Electronics > Power/Renewable Energy/EV's

Where do I start with solar?

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paulca:
I've been thinking about having a go at solar, just initially as a play thing, but I have to start somewhere.

I have been tempted to just go for a cheap chinese panel, but I've done that road before and it often ends up with a repurchase of a more proper item.

I don't really have anywhere outdoors to put a panel.  I have a sky light and in calm weather I could put it out that for a while, but most likely any small panel I get will end up in my man cave room window.  The curtains are 99% of the time closed, so there is definately room for a 1m square panel behind the curtains.  It's south facing, and I expect I won't get very high efficiency behind double glazing.  But it is what it is.

It seems that most of the "kits" out there immediately assume a lead acid 12V battery.  Do I really need to go down that route primarily?  Or can I start with something else?  Maybe 18650s or something less arcaic, expensive, heavy and unreliable than an LA.

I'm not looking to spend a fortune, I'd think £50 for a first end-to-end set up and is it too optimistic to expect 20-50W from that money?

Just a first foot on the ladder type thing.  If I can charge my USB devices and battery devices etc. from it that would be enough to play with.

I hope to be moving house next autumn to somewhere with a garden, probably a garage and maybe a shed, but right now I'm in an appartment with no outdoor space (except my car parking space).

Belrmar:
i would recommend you to use a lead acid battery , yes is not as energy dense as a li-ion battery but they are cheap AF and eviromentally speaking they are much better (basically almost 100% recyclable). also using a lead acid battery grants you the opportunity of only having to use a cheap pwm charger from ebay instead of a complex battery balancer.

Talking about the energy you wold get....expect the worse  as the windows of your house are no low iron and the ammount of light comming from a window is greatly reduced but for testing is good enough

metrologist:
I got a 100W Chinese panel for $96 USD shipped and it works great!

I also bought one of those Li-ION solar charge controllers (you'll find the black or white plastic with blue labeling) and tried it with a 96WHr Li-ION laptop battery pack and it sucked. Maybe I could power a few USB devices, but I really did not have much else that would work well enough off the nominal voltage. I also found that the SCC would not dump the full power from the panel into my load.

I bought the exact same controller for LA battery and it works great! It will dump the full juice into my load and I currently use it with a 12V - 120V inverter to run my 42V Li-ION ebike charger and to charge other USB devices.

Adam Welch did a review of a MPPT SCC that had a programable setting and he said it worked great! I am considering that one so I can charge my ebike batteries direct from the SCC.

paulca:
What do you think of these?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/252951999615?ul_noapp=true

Or...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50w-Solar-Panel-10A-Charger-Controller-Brackets-6m-cable-for-12v-Battery/361537187409?hash=item542d4bae51:g:SIAAAOSw6oBXFSKQ

metrologist:
the 20W system has the same kind of controller that I am using. Both of these are for lead acid battery technology. Polycrystalline panels are the second tier common panel with decent efficiency. Monocrystalline panels are superior. I have the former from Newpowa.

You should look into your region solar rating and figure out how much energy to expect, and then work out which battery will work with your system and needs.

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