45 Watt Solar Panel Kit from Harbor Freight
Price reduced from $199.99 to $179.99!
Peanut Butter Cookies, Part II
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I know all of you peanut butter haters are sick of me by now—this will be
the last peanut butter recipe for a while, I promise. But this is the one I
was s...
2 hours ago
11 comments:
We have several sets of these solar panels, they work pretty well, just watch the controller, they can have trouble sometimes. The lights that come with them are great, we use them inside the cabin, they don't use much power.
Great job obfuscating your location! Now I can read your blog with a smile, no more cringing... :)
Wretha
Since we are experiencing economy crisis right now, we ought to find ways on how to lessen our daily expenses. We all prioritize expenses at home and it's really amazing to have this solar energy for our homes.
It is great to save money from our electricity bills.
How much will these power? Can you power up your computer with it?
I've enjoyed your blog. I cared for my mother until she died and my baby brother had a brain tumor and I cared for him as long as I could. Many of the same feelings you had I've shared and it helps knowing someone out there can understand.
Susan, I can answer your question about whether or not the HF solar panel kit can power a computer, and the short answer is no, at least not by itself. At best, the maximum power you can get out of one of these sets is 45 watts, you can never get the maximum power out of any solar panel, then you lose some power in the conversions you have to go through in order to use this power. 45 watts alone is not enough to run very much, in order to make usable power you need to do this:
You would need the solar panel kit, a deep cycle battery, and an inverter, the solar panel kit contains a charge controller, you go from the solar panels, to the charge controller, to the battery, once the battery has enough of a charge, preferably a full charge, then it goes to the inverter, this changes the DC (battery power) to AC, you can plug your computer up to this. You need to make sure you have a big enough battery or set of batteries and you need to have a large enough inverter to handle your computer. Laptops would use less power (it's what I use).
I live this way, off grid, I use solar panels, a charge controller, deep cycle batteries, an inverter and lots of power strips. We run a few low wattage lights, a radio, a laptop computer and a small cube refrigerator on our set up, we have a bit more of a solar set up than just the one set of HF panels.
Susan, hope this answers your question. :)
G, I hope you don't mind me answering this question here.
Wretha
Susan, I hope I didn't discourage you from wanting to go solar, I just wanted you to understand that for what you were asking about (powering a computer), you need more than just the kit, but with a few extra items, it's quite possible to live comfortably off grid, (IMHO), we do it, and are very happy living this way. :)
Wretha
Hi Susan. I apologize! I usually respond to comments on my blog and I did not see your comment until today. I am so sorry about your mother and your brother. Life sometimes deals us so much. I appreciate your understanding, too
With that said... Wretha! Thanks so much for answering Susan's questions. I am certainly not qualified to comment on solar power as I am still dabbling, but aprpeciate your feedback. Take care.
I have two sets of the panels, live in Ohio. They work great spring & summer,and wish we had more sun in the winter. I power fish lights, and pumps, and an electric dog fence with them. I will be getting two more sets put up this spring for a total 180 Watt system. The H.F. panels are a great way to go!
Bruce, It's always good to hear of other's good experiences. Thank you for posting. I hope you come back.
my netbook uses about 10-15 watts per hour whereas my last laptop computer used about 40-45 watts/hr....so you could probably run a netbook on the HF 45 wat panels without much trouble....i think the math is 45 watts x 5 hrs effective sunlight, (maybe more in Texas) = 225 watt-hours per day max...
cool blog...
I have two of these kits. The framing is shabby I had to get 2x1 cut to fit rear inside bottom of frame drilled and bolted. This made for better moving. Also used hot glue to hold brackets in place while assembling.
With these I have 3 five watt panels from HF also. As stated these combined is still not much use.
Although those out there the ticket is use what you got to offset and use as a small back up assistance for power outage. Google plug and play grid tie inverters use this to plug in outlet and help with your power consumption.
Re Harbor Freight 45 watt solar. Does each panel have its own diode? (or is the diode in the controller?
I want to connect each panel to one-third of a 36 volt golf cart battery.
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