Alternative Energy

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

I was watching an episode of "Inside This Old House" this weekend, where they focused on an energy-efficient home built about 20 years ago. Including solar energy.

They fast-forwarded to current times to do a cost comparison and were showing what looked like about a 4x8 solar panel that the invited expert said produced 315 watts and cost $900 installed.

Lemme repeat that. $900 installed. 315 watts.

I'd pay $900 for a 315 watt panel that I have to take off the truck and figure out what to do with myself.

Does anyone know where this panel might be available? I haven't been able to find it.

One of these (possibly more later) would be just the ticket for my new car-hauler. As I've posted elsewhere, it's a 48-foot gooseneck with 40 feet of floor space. I've installed 8 deep-cycle 12-volt batteries and a 3KW inverter (6k peak load) and it's able to run the interior lights and lots of other stuff for a long time, but with only about 150 watts (if that) going into the batteries while the truck's running, I need to look at other ways to charge the batteries. We've talked about it quite a bit in the Gearhead board.

315 watts getting pumped into the batteries about 6 hours per day would definitely do a lot of good.

I've also recently bought a 5.5KW diesel generator. It has a 12v DC output but only makes 8.3 amps. It does, however, easily fit into the trailer's generator bay even with the inverter eating up a lot of space. I'm currently investigating ways to make it as quiet as possible and looking for a high-output charger I can run off of it that won't destroy itself on modified sine waves the way so many will. But I want to use it as little as possible. Hence, the desire for solar panels.

So, anyone know where on earth I can find this elusive $900 315-watt panel?

Edit: This is the closest I can find, but it starts at $4.03 per watt in boxes of 20 panels: http://www.affordable-solar.com/ase-dgf-17315w17v.html

That's at least $1269 per panel, and you'd have to buy $25k worth of them to get that price. Not quite what I'm looking for.