Newbie with a fairly easy question

[Slurp]

Hi I'm a newbie to this site and I have some pretty easy questions. I am on a rugby team and we are currently in the process of building a 20' x 18' cabin on our field. We are unable to run 120v out to it due to the cost. I am looking to build a fairly small, simple 12v setup. I am thinking of using 3 maybe 4 RV lights as they are the cheapest I have been able to find at $10 apiece. For now we would probably be using a single 12v car battery, are funds are very limited but I would like to eventually use deep cycle, maybe even golf cart batteries. I've found a solar trickle charger for $5o. I am hoping to keep it lit up for around 6 hours and only on the weekends, do you think this setup would work? Are there any better choices for lights, keep in mind we have very little money to work with. Surely I will need fuses but not sure what size. If anyone can help me out or maybe point me in the right direction I would be very grateful, thanks.

[ghurd]

Where are you?

What rating is the solar trickle charger?

G-

[Slurp]

Solar charger is just a cheapo, I believe like 5 watt. We will only be using the cabin on weekends for the games so as long as the battery(s) charged by then we'd be ok. Also the bulbs are like 26 watt and there would be 6 of them.

[Flux]

Assuming you are in an area with plenty of sun, you seem to have a load requirement of about 72Ah discharge, To have reasonable battery life you would need something at least 150Ah.

If you assume you charge in 6 days then you need 12Ah per day so you are not even close with a 5W panel. A 20W panel would still need about 10 sun hrs a day. Ideally you would get the battery above sulphating volts early in the week so 40W would make more sense.

If not in a good sun area you may need even bigger.

Flux

[wooferhound]

the Harbor Freight store has a system that will work very well for what you are trying to do, includes everything but the battery

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=90599

Looks like they cost $20 more that the last time I looked

[Slurp]

The Harbor Fr4eight kit actually looks like something I would be interested in. I'm new to this so I had no idea what size solar panels I'd need. I would prefer to just do it right the first time. Any ideas the battery(s) keeping cost in mind. Also any suggestions for cheap somewhat bright lights?

[wooferhound]

You can get a cheap car battery for about 30 dollars and it will last 1 or 2 years. You can get a pretty good deep cycle battery for less than 60 dollars that will last 3 or 5 years. The harbor Freight system includes 2 fairly bright 5 watt 12vdc bulbs. You can also get some 12vdc 8 or 10 watt florescent light fixtures at Home Depot or Lowes in the lighting department where all the funny sized Fluorescent replacement bulbs are. they are 11 dollars each and also come in a 6vdc version.

I should point out that the Harbor Freight charge controllers don't work very well and don't last very long so you might consider another charge controller soon after you install the kit.

I am using this HF kit here at my house to power lights, Fans, 12v TV & Radio, DSL modem and cordless phone charger, here is a link if your interested.

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2008/3/4/6303/63451