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Solar Panels

45 Watt Harbor Freight Solar Panel
45 Watt Harbor Freight Solar Panel

Paulson Sr. alerted me to some panels and a great price. The kit cost 200 dollars & I even got a 3 set of Tin Snips and 5 bucks off by using a coupon I found on this site!! http://www.billt.com/harborfreight.htm

I looked around afterward and really couldn't find anything that touches this price.

The Kit consist of 3 15watt PV Panels, a frame, 2 12volt CF Bulbs and a battery controller. All in all I say a good deal for 200 beans. Deb and I weren't looking for a whole house solution , we just wanted to get our feet wet with PV Panels. I've heard from different sources about the quality concern of the controller in the kit. I've used it b/c I'm not that concerned for need it for. . JUST PLAYING

Installation was a simple, the metal frame is the weak point in my opinion. Make sure you get the base square, if you don't then the panels will sit a bit cockeyed, exactly how they sit on my install . I thought about mounting and running a cable underground over to the cabin where we would use the power generated to run curcial items. I was however alerted of a better idea of just moving the batteries back and forth....  easier then digging and cheaper!!!!. I define the curcial items as my plasitic wood grain clock radio and the 2 bulbs that came with the kit. The remaining items the kit needs are batteries and the inverter. Batteries were very gratuitously giving to me . I've tested 2 so far and both hold a charge . For an inverter I used a 100Watt inverter from a car cigarette lighter. I'm eventually going to get a cigarette plug from a junkyard and mount that. What I've done for the time being is just hard wired it. FYI The ground is on the outside of the plug, lucky figured it would be and took a guess.

I have not done to much playing so far, what I have done though is hooked it up to a mulitmeter. The day was rather overcast, the sun would come out just enough to go away. The range that I take measure, was from .75 amps to 2.1 amps. The output varied heavily in that range b/c of cloud cover. A nicer day would certainly helped figure out the TRUE potential powwwaaaa.

On the first night we tried the battery, we quickly wired up the 12 Volt and the inverter and NPR radio . We had bluegrass tunage the whole night, NOT to mention the blinking 12:00.... score!


Rear View Of Solar Panel:  comes with the mounting bracket.
Rear View Of Solar Panel
Dry stacked Concrete Block Housing For Controller
Dry stacked Concrete Block Housing For Controller
Harbor Frieght 12Volt Controller and 12Volt battery
Harbor Frieght 12Volt Controller and 12Volt battery