those are the panels i'm using you should get a better charge controller though. harbor freight makes a 7 amp charge controller that should do the job.

havent had any real problems with them that wernt caused by me and the light do pretty good, not real bright but significatly better than candles.

for a first set of panels to get used to using solar i'd say they are hard to beat.

No kidding. Well that's pretty good news. OK then, specific question time. What do they run, and I suppose I could hook up the deep cycle batteries I have so I am good on those. Looks like it doesn't come with any.

I'll get a better charge controller too.

It looks like I should be able to buy more panels when I want too, and get a better inverter t that time and be good to go, right?

well, they can run anything the only question is how big is your inverter and how long do you want to run it. you've just got to break down the math. figure they are 45 watt panels and if you get five hours of good light that will be 225 watts per day. so in theory you could run a thousand watt microwave for about 12 minutes or a hundred watt lightbulb for a little over 2 hours or the two 5 watt bulbs that come with it for 22 hours.

now realistically you'll never get that kind of performance out of it simply because you'll lose some power when it goes through the charge controller and you'll lose some power as the battery is chargeing and you'll lose some power as the battery is discharging and you'll lose a ton of power when you run it through an inverter.

some say that by the time the energy makes it out of the inverter you might only be getting about 60 percent of the panels rated power.

here is a good article

http://www.sunfrost.com/stand_alone_PV.html

heres the main clip from it

Battery Mismatch Losses
Unfortunately, a 1 KW solar array sitting in direct sun for one hour will not produce 1 KWH of useable AC power. There are a number of ways energy is lost in this system. A major loss occurs because the panels produce their peak rated power at 17 Volts and most of the energy input into the battery occurs at a voltage closer to 13 volts. The energy is then taken out at about 12.4 Volts. The voltage mismatch alone results in a loss of over 25%. When analyzing battery powered PV systems, it is relatively easy to take these mismatches into consideration by using a current-based analysis. With this type of analysis voltage mismatches are automatically taken into account. To get a quantitative picture of the losses in a stand-alone system, let’s calculate the size array necessary to produce 1KWH with one hour of full sun. In a loss-less system, it would of course take a 1000-watt array to produce 1000 watts AC power. In a real system there will be a number of losses along the way. The input to the inverter will have to be about 1100 watts due to the inefficiency of the inverter. If this power is supplied at an average voltage of 12.4 Volts, then the batteries must supply 1100 watts/12.4 volts or 88.7 amps. For the inverter to produce 1 KWH the batteries must then supply or 88.7 amps for one hour or 88.7 amp hrs. (An amp hour is a unit of energy like a KWH). Assuming a 10% loss in the batteries the PV panels will have to supply an additional 10% more energy or 97.6 amp/hrs. To produce 1KWH with 1 hour of insolation will then require a 97.6 amp solar array. For each 17 watts of solar panels the panel will produce one amp; i.e., a 34-watt panel will produce 2 amps. The energy required to produce 1KWH of AC power with 1 hour of direct sun then be 17 watts/amp X 97.6 amps or 1659 watts which is a lot more than the 1000 watt array required in a loss less situation.


this kit doesnt come with an inverter, unfortunatly or thankfully depending on your perspective so you'll need to get one before you can run anything on 120ac

something else to keep in mind

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=15w+solar+panel&category0=

This guy has some pretty inexpensive ideas that I have looked into.

http://www.knowledgepublications.com/sunshine_to_dollars_google_adwords2.htm

I've been thinking about 3-4 deep cycle marine batteries from Costco, Sears, etc., a solar panel to trickle charge and some 12v LED white back up lights from a truck/auto supply. Should be good for emergency lighting, they are rugged, cheap and throw a lot of light and would be reasonably portable. Let us know what you come up with.