Solar Power

The Solar Panel experiment begins

Posted on August 2nd, 2011 in Money Saving, Solar Panel Reviews, Solar Power by JP No Comments

As part of the ‘how to save money at home’ videos and blog updates I’ve started for the bigger part of this.  I’vejumped in head first and bought some solar products which has came to close enough to £600.

The idea is I can’t afford to buy a solar panel kit for the house, at well over £10,000 for a full solar system this is just not possible at the moment so I’m looking at various other ways to reduce our electric bill for as little as possible.

With cost cutting in mind rather than spending 10k and over I thought £600 was a much better option for me.  I’ve bought:

1 x 60W Monocrystalline Solar Panel @ £225.00

1 x 5Mt Extension cable             @ £  8.99

1 x 7amp Charge Controller          @ £ 15.00

1 x 110ah Deep cycle leisure battery@ £ 94.98

1 x 2000W Pure Sign Wave Inverter   @ £189.00

To add to the above I’ve also bought a solar panel stand so I should be able to direct the solar panel at direct sunlight in order to get the best charge.

With the above I’ll be able to make my own ‘Solar Energy Charging Station’.  This charging station will, after setting up / experiments run in to the kitchen were you will find some standard plug sockets.  The sockets of course will be getting their energy / power from the solar panel which will live it’s long life in the garden.

I’m hoping that after trying various methods I will be able to run a few house hold products from the solar panels and hopefully cut the cost of my electric bill even further.

I of course don’t expect to save £600 a year but I’m hoping that with various other cost / energy saving products I’ll reduce my electric bill a significant amount which, after a year or two the money saved will have paid for all the devices bought on this journey.

 

Solar Power for the Home

Posted on May 17th, 2011 in Solar Power by JP No Comments

With general costs of living going people are now looking at ways to keep costs down. Apart from trying to grow your own ‘fruit and veg’ perhaps it’s time to look at solar panels for the home.

The cost of fitting solar panels in your home has dropped but is still quite expensive. By the time you have installed the panels and equipment it will take years to see a return on this investment.

However people can always start off small, for example you can buy solar panel chargers for mobile phones, tablet devices and of course laptops. Although these devices are small I would guess over the year the cost of running all ‘mobile’ devices in your house would soon add up.

So what can people do?

The easiest solution would be to buy the pre-made portable solar panel chargers which range from as little as £11 and can rise up to £500 +

At the top end of the scale are ultra portable solar chargers which are also flexible (easy to fold up and take with you) and will also provide power for different devices making it a good way to always keep mobile devices charged. If you spend a lot of time on holiday or traveling maybe a device like this would be a perfect solution to always ensure that mobile devices are charged up and it’s always there for an emergency.