Solar charger on permanent shack

[Northtwin]

Do most of you use a solar charger on your permanent shacks that don't have a generator? What size would I need? I am only running a few lights maybe 15hrs a week. Would a small trickle solar charger work?

[yarcraft91]

Here's a quick back-of-the-envelope way to answer your question.

Add up the wattage of all the lights you run those 15 hours/week. Let's say the answer is 60 watts, roughly one typical incandescent bulb or auto headlight. Multiply the total wattage x total hours. 60 x 15 = 900 watt-hours/week. That's what you need to replace with the solar charger.

A typical $100 solar panel generates 18 watts in full sunlight. In the winter, you'll get full illumination about 5 hours/day, so the panel generates 90 watt-hours/day. Two of those panels, working 5 days/week (some days are very cloudy, right?) generate 2 x 90 x 5 = 900 watt-hours/week, just barely enough to replace the power you used for your lights if the system is 100% efficient (and no system is). So, you might get away with $200 or so worth of solar panels to run a 60 watt bulb 15 hours/week.

Add a few more 60 watt bulbs and the cost of the solar panels begins to approach the cost of a generator.

[SwimJig]

Good info Yarcraft.

I say, bring a fully charged deep cycle battery with you, and your good to go. Auto part stores sell 12 volt utility lights that put out a lot of light, plus you can run a scavanged car stereo off of it. I had a cabin rigged this way with 2 lights and a 12 volt TV/Radio and would get 3-4 days of use on a 120 amp hour battery.

[Checkmate]

Have you considered LED lighting to reduce the expensive required solar panel?

[toytowr]

I bring out a battery pack (car jumper) with an inexpensive inverter on it.
In the fishhouse I put a compact flourescent bulb and an inexpensive radio.
Plug the inverter into an outlet the light and radio are hooked to and go.

[Mlaker]

I have a fairly small solar charger I got from a friend, the panel is about 12"x18". It will fully recharge a dead 27 series deep cell battery in about 3 average mid-winter days, without battery use. So it keeps up real well as long as I don't use it hard every day. I use gas lights for the main house and small 12v lights for the holes and inverter to power tv/radio. If the sum of the energy you have stored in the battery plus the amount you generate w/ the panel is greater than your use over the time you are fishing you are ok. But I would never figure my main light source as battery powered - LP is much more reliable.