I own a marina that i run on the weekends in northern ontario so i sell my FRIENDS stuff at cost, a curtesy im not sure i will be extending to Carbon04 (kidding). I have LEGAL connections for alot of things needed.

Here's a small scale PV setup with drawings...

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/yago116.html

Lots of options for the DIY...

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/PV/pv.htm#Small%20Systems

Sales on at Canadian Tire right now for individual panels and for whole kits.
Wish I had the money right now

Sales on at Canadian Tire right now for individual panels and for whole kits.
Wish I had the money right now

Thank you WildE

I looked through the flyers and didnt see it. Tuesday I know were I will be. 🙂

Do you have a link for that WildE ?

Link? no I walked into the Canadian Tire in Bowmanville and another in Oshawa, saw sales on the Solar and Wind power units. Various prices, call the stores or check online at Canadiantire.ca

okay then.....I did check online but was unable to find anything. I'll have to go in I guess. Thanks

I've run a small solar system mostly bought at Canadian Tire for 6 years. 3 marine deep cycle batteries, 2 small panels total 35 watts and a controller. The batteries are rated total of 345 amp hours (new), and I've used it mostly for running some off grid radio and computer equipment. $500-600 cost and I've just had the oldest battery fail. I've had great success using 12v for lighting. Check out: http://www.superbrightleds.com/ It powered a propane wall heater, a couple lap tops etc. The "plain-jane" power inverters from CT work well but they produce lots of RF noise that can get into sensitive receivers, maybe even TVs and stereos. There are better inverters but I don't know much about them yet. 35 watts was never enough to keep the cells charged if the usage was high, will be adding to the system soon, otherwise it worked very well.

cheers
David

Hey David,
good review and thank you very much for sharing

David,
Great info...always wondered if the CT stuff worked. I'm looking at a small system in about a year or so to run lights for my outbuildings...3 sheds and a chicken coop. This would probably work.

I'm saving up for their 100 Watt panel - when it's on sale. I want to run a DC pump that they have there as well
BTW, welcome PaleSun - I'm in Eastern Ontario as well.

I'm new to the "Prepper" life, but not new to solar. I've been using solar for over 10 years and operate a business in the solar industry. I'm not trying to sell the group anything, but there are a few things you should know:
1. "Marine" batteries are not TRUE deep cycle batteries. They are a hybrid between a starting battery and a deep cycle battery. As such, they should be avoided in solar applications where motor start up is not needed, but multiple charge/discharge cycles are needed. True deep cycle batteries are available just about everywhere. They are commonly used in electric vehicle operations such as golf carts, floor sweepers, etc... If you want to buy some and don't know where to look, call your local golf course.
2. Canadian Tire solar products should be considered "entry level", not products that will last under hard use, or perform nearly as well as better quality items.
A properly designed solar system will work very well for you as an emergency back-up supply of clean, quiet power. Understanding how to design your system isn't rocket science. It's pretty simple.
a) Estimate your power consumption needs -ie: 1 compact flourescent light with a 13 watt rating running for one hour consumes 13 watt hours of energy. Since there's always some losses in these systems (nothing is 100% efficient), we add some inefficiency. Typically, we add 20% to our consumption number to account for inverter/battery losses. So, our 13 watt hour bulb consumes 15.6 watt hours of energy on a battery bank system.
b) Based on your power consumption needs, calculate how much solar you need - ie: if we use example a) we would simply divide our 15.6 watt hours consumed by the number of "usable" bright sunlight hours in a day. In Ontario, we use 2 hours of sunlight per day as the number of "worse case" hours of sunlight, which is basically in November/December. So, 15.6 watt hours divided by 2 hours equals 7.8 watts. That's the number of "rated" solar watts we need to buy. All electrical loads can be added up and then you'll know how much solar you need to buy in order to run your equipment.
c) Estimate your battery bank size: Again, based on what you learn in a), divide that number by your battery bank voltage and then multiply that number. So, if you have a 12 volt battery bank, you would get 1.3. 1.3 is actually the amount of amp/hours used by the light bulb in our example. We need to use amp/hours because that's how batteries are sized. Now, if I want a reserve capacity of 5 days worth of energy in my battery, I'll multiply that 1.3 by 5 to get 6.5 amp/hours. That's the amount of amp hours I need to have ready to use in my battery for my 5 days worth of lighting (again, assuming that we're using our light for 1 hour per day as in our example). Now - here's a very important thing you need to know about batteries; you can't use them all up, or you'll kill them. In reality, you can only use about half of the rated capacity of a typical wet cell deep cycle battery. So, we need to compensate for that. I compensate by multiplying by 2. So, as per our example, we need actually look for a battery with a "rated" capacity of 13 amp/hours in order to ensure we have our 6.5 amp hours worth of "usable" energy for our example. Again, once you do your calculations based on your actual need, you'll get the number you need.
After that, there's just some simple stuff, like making sure your charge controller is appropriately sized for your solar panel(s), and your wires are sized correctly.
If you want a little primer on that, just respond in this post as such and I'll show how to do that too.
Sorry for the length!

Please provide a link to your website,
solar power and wind power are what I need. I also need more options than Canatr crap offers.

So, you gave lots of great info, post the link so we might be able to purchase from you, if and when we have the money, if and when we have the need, if and when we make comparisons.
Cheers

Edit;
ok I read your post 3 times now..
assume when I lost my memory I lost my math skills or math sense.. really did actually.

So two bulbs listed above. Just tell me what I need quick and easy like, please!

So laptop and two bulbs, for evening/day usage? what do I need.
daytime can the solar supply enough and more to cover the laptop and charge the batteries?
Normally I would have Veggy oil lamps going, but might need ONE 1x bulb and laptop for 3-4hrs. What do I need please.
Lenovo T400 14' laptop
(on the bottom it says 4.5amps)

OK WildernessReturn,
Let's work out your needs:
a) Estimate power consumption: 1 x 13 watt bulb for 4 hours + 1 x 54 watt laptop for 4 hours = 52 watt/hours (light) + 216 watt/hours (laptop) = 268
268 watt/hours + 20% (inefficiency factor) = 321.6 watt/hours consumption per day
b) Calculate solar power needed: 321.6 / 2 (hours per day sun) = 160.8 watts of "Nameplate" solar capacity. That might be 2 x 80 watt solar panels, or some other combination that will give you at least 160 watts of rated capacity
c) Calculate battery size: 321.6 / 12 (volts) = 26.8 amp/hours of consumption
26.8 x 3 (days worth of storage capacity) = 80.4 amp/hours of storage capacity
80.4 x 2 (allowing for 50% maximum draw-down of battery) = 160.8 amp hour battery (at the 20 hour rate).
Therefore, to wrap it up, you should have a minimum of 160 watts of solar and at least 160 amp/hours of battery in your system. More is always better!

I'm not looking to sell things on this forum, so I don't want to link to our website. Most folks that search for solar equipment on-line in Ontario find us anyway.
Let me know if you need more help!

ok, still do not understand the battery though.
160amp hrs, can it be one battery Or is it more?
what is the standard amp hrs per deep cycle batter?

pm the website link please. I will be able to make more purchases next month.
thanks