My 60 Watt $144 Dollar Solar Power System

As I described in my first post, I finally got started on building a little portable solar power system. So far I have spent $144 on a system that is made up of the follwing components:

• (2) SunSolar 30 watt solar Panels - $116 total
• (1) CMP 12/24 Solar Charge Controller - $12
• (1) Cobra 400/800 Watt Inverter - $16
• Old deep cycle battery - free
• Odds and ends - free

I mounted both of my panels together using leftover 1/2" aluminum channel like the kind you get from Home Depot. I then build a platform for my battery to sit on that would hold the rest of the electrical items. The best thing I did for this little cheap system was to put a 15 amp fuse between my inverter and battery. This saved me from burning up my inverter when I plugged something in that was too big for it. Here are some pictures to enjoy.

60 watt Portable Solar Power with Inverter

SunSolar 30 Watt Panels

Solar Panel Parallel Connection

Solar Panel Connections Up Close

Battery, Inverter, Charge Controller Combo

Free Electricity from the Sun

That Little Fuse Saved my Inverter

First Solar Hardware Purchase

I was on eBay last month looking up solar charge controllers and I finally pulled the trigger on purchasing my first piece of solar hardware. I sniped a little cheap charge controller from a guy in California. It is a CMP 12/24 PWM 10 amp charge controller. I next needed panels so I purchased two 30 watt Sunsolar panels form eBay as well and they look and work great.