R D S wrote:

I have been thinking about getting a solar panel to keep a fridge runnning
and keep a battery charged while camping.
Has anyone any experience/opinions?

Perhaps, but will need a fairly serious panel...

Also with energy prices being the way they are has anyone gone further than
this and installed solar in the home? Likewise with wind, a local electrical
supplier reckoned he could get me a 2kw turbine for approx £1500. At one
point I would have thought alternative power was prohibitively expensive but
now it looks as though it may sense.

That is far less likely to pay off alas. The 2kW will be the maximum
output of the turbine - probably at a wind speed of 12 m/sec. There are
few places in the uk that average half that. Remember also that the
power you can recover will be proportional to the *cube* of the wind
speed. So halving the wind speed on a 2kW turbine will reduce the output
to 500W or so. Note also that they work best with smooth air flow with
little gusting and turbulence - which rules them out in most urban
environments.

Solar thermal is usually your best bet in the UK if you DIY and build
mostly from scrap. You need to chose carefully what to do with the
energy though. Charging a heat bank or heating a swimming pool are
probably the most useful. Lots of people go for domestic hot water
systems, but unless you spend vast amounts on hot water it seems
unlikely you will make any return. (most people spend less than 30% of
their total heating costs on hot water).



--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/