For some odd reason I got the urge last week to research solar energy. In the process I stumbled upon an inexpensive solar panel which you can put in your car to keep your car battery charged. I already had a power inverter and so I had this brilliant idea:All I need to do is get a cheep 12 volt car battery and I'll be set! I'll let the solar panel charge the battery during the day (while we're at work) and then at night I can power small appliances like my laptop, or the living room lamps... maybe even more!
I mentioned my idea to a coworker, and he hooked me up with a used marine deep cycle battery which was essentially new and had only been used briefly by the film crew for the movie Secret of the Cave.
So last Friday the solar panel arrived, I picked up the marine deep cycle battery, I came home and hooked everything up. But it was a cloudy weekend and so it didn't get enough juice to charge the dead battery. However, after charging the battery (with a car battery charger overnight) and letting the 
solar panel do "it's thing" over the next two days, I now have enough power to run the lights in our living room!It's nice to know that we'll always have electricity, even if the power goes out. :)
Even as I type, I am basking in the warm glow of free energy! It is dark out at the moment but these two fluorescent lamps have been faithfully burning now for over two & a half hours... I'm curious to see just how long they will last.
Stay tuned for an updated progress report.
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THE NEXT MORNING...
Well, the battery didn't last much longer... The lights ran for about 2.5 hours, however I'm not 100% sure the battery was fully charged to begin with. I need to get (or find) a voltage meter so I can test and monitor the power levels. I'm thinking that I might need an array of 2 or 3 more batteries (and possibly also a couple more solar cells) to make this thing more of a viable solution. But I'll stick with this setup for now.
Although the lights (two 15W fluorescent bulbs) ran for 2+ hours last night they did begin to dim over time and eventually flickered to an abrupt stop. So far, it isn't very practical for everyday use, but it would at least supply us with enough short-term energy in the case of an emergency.Yesterday I built a protective glass case for the solar panel so I can place it on the roof and it won't get damaged by rain... hopefully it will get better direct sunlight up there. At the moment I just have it propped up in the window which only gets about 3 hours of sunlight in the late afternoon -- I doubt that's enough to fully charge the battery each day.
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METERS & ROOFTOPS...
Today during my lunch hour I broke down and bought a small voltage meter. I think I have (had) one somewhere but haven't seen it in over 2 years. Anyway, when I got home the sky was clear and the sun was still shining bright. I pointed the panel directly at the sun and noted the voltage at 20. The battery was registering a steady 12 volts both with or without the help of the solar panel. I don't think the solar panel was in the sun long enough today to fully charge the battery. I'll run the same two living room lamps tonight and see how long they last.
Also this evening I finished up the protective box for my solar panel and positioned it on the roof. I slightly angled the box with a brick to increase the direct sun rays. I'm hoping it will get a strong blast of sunlight for 5 or 6 straight hours a day. That should be able to top off the battery each day.
I'm not only saving money by not having those lamps "on the grid" each night, but they also provide a constant reminder to me of the other lights or appliances I needlessly leave on, wasting energy and money...
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SUNNY DAY!
Today looks like another beautiful sunny day. I checked the voltage coming from the solar panel this morning at 7:30 and it was already getting 13-15 volts! Once the sun gets above the treetops it should be registering close to 20 volts most of the day. I'm hoping that will do good things for the battery... :)
I'm still a bit of a novice when it comes to electricity... I know the basics (like RED means positive and BLACK means negative), but when it comes to Watts, Amps, Ohms, etc. I get confused fast! So I did a quick internet search and found this website and equation:
I = P/V or P = VI
I represents current (or Amps), P stands for Power (or Watts), and V of course for Volts.
So, by using that equation I can figure out that my two 13 Watt fluorescent lights (a total of 26 Watts) are drawing 2.17 Amps from my 12V battery... (I think that is correct -- someone please correct me if I am wrong). Fully charged my battery says it has 875 "cranking amps", so I'm not exactly sure what that means for my 2.17 Amps... I'm guess that's how many Amps it can hold when fully charged?
I just received this simple explanation from my electronically gifted Dad:
Let's say you want to be able to charge up your battery so it can deliver 24 watts for 4 hours (96 watt-hours). Your 1.5 watt solar panel will have to charge for 64 hours! This is why more panels will really make it more practical. Ideally, you'd like to be able to fully charge during the day and use it at night. If you got 6 hours of direct sunlight, you'd need 16 watts of solar panel output (96/6) or about 10 panels (16/1.5) of the size you currently have.
Actually, I'm still interested in seeing how well my current setup will work and just how much I can milk out of it when running at peak performance. I need to probably fix my wiring (from panel to the battery) plus any & all loose connections to reduce energy losses where I can.
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