I need advice on a Solar power Station?

It seems reasonably designed. The STP 150 watt panel is a real one, not a cheap one with fake specs. The price is several times what that setup would cost in the USA - I don't know what UK prices are like.

This sort of thing will not save money if one already has grid electricity. It may be useful for a remote site that does not have electricity at all, like a cabin. The power produced would run a compact fluorescent bulb and a laptop for perhaps 5 or 6 hours. There is not enough there to run a refrigerator or heater. I would also not buy such a thing for use on occasional camping trips. The setup is big and heavy, so would be no good unless you had a car with you, and if you had a car, you could connect a £20 inverter to it and get power that way. Also, when you are done camping, you cannot just put the whole thing into storage. The battery will go bad if not maintained.

Wind is only suitable for a few locations. If you live in the country, maybe you'll be allowed to erect a windmill. The wind turbine really needs to be high off the ground - the air speed is generally too low at ground or even rooftop level. Wind is somewhat cheaper than solar, but then again, only if you're one of the lucky few with the right location. Even better is if you have a year-round stream flowing through your property, and can put in a micro hydro generator. We have a solar electirc array on our house, but because we didn't use all that much electricity in the first place, it will take a long time to break even. Decades. I'm still happy, because it's approximately break even. If your electricity is expensive (20+ cents / kWh), there may be a good financial case for solar. Check with a professional installer and get a free quote. They'll run the numbers, and you can decide whether you agree with them on the savings, if any. Human power doesn't generate much in terms of kWh, but you could displace running the dishwasher by forcing your kids to do the dishes by hand, and also make them hang the laundry out to dry outside instead of running the dryer. Hey, it's what I had to do when I was growing up. And you can save gas by biking, which I still do today.

As i read about it, it provides only 750watts per day (assuming its a good sunny day i'd imagine) and goes on to talk about "camp sites".........which if you've ever gone camping, your pretty much in the wild with little to no real energy needs.

So you want to go solar.

I live in a house without Air conditioning ( a power pig ) But I still manage to use between 250Kilowatts to 300Kilowatts a month. That's mainly for regular appliances, TV, Computer, Frig, Stove / Microwave, lighting, etc.

taking the average number of days per month, thats roughly 10 kilowatts a day. So that is about what I'd need to produce out of a solar system to be "off the grid"

You would need a battery back up system, along with a power inverter/converter, battery charger with overvoltage, short and heat protection. You will also have to find a way to tie into your power system, since you can always throw the main circuit breaker to kill grid power, but you can't remove the power from the incoming lines.

Even with all this, the utility will still charge you a 'reliability' fee and such for providing you with power, even if you don't use it (unless you cancel service all together)

Sorry, I looked at that 2 seconds and laughed in disgust.

The panel is 150W rated. That's the power it would be generating if it was in direct sunlight 1000W/m^2 all the time. This does not happen in reality. Multiply that 150W by 8% you get a more realistic figure of 12W. That isn't enough to power an energy efficient light bulb.

Then look at the "battery bank". 85Ah means 85 Amp hours - if you flattened the battery (which you shouldn't) you'd be able to run a piece of equipment requiring 1 Amp for 85 hours. Or a 2 kW kettle for less than 10 hours (continuously). Now that may seem a lot, but running a deep cycle battery right down will destroy it, so you can only really "skim off the top" sort of thing.

You would only be supplied a 300W inverter, so kettles are out anyway. That's a maximum of three old style light bulbs.

The price is reasonable for what is there, but what's there just isn't sufficient for anything.

For my work at my last job we had something like a 100W lightbulb that needed to be powered all the time, but out in a field in the middle of nowhere. Main power had to come from an LPG generator because we'd have needed about 10m^2 of solar panels. We had an 850W solar panel providing a float charge to a battery bank of about 400Ah through a 2kW inverter.

All that for just a 100W load. So you see, what they are suggesting here is just utterly ridiculous for the claims they make about "Ideal way to achieve energy self sufficiency" unless you are living in a shed with just one lightbulb which you only need occcasionally.

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PS. In case you were wondering, I'm not too impressed.

In fairness to them, anyone who's likely to spend £1500 on it is likely to read to the end of the blurb:

"... can be used in many areas such as horticultural applications, camp sites, large gardens etc. It can typically power appliances such as general lighting, garden lighting, pond pumps, greenhouse heaters, charging 12V garden machinery (mowers, hedge trimmers, strimmers etc) etc for between 2 – 4 hours per day. "

It depends on what you intend to do with it.

If you are going to use it for camping or for emergency use, that is fine, but you are going to have significant limitations.

If you change how you use energy, 150W is useful but is not going to be enough for most people, But you have enough to start with though. The pricing does seem a little high for what you are getting. You could assemble the gear yourself for a bit less. And some of the pieces you can even make yourself. Plus some things you plug into the wall normally will work just fine off of 12 volts with slight adjustments to the original LEDs are low voltage devices at the outset, easy to get them to work on 12 votls.

You may find this blog of some use:

http://altenciruits.wordpress.com/

and this one too potetntially

http://altenciruits.wordpress.com/

Panels are normally rated nominally, so at peak solar position if the panel is set to correct angles, it will actually produce a good bit more than nominal. Nominal is what you will average across the day while the sun is out.

IMHO- shop around and do not be afraid of mixing and matching pieces. They likely padded their pricing in that package on your link in order to cover the most likely postage scenarios. If an item must be shipped always factor that into price compairrisons, especially with something available locally.

Maplin Solar Panel

price is high and too limited good for emergency lights or a night light

do not expect to cancel your electric bill after buying that

multiply this by 15 to power a small apartment

if not cloudy

If you want to power your garden with few lights you fine. If not ... Cary on looking.

If you looking for cheap solar panels for domestic use to power your house try on:

http://www.tudorsolar.com/

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