Desta C's posts

Q - You say "200 watts at most." How long of period of time, at most, will this 200 watts be on?

i know the 15w won't run all the lights for long (i don't expect they will be all on at once or at full brightness that long anyway) but if i do want them on longer some night i plan on incorporating a relay on the output of the controller so if the controller shuts off the load it will turn on a 120v power adapter so the lights will run via 120v power until the batteries get charged back up

and if it works i will just keep adding solar panels till my $ is gone


Q - How many hours of equivalent full rated charge from a PV module can you expect at your site?
 
I believe they say 4.2 hours of "equivalent full rated charge" is what we have here

Q - Do you see where I am going with all of this?

yes
i see that a 15w panel is not much of a start but i figured i might as well start somewhere and as long as i design the system so that i can keep adding to it as i get the money and figure out how much power i need to run the lights
then i have little to loose except a few dollars on the electric bill

you may want to have a smaller genn like the honda eu-3000 as it is very quiet and runs several hours on a gallon of gas (we use them for running potable work stations and they are great) i would think you could run a small house (with solar heat and led lighting) working together with some batteries?
i guess it would depend on if you can get them with electric start?
 

Has anyone been running their 12v led lights off of solar power ?

I bought a 15w solar panel (i know it's small but i had to start somewhere) and now i am looking for a controller to charge batteries to run my LED lights all around the house

here is what i am looking for
something that i will not outgrow if/when i get more/bigger panels
one that is well made and won't cook my batteries or die in a few years
one that is smart and can let me know the charge rates and battery charge state (if it has a network port or data logger that would be even better)
i would also to like it to have an output for connecting the load (so it could shut it off if the batteries got to low)
i don't know if it is possible or not but if it could be control the power from a small wind generator as well that would be killer

i don't know if it matters but the lights are 12v Flex Strips (from usledsupply.com) and some other 12v RGB Led lights so they don't use much power (30w per strip) but i may have several strips 1 or 2 per room so i expect to use 200 watts at most if they are all on i am running them of transformers now but it seems silly to convert 120v down to 12v when i could just use the power of the sun

i know that's a lot to ask but i don't mind spending some $ for a good one that will last as i plan on having all my lights replaces with LEDs soon and even tho i live in PA where we don't get much direct sun i believe i can power my led lights without any trouble

Someone has suggested the Morningstar Prostar Ps-15M but i am considering the 30 as it is not that much more expensive
anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks