Harley Fredericson

So old post.

but I've had the harbor freight kit for awhile now. I thought the charge controller went out on me when I used to to fill up a tire but turns out the fuse burnt out on it.

Still works fairly well. Charge my kindle with it every couple weeks when it needs it. Charge my phone when I'm outside doing things and have been running lights off it in the evening.

Working out pretty well. Have used the light kit briefly inside when we had a power out and it was the lady's first day of her new job.

Alright, well after a lot of searching about, I found a lot of basic panels for about the same watts would equal about the same as the harbor freight kit, give or take after shipping and such. Also after reading a lot of reviews it seems the charge controller seems to be the biggest thing that might cause problems, and it seems like it shouldn't be too expensive to get one to replace it if need be. So I ended up getting it. Put it all together today, testing things out, I'm in Spokane, WA it was about noon, and the panel angle I certainly didn't measure I just set up the legs on the kit, but it was certainly putting out nearly 16 volts at 3 amps so it seems to be working correctly.

Still looking for all sorts of information regarding battery charge times and such. Which is fairly hard to put things together. The battery I got with it is just a 35 amp hour battery, but I currently don't plan on using much more then charging some usb devices off it, and perhaps when the weather gets better and I have outside get togethers using the light kit that came with it on my patio. I'll be looking at keeping an eye on it and seeing how things go.

Hey guys, I'm looking at getting something basic to familiarize myself with solar panels and the system around them.

Looking for a basic preferably one stop kit for this. Looking at mostly charging portables, iPhone, iPod and cell phone.
Possible some basic lighting for night time reading/emergency lighting. And possibly some battery charging. The only
thing I might be able to pick of locally is a small 45 watt kit from harbor freight, that has mixed reviews but for cost
and what I need might be worthwhile, but some in depth looking a lot of high and mighty folks look down on it for being
basic and the charge controller on it not lasting long, which concerns me some.

Does anyone have any recomendations of products they would recommend? Also would need some recommendation
on batteries.

Thanks.

In regards to the kickstarter, even with this small of a system with a small fish, I'd still imagine they don't have enough rocks to provide enough surface area for the proper bacteria culture to be able to keep the water completely clean, but may extend times between cleaning, or like many people I know you can also use the tank water to water other plants and top off the tank. Normally in other systems I've looked into the grow beds are much larger then the tanks themselves.

I had a similar small system and although I used a gold fish and they tend to be messier then bettas, it quickly surpassed the cleaning capabilities of the gravel. Resulting in the Missus finding a dead fish. But then again might have went better if I warmed up the system. I'd recommend at least when first getting started to still run through a fish filter. I understand you need to build up the bacteria, the convert the fish by products into plant food, and the filter could help keep it clean while the gravel builds up that stuff.

The first thing I though of when reading this is this house. http://permaculturenews.org/2011/02/07/freeform-earthbags-between-boulders/

Which incorporates large rocks into the walls. Not sure how it's held up but certainly looks really cool if you live in a climate that this wouldn't hurt.

As far as directly on rock, the only thing that I'd be concerned about is tying it into place to prevent walls from moving. Depending on material weight by itself might be sufficient. I'd just be worried about the base slipping somehow especially in an area with seismic activity. Heaviely bermed might help there as well.

Fill bags with packing peanuts?

well, I don't know if a dome with that outline would work out well. But I'd image at least the walls would be doable with earthbag with a different roofing option. As for a cad program I'd recommend google sketchup, it's free and seems fairly easy to use for a lot of things.