my art studio (housed in a converted 1970's school bus) runs off of a solar set-up that can be installed for around $500. i've got three 15W solar panels that came in a kit with a charge controller, plus two deep cycle batteries, and a power inverter. i can run a sewing machine, lights, stereo, printer, and scanner (make sure if you're running computer equipment you spend a little extra on a "true sine wave" type of power inverter).
Thanks for the post. I've been building myself a setup for $1,000. I'm cataloging my progress here: www.sunnomad.com The project is advancing slowly as I don't have much time to work on it. But eventually I want to be able to build a super cheap web monitor for the systems. Cheers!
ReplyDeletenoah, thanks for visiting! we're planning to do a bunch more documentation of our small set up as we add onto it - we've got a small homemade wind generator we'll be hooking up soon.
ReplyDeleteGood post. We live in solarized motorhome fulltime with all the amenities and satellite internet, too. We started 18 years ago with 2 used 35 watt Arco panels, a 200 watt pocket inverter, a sewing machine & laptop. We've suffered energy creep and now have 600 watts PV and 2000watt inverter. See us at solarnomads.blogspot.com. Very much like your blog and your links. We just came from Tucson where we observed a number of rainwater catchment projects. Happy trails...tom
ReplyDelete"you can observe a lot of things by watching" Yogi Berra