I NEED POWER!

[Skvez]

(14 July 2012, 15:35)WetandCold Wrote: One thing I would like to point out, I have been and a member of a few solar forums and you always get the geek know all that don't have solar but knows it all, they tend to chuck out maths and percentages like no tomorrow.

On one of these forums there was a bloke that knew everything and told me I could not boil purify water on my solar setup, well I then went and boiled water 3 times one after the other during the UK colder months (daylight), this was 3x 1 litre boils, that I "could not do"

Wet and Cold,
I assume this comment was aimed at me since I was the only poster to mention how poor daylight is in comparison to sunlight and the only person to mention percentages.

Just to set the record straight I've recorded the effectiveness of a solar panel for over a year with a data acquisition card measuring the Voltage and current of a solar panel feeding a battery. Samples were recorded every 10 minutes to computer.
I do know what I'm talking about when it comes to solar.

I'm glad you can boil water with a battery. I'm sure the battery can boil water at night too.

Quote:Think about getting 12 volt equipment fridge/freezer etc.

Unfortunately this is not as good advice as it may first appear. 12V friedges tend to be built for mobile applications (caravans etc) and as a result are often optimised to be small and light rather than efficient. Even talking into account the inefficiencies of an inverter, equipment intended for home use is often more efficient.

Quote:I need it to recharge batteries, laptops, kindles. Be nice if it could run a fridge/freezer for a few hours a day, lighting. If it could power a big air compressor too that'd be handy

By recharge batteries do you mean little batteries like AA/AAA or big batteries like your car batter?
Charging small batteries doesn't require very much power at all (it depends on how long you can wait for thenm to becharged, hours vs days)
Laptops typically have a PSU in the 75/100W range
Kindles are pretty gentle on the power, less so than a laptop.
Fridge/Freezer is going to require a medium sized set up. You need to check the W rating of your equipment.
The compressor (Especially if it's a big one) is probably going to be too much to hope for unless you can afford a reallyu big system. You're probably better getting a petrol or diesel compressor for the rare times you need it (I'm assuing you want it to power tools).