[StirCrazy]

don't forget that the solar foot print we live in will only give us about 50 to 60% of the rated power at best in the summer and down to 30 to 40% in the winter. also using an inverter and running AC equipment is very waistfull in DC power, to do it right you would have to get DC pumps, storage batteries.

here is an example. a 50 watt load will drain 236 amphours in 24 hours, this is a DC 50 watts so for an AC load you can add 10% so 21ish hours. this means you will need atleast four 236AH 6volt batteries as you don't want to discharge below 50% if possible. this also means you will need to be able to put that 236AH back into the battery box in aproximatly the 6 hours of good sun we have for solar purposes. a 110 watt pannel will put 9AH in every hour so this is 56AH. so 4 of thoes pannels will keep up.

so lest see, 1600-2400.00 worth of solar pannels (depending on price) 50.00 for a regulator, and 720.00 for good batteries. all this to save maybe 60.00 a year. if you buy the expensive pannels(which you would if you are smart as cheep ones are rated at a lower voltage and don't actualy preform as good) you are looking at 53 years for the pannels to pay themselves off.

now a better alternative would be the 110 watt wind generator from cannuck rubber, you still need the good batteries but it is 400 instead of 2400 and puts out 24/7, if there is a wind over 14mph (the thing you have to read in the small print) if wind is slower they put out less. there are also several links on the internet for building wind generators from car altanators and such.

Steve