Electronics & Appliances Best Posts in Thread: Small solar panel & battery for mama's mountain house?

Anything with a heating element requires a lot of power. I put solar power in my caretaker's house. 2 X 100 Watt panels @ P 2990each, 100 amp hour 12V battery @ P5990, from CDR King. If they have no stock they can order. You will also need a charge controller 30 amp and if you want AC the you will need an inverter, probably 1000 watts. I bought these online through Aliexpress. Don't remember the price. It will run lights and a small Led tv, fan, and charge phones laptop, etc.

 

I don't know if you would be interested but I have been thinking of building a small solar light designed by an Indian engineer to give to those that have need of it. I had thought of giving it even to people with electricity to discourage use of candles during brownouts as the candles are a fire hazard. I haven't done anything about it but if you think it is a good idea I will order the stuff and build some. I have to solder the components and build the circuit board, etc. It would take about a month to get everything ordered and delivered and another week or two for me to do the work. I had thought I would probably make 50 or 100 to give away. The Indian guy says they cost 50P but when I priced the items, if I buy good materials they would cost me 100P. I was going to give them away free up to a point. I'm not sure that they would look exactly like the picture because I will have to locate the plastic container, but they will be close. They use a small solar panel to charge a rechargeable battery and are just good for a personal light. He says they should have a life of about five years with the best battery. Let me know what you think and I will make it a project if you or anyone else is interested. To run a rice cooker is a whole different ball game.

 

I myself was looking and I also stumbled on these two this year:
#1. The Solar Power Co., KDS Building, Dumaguete-Bacong Road, Barangay Mangnao-Canal, Dumaguete City; Phones: (035) 4211698; 0908 291 6693 (SMART); 0915 909 8410 (GLOBE); Email: info@solarpowerco.ph

#2. Visayan Solar Service, Inc., DYRM Site, Calindagan, Dumaguete City: Phones: +1 808 554 7200 (USA); 0975 330 2836 (Touch Mobile); 0919 491 4041 (SMART); Email: thesolarguyjeffdavis@gmail.com; Website: Home

#1 is managed by a British guy; #2 is managed by an American. Got no further information as I'm still saving up for planned solar panels.

 

There are as many answers to this as there are members but here is the main problem: If it is not sized right and used right then mama and the family will likely drain the battery every night and the dang thing will be useless inside a year. If you have the right size battery and charging system then it will last for many years. What is the right size? Depends on the circumstances.

So if you just want to give them something to last a year then buy a cheap system at CDR King or similar. To do it right will cost much more and still won't last long if they don't use it right.