Small, Portable Inverter / Charger for Tiny PV

[rhgray]

Looking for reccomendations for a very small inverter/charger for PV, possibly even with an integral battery, like some of the battery-box portable power units sold in hardware stores.  Goal is to use one or two 75w commercial PV panels to run charger for cells, laptop, handheld radios, etc. during daylight, with battery for similar use and very low drain lighting (like low power christmas lights)at night.

Alternatively an inverter/conditioner that could charge bunches of small batteries for those uses could be useful.

I have done some research, but am looking for direct experiences, or friend of friend experiences at worst, to steer clear any known problems. . . .

Roger

[Psycogeek]

to comment, i would point out that these

"charger for cells, laptop, handheld radios"

things are already low voltage like the solar cells

and the doubble conversion is going to be very high in losses, compared even to simple regulation for various voltages.

course AC converters have come MILES since i got one.

the one i have takes like 4-10A 12v of total waste , just to START converting

when i wanted a simple 250W out of it in 110V power, it took 28Amps from the battery 336W total, that is a whole light bulb of waste. and its waste was in the form of heat.

so that is something that you might want to add to your thought process.

what the waste is, for the consumption

i would think that even in the GOOD NEW quality EFFICIENT ones, that the bigger it is, the more it takes to fire it up.

when you read the SPECS on Efficiency, they should have specs on LOAD efficiency, or you should KNOW what the initial load is.

if your using up 150W to charge at 30W a battery.

and Using 300W to charge a 150W battery, use of the device could be tailored.

[rhgray]

If there were a simple way to skip the DC/AC/DC conversion, we could perhaps do that.  Part of the idea is to throw up one or two older commercial panels on a temp location, with "plug-in" convenience with standard grid-style items as a demo and convenience as much or more than simple functionality.  (Indeed, for real stuff off-grid I would look seriously at buying DC appliances, or using the DC adapters that come with things . . . and even for this purpose we may do so -- put up a row of "cigarette lighter" power sockets to run this stuff . . .

R.