Redefining beginner...

wthiessen

I work in Haiti and I'd love to have some information about purchasing a portable solar panel and a few batteries. (I think)
I am looking to use power only in the daytime, perhaps for 1-2 laptops and charging a few phones. We might even want to have a CD player running. Any ideas about what I would need to run such things?

mike95490

I'm guessing about 300 or 400W  of panels, two 6V golf cart batteries wired in series, and a 200-300W inverter.   And if it's a cloudy day, you turn it all off to not damage the batteries,

BB.

I agree with Mike--That would be a very nice, cost effective system to power your stuff.

Here is a nice 300 Watt TSW 12 volt inverter that would work fine. There is a 230 VAC 50 Hz version available too if needed (special order in US?).

http://www.solar-electric.com/inverters-controllers-accessories/inverters/moin/mosu300wasiw.html

-Bill

zoneblue

Agreed. As a variant, you could use DC converters for the phones and laptops.

The golf carts run to 215Ah. Thus to get a 0.1C charge rate youd want roughly:=215Ah*0.1*12V/0.77 = 335Wp solar.
Lets say you use 3x 110W 36 cell panels with Isc of 7.1A.
Using a PWM controller such as the Morningstar Sunsaver, or Midnite Brat,
Assuming you use half the power at night, adn the panels are well oriented and unshaded, and a tropical locale,
that gets you around: =7.1A*3*13.6V*0.77 =223W (real world) * 4 sun hours/day * (0.5*1+0.5*0.8) = 800Wh/d
Thats enough to run two 30W laptops for 13 hours, every day.