5 watt flourescent light bulbs from Walmart will last seven years, $9.88 I have a system which charges while I drive my car to work, or as I write this,every 5 days when I go to town to check my e-mail at the library. I use the car alternater to charge my batteries in the trunk of my car, I have blocking diodes/rectifyer I bought @ radioshack for $2.79 for four, then constructed cables to attach them so the batteries are separate, and won't affect/drain the car battery which starts the vehicle. then plug in a 100 watt inverter, which I purchased at Walmart for $17.88, I have a gravity fed system for my water tanks in the loft of my cabin.The pump is actually a submersible in tank carter weber fuel pump for automobiles,which pulls very little power at all@ 12 volts, no more that a couple of amps, to top off my tanks. I use a float switch with a bosch relay to activate the switch, I purchased for $6.99 @ aquahub.com. I heat with a wood stove, and soon will make a stainless heating coil to install inside the stove to heat our water. The crowning glory will hopefully be a good practical solar water heater/ pv panel. all of Much of the material I used was salvage, or discarded materials. So Solar on the cheap is really what I want to see proven. especially on cloudy winter days. Mine has already paid for itself, and driven by a 1990 honda civic which i bought for $500 dlls. I like to kill two birds, or if I have to more thatn one with one stone.