lack of electric power was never an issue. Okay maybe he would light a couple of kerosene lamps. In fact, my first year here, I didn't know how to blow out a lamp and burnt my fingers trying to lift the glass chimney. Lesson learned. Anyway, once we retired and started spending several months a year here, I decided I needed a few more creature comforts. The first major new comfort was a propane (only) fridge. The next thing was a way to produce a little light for the evenings -- especially in September when it starts getting dark earlier, the company falls off and I would like to do a little reading or sewing in the evenings.
Our first PV system is a 30W, 2amp panel, as pictured, which goes to a controller (in case of overcharging) then to our two RV 12Volt batteries, and then to a little inverter which changes the Direct Current DC to Alternating Current at about 110 Volts. Total cost of system to us was about $400. This was six years ago and we were thrilled to be able to run a couple of lights (15 watt flourescent) and to charge up the cell phone.
Now the RV batteries are not holding a charge and our power needs have grown -- we would like to be able to charge laptops, cordless drills, camera batteries and so on. We have been working through our needs and have discovered that we need a system that can deliver 146 Amp hours per day. We are considering the Kyocera 135W - just one panel.
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