[Milsurplus] solar panels

[Bill Cromwell]

Jim Degenhart said:

Most people don't spend enough time considering how they will use the 
avalable power.
Read everything you can on systems.
Plan on how you will use the power.  Every day? 24 hrs? every 5 days?
All this is needed to avoid spending excess money on the system or a
system 
that just pisses you off.
I have systems that draw 200 amps at 24 volts for a few times a month
with a 
steady drain of 500ma.  They take almost 10 days of full sun to come
back to 
100%  Batterys last about 3 years
I also have a system that draws 300 ma steady and transmitts once every
15 
min with 3 amps draw.  The batterys are almost 11 years old. System
usage is 
the whole ball game with solar.
Jim 

****************

Hi Jim,

If you have an alternative power source for any reason you *MUST* use it
regularly. If it is only for occasional use when power is out due to a
storm or some such thing, the power isn't going to be available when you
finally call on it. Don't ask me how I know this. It's not fun to smugly
go out to the barn when a storm knocks out the electric utilities and
the generator that has been idle for two and a half years won't run any
more. Whatever your reason for having alternative power sources,
exercise them constantly. System usage is the whole ball game with *ANY*
scheme.

Reducing your electric costs is probably not a financial reality right
now. The reason I am doing alternative energy work is to sustain our
(wife and myself) safety and comfort whenever the central utilities fail
us. Since I am going to have the equipment and it needs to be exercised
I do count the savings realized from the unused commercial service as an
offset against the cost of having the alternative energy. There is no
way that I can produce electric power for my home for less than I can
buy it from the electric company.

To go a little further off topic, I am also working on inexpensive means
to passively collect solar heat energy. I'm having some success. Of
course, I could just feed home made electricity to some tube radios and
use THAT heat :)

73,

Bill  KU8H