Hi NorthernRaider - my tuppence worth.
First off, your idea is spot on, have a budget power back up system for LED lighting and low energy devices such as cell phone charging etc.
If I can start off by saying that energy can be neither created nor destroyed. You simply can't get more power out of a backup system than what you can put in. I say that cos so many people think that you can go out and buy something like the Halfords solar battery charger and their problems are solved for providing electrical back up. This charger is a mere 6W on a good clear sunny day and that equates to just 0.5 amps. This is a mere trickle charge at best and won't keep a working battery going. Great for keeping a stored battery topped up but that's it. Now imagine what it's performance would be like on short dark winter days. Zip.
The water pump is also very low power, 3W.
"Water Flow Capacity: max 250 litres/hour (light dependent)" sounds really good, and it is, but then you've got to factor in the
"Max fountain height: 100cm (jet fountain head & direct sunlight)". Those are, again, ideal conditions. Any higher and the pump will start to struggle. Dark cloudy days, time to go to sleep.
Solar shed light looks good but there's very little info on the site so can't comment further. I'm assuming that this shed light has an integral battery which I'd avoid. The ebay item, for the same money, looks the better deal by far and you also have the option to replace the AA rechargable batteries if/when they expire. Big plus is the plug n play aspect but personally, like
uks, I'd go for separate units for more control over part replacements/upgrades.
Back to your original query, it all boils down to what you want to do with a back up system. If it's just for LED lights and charging your cell phone, you can set yourself up for very little money. Laptops take a lot more power than you think, 50W at least judging by our own netbooks n laptops. That's a constant 4 - 5 amps on a 12V battery for however long it takes to charge/use. Get into anything that's more power hungry like a fridge or freezer and you really will have to invest in a much bigger more powerful system. But that's another story.
Believe it or not, you can get a 40W solar panel for about £40, the controller £10. If you have a reasonable 12v car battery knocking about then that will be a good starting system. Get more serious with a new 125ah ultra deep cycle battery for about £89 delivered. Sounds a lot but when compared to car battery prices these days, I think it's a steal. Hook up one of those car power adaptors with a usb port and you're away.
So, at the end of the day, your ideal set up will depend entirely on your power requirements matching up to your budget.
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