solar panels

[cornerstone]

Has anyone got them and what do you think of them not the fantastic ones on the roof, just the small ones ?

[Brambles]

I've played around with a few. I started off with a Uvee charger, that was fine if you just wanted a couple hours extra life for your phone.
I then had a 7W 5v solar panel, again, it's fine, but takes days to charge anything.

I now have a 20W 12V solar panel and a portable generator I put together myself and it's perfect. It charges AA batteries in the usual time, there's a 12V light attched to it, I can use a few small 12V appliances (kettle, lights, fan etc) and my laptop etc direct from the battery or charge stuff up. As my power down plan is to run what I need from AA batteries, this is the perfect set up for me and it's still small enough and light enough to move around if I need to.

[Derv]

I've put together a couple of panels adding up to 50w, a charge controller and two caravan batteries. So far it is a beast, although only in its first phase as I can only really charge iPads etc... My ham radios and run a 10w led flood lamp, but as I get more bits to run off it, I can see us increasing our off grid capability significantly.

Have a look at companies such as renytek or photonic universe, they sometimes have offers on.

[cornerstone]

I was thinking of, there is a you tube video about constructing your own with solar cells, a huge one and it looks shop bought it is so good.