On 1/28/2012 2:52 PM, daviddschool wrote:
On Jan 28, 2:53 pm, wrote:
On 1/28/2012 11:28 AM, daviddschool wrote:

I am thinking green here. I have recently seen a couple of 15W solar
panels (15 X 2) on sale at Canadian Tire for $99.00. If I have those
hooked up to an electric generator, could I :

1) Trickle charge the generator
2) Have enough power to run some lamps, computers etc

Any suggestions would be great. Thanks

You need to do a little detective work.

How many watts does the lamp in your bedroom use?
How many watts does your computer use?
How many hours per day can you get 30 watts from your solar panels?
If you put 30 watts for one hour into a battery how many watts will come
out? Hint; It won't be 30.
What is the efficiency of converting 12 volts dc to 120 volts ac?

After you have some idea about the answers to these questions.you can
answer your own questions.

Mikek

So my question is why would anyone buy a solar panel then to run a
battery inverter?

That's obvious, but I'll say it anyway, the device they are
using is designed for 120 volts ac input.
Hmm...
maybe you mean the whole concept of solar panels for household use.
If we were starting from scratch, efficiency would be a very important
criteria. Our devices would be designed to run on DC and would probably
use a voltage higher than 12 volts to reduce I^2R losses in the
household wiring. We would also be very stingy with what is on and
for how long.
Mikek