This is a misleading article.

Even IF going solar piecemeal is “the lease cost effective,” some people may NOT have a chunk of money to do otherwise. Likewise, some who do have enough $, might need/want to use it for purposes other than larger scale conversions to solar. The fact that one can get “into” solar in such a small way — and at such a relative low price — IS the point of the article.

Additionally, economic efficiency is not the sole reason peole convert to solar. People have different motives, along with different sized bank accounts. Helping the environment out — even if the monetary payback isn’t there — might be a main reason for some. Being fully or (in the case of this article) partially energy independent might be another. I’m sure for some folks who’ve experienced a power outage for even just a few hours, let alone a day or so, just a wee bit of energy independence — a few lights and/or a small appliance or two — would have been a godsend.

Well, first of all, that is the LEAST cost effective way to do it. By far the most cost effective is a grid tie system that offsets ANY power usage in the house.

The system described above might work for a small backwoods cabin or occaisional use RV, but not much else. It is really poor efficiency and expensive to just convert a couple of lights or something in a house.

If you can’t figure out how to assemble the PV system from the parts list mentioned, then you’ve got no business attempting it.

PV panel –> Charger –> Battery –> Inverter

That’s the recipe for every simple PV system.

This is a good way to get started. It’s a modular approach instead of a full-fledged system. As you have cash available, you can add additional parts and upgrade the ones you already have. Additional PV panels can be plugged directly into the charger; additional batteries add power capacity; a second inverter can power another room, or a new, larger inverter could power larger appliances.

Even though the 32 watt PV panel is no longer available from that company, other companies probably still have them, or you could go with a larger one.

As far as the code issues: You can either hire the electrician, or (in most places) you can just DIY it properly. If you don’t know the code, either learn it or hire that electrician. This is actually a very simple installation, code-wise. No part of this system should connect to your existing wiring (unless, of course, you disconnect your existing wiring from grid power) It gets a bit more complicated when you try to feed power back through the electric meter, but this system is a LONG way from that one.

Okay to maintain the batteries on 32W of PV you would be limited to 100Wh per day. That would be about 2 hours for a 50W laptop, not 40hours. That is for New England. Arizona maybe it is 3 hours.

Curt, although the pieces used for uncle’s camper likely are very similar to the pieces quoted in this article, it’s very unlikely that your deployment really fit into the model of what was being proposed by the article. In particular, I doubt that the camper was both utilizing solar power and regular ole grid power at the same time, which seems to be the point of doing a phased approach to a solar deployment.

Don’t this or my prior comment wrong. I’d LOVE to see this be a practical solution, but right now, I am not seeing how I can run my kitchen on solar power and my living room off the grid.