Solar is too pricey, wind might work some places but not where I am at (too many hills, trees, ect)
I've actually thought about ways to retire, and getting a wind mill was something I thought about.
Shows average wind speed, which is what wind generators depend on:
http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/pdfs/wind_maps/us_windmap_80meters.pdf
Well I don't live in the US and where I live there's literately no wind here so I would have to go solar.
----- Rough cost of things for a single 12v solar system (Very Basic Setup)-----
$336 - 1,400Watt hour / 120 Amp hour battery
$9 - 20' tabbing wire & 8' bus wire.
$40 - low wattage/amp charge controller
$5 - 4 6 Amp blocking diodes for around so you can make 4 solar panels your self if you build then under 6 amps.
$25 for 25 2"x2" solar cells depending where you get yours you get a couple or a few free extra ones because they know people might end up braking 1 or 2 and depending where you order from if they offer it you might be able to get some more for free if you use their product and make a youtube video of it with a plug on it.
$5 - 1 square foot of glass
$23 - 1 foot x 2 foot sheet of stainless steel
$39 - PV Solar cells Encapsulant, Junction (500ml)
$40 - $100 - DC to AC power inverter
A small basic solar system - $522 to $578
Cost to build a solar cell its self - $106
Here's a little wiring stuff some of you might have remembered from science
Series Wiring = Volts going up but amps staying the same
Parallel Circuits = Amps go up but volts stay the same
Remember that you can't go any higher then what ever voltage your charge controller can handle and your battery bank.
Here's some math for you guys. Say your solar system is only a 12v. That meens your panels can not go over 12v and when you wire your panels together their voltage can't go up either that meens just the amps can go up.
Amps per cell .88 could hit as high as 1.10
Volts per cell .57
12v (your system) / 0.57 = 21 cells wired in series
0.57v x 21 cells = 11.97 volts
Amps - 0.88 - 1.10
11.97 volts x 0.88 amps = 10.5336w
11.97 volts x 1.10 Amps = 13.16w
Doing this you will have 4 cells left over. If you build almost 6 of these kind you will have enough to build 1 more from the left over cells.
So that solar panel you made your self will have rough specs of
Min Watts - 10.5335 per hour
Max Watts - 13.16 per hour
Volts - 11.97
Amps - 0.88 to 1.10 per hour
Average watts per cell = 0.50159 to 0.6266
Now if you take your 21 cells and divide them equally to make 2 solar panels but only use whole cells and not cut 1of them in half you will get 10 cells per panel.
0.57 x 10 = 5.7v
5.7 volts x 0.88 amps = 5.016 watts
5.7 volts x 1.10 amps = 6.27 watts
Now the specs of the 10 cell solar cell panel you made your self
Min Watts - 5.016 per hour
Max Watts - 6.27 per hour
Volts - 5.7
Amps - 0.88 to 1.10
Now if you take your 2 panels and wire them in series you will get
Min Watts - 10.032
Max Watts - 12.54
Volts -11.4v
Amps - 0.88 to 1.10
now if you wired them in parallel you will get this
Min Watts - 10.032
Max watts - 12.54
Volts - 5.7
Amps - 1.76 to 2.20
As you can see wiring your cells and panels in series you will get more volts over parallel but the amps will be low. If you wire your cells/panels in parallel you will get more amps but less watts.
Yes solar is expensive to get into but over a gas or diesel powered generator its alot cheaper in the short and long run because you have to always have fuel for it and that cost money and you need to buy oil for it and if you don't have the generator you need to buy one. After all that you have to find a way that you can reduce the sound of it almost 100% so that no one around you can hear it and that cost more money to.
Here's a little research that I did for what would be able to run a single 1kw lamp
Homelite 3000 Watt Portable Generator- $448
15L fuel tank allows 12 running hours at 50% load (so that's 1.25L per hour for run time at 50% load)
Here the price of gas per L is around $1.00 so at 50% load it will cost $15 every 12 hours aka 30L of gas per day so that's $30 and in 30 days that would cost $900
So lets say it lasts you 5,000 hours and you run it for 24/7 it will have a life span of 208 days
So 208 x $30 for gas per day = $6240 worth of gas for the 208 days if you had to replace it by then.
Eco Gen 6kW LP Air-Cooled Standby Generator, Steel Enclosure - $4620
So lets say it cost you $0.10 for fuel every hour that's about $2.40 per day. Run it non stop for 30 days and that's $72. Lets say this has 5000 hour life then that will only last you 208 days to.
208 x $2.40 = $499.20 for fuel cost
So here are the number run down for some who don't want to do it
Gas powered Generator - $448 just to buy it @ the cost of $30 per day to run it. ($900/month)
Natural Gas Generator - $4620 just to buy it @ the cost of $2.40 per day to run it ($72/month)
A Very Basic Solar System - Just to buy it $522 to $578 - @ the cost of $0 per day for fuel ($0/month for fuel)
Min Watts - 10.5335
Max Watt - 13.16
Volts 11.97
Amps - 0.88 - 1.10
280w / 24 amp run time when it doesn't go below 80%
Now take the $30 per day ($900/month) for regular gas invest that into upgrading a sort of expensive very basic solar system invest into more build it your self solar panel stuff and you could add 84.268w worth of solar panels to get more watts or into 2 1400Wh/120Ah ($672) and the left over into 2 build it your self solar system kits to produce and extra 21.067w to 26.32w per hour.
Now by that math Solar sounds a hell of a lot cheaper in the short and long run over gas, diesel or natural gas generators.
Now compare solar to wind. I don't think you will get wind around 7 hours per day or strong enough to generate the 600w that a wind turbine can produce per hour.
Now they do have batteries that are rated at 2800Wh @234Ah for a 12v battery but that cost around $700 to $800. They are a bit bigger then the 1400Wh @ 120Ah for 12v system weigh more but they do have a higher wattage that use before they hit 80% battery power and they have up to 560w compared to the 1.4KWh one that has 280w run time before it hits 80%. The 2.8KWh battery has twice as much Watt hour storage and little under twice as much Amp hours. The batteries that I am talking about are AMG (Absorbed Glass Mat) and they can be used indoors because they are sealed batteries. AGM has an efficient rating of around 99+% and have a rated self-discharge from 1% to 3% per month.
But for Very basic start up solar system I chose the 1.4KWh/120Ah battery for cost reasons.
