Solar Panel

[menglish]

So I got this solar panel kit as a birthday gift from my cousin who wanted me to use it on my tank.

Does anyone out there has this kit or uses a similar project? I am curious to know how you use it and how I can use this.

http://www.harborfreight.com/45-watt-solar-panel-kit-68751.html

Much thanks

[dave w]

I can think of at least two ways to use it.  Although it looks like it comes with an inverter, it probably puts off 12 volt DC power and I'd guess that inverters lose something like 10-15% of the energy during the conversion process.   If I were you, I'd hook the 12VDC directly up to some LED lights or a DC water pump.  

 

But just use this as a supplemental system, not your mainstay.  Many days we only get 4 hours of sun and you don't want your tank to rely on such a variable source of power.  But another 40 watts of water pumping or lighting would be great when the sun is shining.

[gmerek2]

you need a 12volt battery to store the energy. Looks like it doesn't come with the inverter. It's going to take a really long time to pay off the battery and inverter with energy savings. I like having an inverter and car battery anyhow for power outages. My 400watt inverter hooked up to car battery will power a heater, some power heads for awhile. You can't skip the inverter or car battery because of clouds. The devices would be under powered at times and would turn off and on 1000 times per day

[menglish]

As part of my current back up system, I have an 1100W Power bright inverter and a 12V marine deep cycle battery, along with a trickle charger. This i know would give me at lest 10 hrs running my Mag7.  Now I have a DC waveline pump and should get much more of the the battery.

I guess the way to use the solar kit is to keep the battery charged.  It would be great to be able to run some equipments solely off the panels, perhaps the lights and skimmer. Plus I would want to configure it so my Apex can still monitor whats going on.

[Keraxis]

e common fluorescent light bulb (15 – 40 Watts) that is provided with most hoods doesn’t significantly add much cost. Planted tanks with higher lighting requirements that use power compacts (30- 100 Watts) or VHO fluorescent bulbs (75 and 160 Watts) and/or a combination thereof obviously will lead to higher power consumption. A reef tank may even run on metal halides which run from 150 – 1000 Watts – and that will quickly add to the bill.