The Home Place in the beautiful, remote Big Bend region in Texas.
"I also have in mind that seemingly wealthy, but terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters.” —Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
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... :)
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.
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. :)
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!
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...
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.
there is no diode in this setup. You will need to run a better controller. I suggest either a sunforce 7amp or put blocking diodes on wires yourself. Also make a combiner box like skippy on youtube. I know have 4 kits will not buy anymore as at this point I found it better to buy larger panels for just another 150+ on ebay.
Just wondering how these PV panels are holding out for folks....? I know that some of the little garden light PVs have plastic over the top and tend to haze over after a while.... then turn brown. Not too good for transferring light.
I got crazy and bought 2 kits on sale at $159 a kit and plan on using them for my ham shack. The charge regulators are cute but I have an extra charge controller that can handle 50 amps so I'll use that instead. The ham shack is already running way too many LED lights and that works out great for most occasions for room lighting. Guess I'll use the Compact Florescent lamps for emergency backup lighting.
We are already on PV and I just need to supplement the power going to the shack so I don't run down the house batteries when I get long winded.
Love these kits, before you even start messing around with them check out the Harbor Freight 45 Watt Solar Panel Kit Community Forum @ http://solarpanelkitatharborfreight.ning.com/ Great bunch of folks over there that will give you all the pros and cons of their experience with the kit. $149 coupon posted right now.
Renewable energy is going to be the next source of energy once we are finished with our fossil reserves. But not much has been done around the world so far, to yield solar energy on large scale.
harbor 
19 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.
there is no diode in this setup. You will need to run a better controller. I suggest either a sunforce 7amp or put blocking diodes on wires yourself. Also make a combiner box like skippy on youtube.
I know have 4 kits will not buy anymore as at this point I found it better to buy larger panels for just another 150+ on ebay.
Just wondering how these PV panels are holding out for folks....? I know that some of the little garden light PVs have plastic over the top and tend to haze over after a while.... then turn brown. Not too good for transferring light.
I got crazy and bought 2 kits on sale at $159 a kit and plan on using them for my ham shack. The charge regulators are cute but I have an extra charge controller that can handle 50 amps so I'll use that instead. The ham shack is already running way too many LED lights and that works out great for most occasions for room lighting. Guess I'll use the Compact Florescent lamps for emergency backup lighting.
We are already on PV and I just need to supplement the power going to the shack so I don't run down the house batteries when I get long winded.
John KB0NE(dawt)ARS(at)gmail(dawt)com
Love these kits, before you even start messing around with them check out the Harbor Freight 45 Watt Solar Panel Kit Community Forum @ http://solarpanelkitatharborfreight.ning.com/ Great bunch of folks over there that will give you all the pros and cons of their experience with the kit. $149 coupon posted right now.
My brother and I did a video review of this kit! Check it out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEr31VgGHrc
Solar panels have cells in them which are made of silicon. Silicon is a good absorber of light energy.
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Big sidewalk sale this weekend. This kit is $149.00 and you can still use a 20% off coupon. You will never get a better deal!
Renewable energy is going to be the next source of energy once we are finished with our fossil reserves. But not much has been done around the world so far, to yield solar energy on large scale.
solar panels texes
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