small scale solar power set up,help needed

[turboep82]

well lads,very new to this and was looking in to setting up a small solar panel set up,im in college doing mechanical engineering so wont be studying much about this in great detail for a year or two,so every little help would be great,im looking to set up a panel and make enough energy to power a tv,light,a heater and to charge my laptop,what size of panel would i be looking to use,40w,100w or bigger and power storage how many batterys would i need to be charging.
cheers for any help lads.

 

[solarsparkie]

lol , its not going to fit on your window ledge fella , where are you based i can put you by some broken panels for you to have a play with if you like

 

[turboep82]

lol,no i was thinking more like a panel on the roof and some sort of energy storage under my bed ha,im in meath,ireland

 

[solarsparkie]

funny enough we dont go that way

 

[turboep82]

any other help guys

 

[moggy1968]

look at the solar handbook by, I think, Michael Boxwell, it's on amazon. he is very useful on the off grid side of things
Your main problem is the heater, they use a lot of juice. You'll need a fairly hefty (read expensive) inverter to power this. The TV and lights aren't a problem. You'll need a regulator and caravan battery as well (these aren't cheap, I've got 2 in my van and they cost over £300 for the pair)

Also have a look at these guys who are good on that sort of thing
12v Solar

The set up in my van feeds a 600W inverter which is enough for a small microwave and a 240V socket for power tools (although they push the limits on the inverter a bit) or I can switch over to provide power for a water boiler. There are also about 4 lights running off it.
The 2 batteries will keep the water boiler ticking over all day on site.