Chuck;
Here's a good way to semi-cheaply get your feet wet.
I've helped 1/2 dozen neighbors do this.
Go to HFs website, sign up for fliers, wait for one to show up showing 15% discount. Pick up a set; will be about 160.00 depending on tax.
While waiting for the discount, look for used batteries. At work in old UPS backups are a good place. Get a meter and check to make sure they read at least 12V anything less and they're probably no good any longer, If the come from APC UPSs look the battery over closely. They are sealed, but APC was/is bad about cooking them , easy way to tell is to look at the casing and check for cracks, find any say no thanks. Car battery will also work BUT messy and I wouldn't around children.
While there, also look for a little 100 - 150 watter inverter, will be one that you can plug into a cigarette lighter. shouldn't be more than $30, I paid 19 on sale.
Also, look at ALL of the chargers ( walwarts) and find the wattage levels most so as a level of 120Vac , multiply this by 10 if they do. add them all up and see if the total in above the 100 - 150 watter inverter if so find a bigger one to handle the total but about 20% more.
Once you have the Panels, find a nice unshaded place that you can set it up connect it the way the instructions say to, connect the battery to the controller, the one that came with the kit ( for now) let it set in the sun for a few days, unless you've fully charged the battery already. You don't need to have the controller turned on to charge the battery , plus the new ones have a little button to turn off the display. Once the display shows 12.8 volts or above, plug the inverter into the cigarette outlet and plug a power strip into the inverter and let the items charge.
NOTE: This is one of many simple ways to do this without a full load of money and gives back almost instant rewards. Which will go a long way to showing even the kids how neat this stuff is. You could even make note that having the walwarts plugged into this and not into the house that's 24/7 power you're not waisting.
There much more effiecent ways, but this should be one of the quickest and eaiser ways.
Then if you don't mind come back with pics and let us know how it's doing.
There are people on here that can steer you to the correct devices if you decide to go larger and can help decide. Only things needed are how much more you want to do and what the power requirements are
Hope this helps;
Bruce S
