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Rather depends what you want to use them for ?

What had you in mind ?

There are some on display at the Three Counties Show

See the Leisure Power Stand

leisure power 

Quote: Originally posted by stormcrow on 19/10/2004

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hi stu seen panels mounted on van roof thought hey would they power the ole battery or would they power the kettle, if so how do you go about it ? 

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Solar panels produce a lot less power that might be assumed.

A 40 Watt panel, will cost about £200, but will only produce 40 Watt in very bright sunshine. A realistic average is 1/2 that amount at the most, so that gives us about 20Watts for about 12 hours of daylight, less in winter. On a typical british overcast day you might get only 10Watts out of a 40watt panel.

So our £200 panel produces on average 240Watts\hours  in a day. A 110Ahr leisure battery costing about £40 holds about 1375Watts\hours.

So if a 110ahr leisure battery lasts you about a week, a 20watt solar panel will just about keep up with your power consumption.  

You could power a kettle from soalr panels, but to power a 1000Watt one on an overcast day I reckon you would need approx £15,000 worth of solar panel.

Quote: Originally posted by wildie on 19/10/2004

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with the British weather as it is wouldnt wind power be better.

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I would agree, especially as a wind generator generates power in the dark .....

Ive been interested in solar panels, yep you do need to make sure that you get some with a decent output butthey also sell fold up solar panels that come in a briefcase for about £100.

Some good bargains on ebay