Solar Panel Help?

[thatsawalleye]

Wondering what the best solar panel is for our ice house. All we have is lights and a cd/stereo in our house but might add tv someday. We dont wanna have to charge our battery all the time. We were looking at the 15 watt sunforce solar panel from cabelas for 99 bucks. any opinions on this???

[Eelpout08]

15 watts wont keep up with lights and a stereo but it would help the batteries to last a bit longer when charging during the day with the lights off. If im thinking right the standard incandescent bulbs are around 15 watts each

Just to put it in perspective a 10 amp battery charger is putting out 130 to 140 watts.

[Twins Guy]

agree with eelpout-std incandescent bulbs can run 100W or more actually (i would guess most home lamps/fixtures have 60-100W bulbs). compact fluorescents will save you some wattage.

[PlagueWielder]

Check out that Northern place for Tools right by the big C store. They have more options. Are you running 12v or 110? They have super cool wind turbines too. If I had a permanent I would put a turbine on it and run electric heat.

NT has some really neat stuff for this kind of application. Go talk to 'em.

[olbaidhh]

Skip the solar panels and get the wind turbine, I have tried the solar, it wont do what you what it to like the wind turbine. Solar panels on good days are nothing but a battery tender.

Do a search on wind generator out here I have LOTS of info posted. I can answer any questions if you need them.

Good luck!

[dewey1980]

I have one on my wheelhouse,waste of money in my opionion,go with the wind turbin

[mnhunter2]

I used one to keep the 12v battery charged up all week when in deer camp.

[nytelyter]

i have done quite a few posts on this very subject. at first i thoughtwind was the way to go but after talking to a few wind power owners there were a few concerns. first one of they guys i talked to had issues with the circut boards burning out at about $150 each and one other has said that he had broken off a few blades and the cost was about a buck (large) each.

i have three 15 watt panels and it does pretty welll in keeping me up and running however if i do solar again i will have at least three 45 watt panels.

that being said my next investment will be a honda 1000 watt genny. when you weigh the costs and investment the genny is the way to go i will keep my panels for normal gharging but runn the genny when i am in full on operation mode.

i also do see in the harbor frieght ads a three panel 45 watt setup for about $169 but you need to buy the charge controller seperatly but thats not very bad in cost. this is a great deal as when i bought my first panel it was 169 each. by far solar is the way to go if you make a good first investment. but as said a good set up is a minimum of 100 watt and the last complaint about i remember was the vibration issue and noise on and in the house. ... paul

[BehindtheHead]

the vibration of a wind generator is all in the way you mount it. it is going to vibrate if you mount it right to the studs, no question about it.

go with some kind of rubber mounted system or go to the frame insted of the wall.

your best bet would be wind and sun. i have seen batteries go dead with just a wind generator.

and be carefull with the size of the wind generator. my buddy got one and opted to go with the bigger one ( dont remember the size). that thing is masive, it has like 32" blades. now we have to take the prop off anytime we want to go anywhere.

my dad has had one for years and it has 18" blades. we just throw a bungie cord on it if we are going to haul it along ways.

[olbaidhh]

circuit boards... ??? why would you need them? I think he may have done it wrong lol. $100 bucks for each blade WOW... where did they get those? That could by a whole set (almost). ... of blades with lifetime warranty. Sounds like he should have done better research. They got vibration because they did not install a $5 shim between the hub and the PMA... rookies. lol The noise is from the improper setup with the shim. Mine sounds like a snowmobile WAAAAY off in the distance when its really blowing, otherwise lower winds its almost silent.

[olbaidhh]

Right on... mount to the frame and the studs... proper mount = no vibrations... also helps to have the shim between the hub and PMA.

[BehindtheHead]

HUB............PMA............sorry dont know what thoes are. can you dumb that down so i understand. thanks

[olbaidhh]

HUB = the metal piece that the blades are attached to, and it attaches to the alternator. The part of the alternator that would have the pulley for the belt.

PMA = Permanent Magnet Alternator... in other words your standard GM alt in a low wind (5-10 mph) would not make any power... the guts of my GM alt are made of different magnets and technology (slant core magnets) to be exact. What that means is you make power even at low wind speeds. You can make power with just a GM alt out of your car... but the wind has to really be blowing.

The 2 most important things in making or buying one is the core magnets and the blades.

Everything else you can make yourself or buy.

Hope that helped a bit.

[JCR]

I have both a 500 watt wind generator, and a 250 watt solar array at my cabin that is on an island. They feed a bank of batteries and provide 120 volt AC via a 24VDC/120 volt AC invertor. Gives me all the power I need for TV, lights, small appliances and the water pump. If I were to power a ice house I would use a 60 watt solar panel feeding one or two deep cycle 12 volt batteries. Then a invertor to provide 120 volt AC. Easier to deal with than wind, but you could use both.

[LindellProStaf]

You can buy kits that contain 3 of those 15 watt panels. That will help you much more than just one of the panels. Make sure you have a charge controller so they won't overcharge your batteries when you are not using your batteries for a length of time. I have seen batteries overcharge and start cooking when not using the controller. Stinks and not good for the batteries. Also don't use light bulbs that look like house ones they use way too much juice. Use the dome light type ones. Even if you need an extra light or two it is much less watts you are using.

[CrewJones]

search on an "online used market place " there are a couple on there used bring a volt meter and go on a sunny day that way you know whaty our getting

[schwendy]

I have that panel on my house. It works to maintain the batts when not in use, but will not charge the battery quick enough to keep up with the fh needs. I would recomend at least 45 watts, any thing less is useless..