I first started visiting this site maybe 3-4 years ago, just reading the pages over and over again but never really building or installing any systems myself.
Anyway, it all started earlier this year when I bought a cheap amorphous panel on eBay, advertised as a 4-5 watt, but since installing it the maximum I've seen from it is a staggering 1.8 watts! The panel float charges a 12v 13Ah SLA by the side of my bed, and it powers my reading lamp and charges my phone.
Here's the panel in the wooden frame I built:
And here it is on the garage roof, where it has been for the last few months:
Anyway, obviously this was enough to get me hooked on renewable energy, and this meant buying more stuff! I still live with my parents, so all the power I use is mostly confined to within my bedroom. My goal was to reduce my room load as much as possible, and after performing a load analysis on all my appliances I came to the conclusion that I should be able to power everything, except the base unit of my PC, with a 50 watt panel during the week, with a larger proportion coming from the grid at the weekends. I'm hoping for an average of roughly 200 Watt/hrs per day usable power from the system, taking into account inefficiencies. I'm hoping this is a fairly realistic expectation.
The loads consist of the room lighting, which is a 7 watt CFL, my desk lamp, which is a 3 watt CFL (measured draw 2.5 watts), my TFT monitor, amplifier, ADSL router, reading lamp, 12v clock radio, portable TV, and various chargers for things such as phones. Obviously not all on at once! Wall warts are to be eliminated through the use of a 12v power leads, and eventually my cheapo 300 watt inverter will be replaced with a truesine inverter.
Anyway, the obsession is just beginning, today my panel arrived (a 50 watt monocrystaline) along with a basic solar charge controller to get the system up and running. The panel is shown here pushing over half an amp into two NiCd cells, just by lying it down on the grass pointing at the clouds! No sun whatsoever, I'm quite impressed.
The next task will be welding up an A-frame to hold the panel, this will be placed on the garage roof and held in place with sandbags. Hopefully this will be enough. I've already drilled a nice big hole right through my bedroom wall to the outside (how I managed to get away with that I'll never know!) so the cable can come right into my room.
Anyway, I've already written way too much for this diary entry, I'll try and keep my diary thing up to date as I install the system properly. Thanks to everyone here and to the creators of otherpower.com for the inspiration! So far my gear has an 18 year payback time, and I'm already deciding what to buy next. Guess you could say I'm hooked then.
Cheers, Andy B (UK)
