vs using grid power all the time ? i am thinking of doing this and putting in one or two lights in key locations were my family and i all ways have a light on at night for a few hours a night. i might use more or less lights depending on the battery charge.
is it cost effective to buy a solar Panel battery charger and BATTERY then a cheap invertor and power a light?
March 3rd, 2010 by espo Leave a reply » Advertisement
solar is cheaper. 65
The inverter will waste a ton of energy. Why not just run a DC light off a battery that’s charged from the solar panel? Alternatively, get some LED lights and run them off of AC. They draw so little power, that the cost of running it all night would be negligiblele.
the cost to run a couple 60 watt bulbs using the grid is so cheap, and trying to do that on solar would cost 100 more.
but use 12 volt bulbs ,NOT an inverter, they use as much power a light bulb would use.
you could use a 12 volt bulb like the tail light bulbs in you car.
they dont cost much at the auto store.
the other things in your house use much more power than a couple of light bulbs do.
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=how%20much%20does%20it%20cost%20ouse%20hold%20appliances
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4GWYE_enUS261US261&q=how+to+make+solar+hot+water+for+house
That small kind of setup is very unlikely to be cheaper than grid power.
If you want a little night light, get one of those LED ones. They use about half a watt, so if you leave it on all year, it’s just a few pennies.
If you mean regular room lighting, consider that if you had a couple 25-watt compact fluorescent bulbs, that would be $6 a year or so of electricity, if you used them 2 hours a night. Compare that to the price of your solar setup.