[QUOTE=MightyG;7881959]
Wildlifer…do you power any other things with you solar, lights, etc…[/QUOTE]
Hee, yes, I am a solar fiend. Since all my infrastucture is at the top of a rise in a nice clear area, I get sun galore. Plus, working as a field biologist, I’ve had to design/build a lot of “creative problem solutions” for work in place with no power.
I’d love to add solar to the house, but as wisely noted, you have to get way more complicated battery banks, wiring, etc for that, so…that’s way too much work & money! I almost bought a solar trickle charger for the tractor battery, but that little Shibaura diesel engine is a beast & doesn’t need one! 0.0
For my charger set up cost: $85 for Parmak DC charger, ~$110 for quality deep cycle battery (I’d love an AGM, but out of my budget!), NT’s solar kit for $150. I’ll do the wiring & mounting myself, it’s not my first rodeo, but it’s very simple anyway & they have good directions. So materials cost = ~$345.
So yeah, not too far off from a nice Parmak solar charger, but if we have a lot of crappy weather, panel breaks/malfunctions, charging is slower than expected or lapses, sun implodes, etc, the battery alone will run the charger for at least 45 days (I’ve never run it till it died, so…). Plus the DC charger puts out more power, esp joules for less $.
My feed shed is lit with a LED ceiling-mount light that is kept charged via a small (included) external solar panel (it’s a 10’ Rubbermaid shed, just ran the plug wire through a seam) that I picked off the clearance shelf at TSC…for a whopping $15. Awesome bonus: since the light itself is battery-powered, I can unplug it & take it out into the run-in & smack magnetic base on the steel supports for extra light.
The run-in is lit via an insanely bright LED magnetic light (ummm, I really like magnets too, my trailer is steel & I have the coolest magnetic paper towel holder…) which, although not solar, holds a charge for about 30 days of regular use, then plugs in to recharge the built-in lithium battery.
I have a collection of small magnetic lights, since the last place I boarded before I brought the horses home, I’d just tack them up at my trailer, in the dark, so I smacked a bunch of those on there, very handy. Even have one with a motion sensor! And I kind of really want this thing.
The things to look out for if you are powering something real (i.e. not my little shed light, it’s easy) are a quality panel that can put out enough power–remember, that will vary with season/strength of sunlight. Also, I love LEDs, but I’ve learned to check out the lumen rating before buying, some can be pretty pathetic!
I’m also a big fan of passive solar for things like trough heating (you can google it, otherwise this essay will never end!). But here’s a good example – although there’s a much less complicated way, it’s based on the same concept. http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterHeating/FreedomStockTank/SolarStockTank.htm
ETA – a good solar panel: if it’s cheap, it probably sucks. When it comes to the panels themselves, you DO get what you pay for. If it’s $5 on Amazon, it’s not going to produce squat. RV sites are another good place to find creative ideas.
You can use it as a rough guide of power (25 >10), but it doesn’t really mean you can have 10 miles of fence line or 10 miles of wire (note they are different if you have more than one strand).