Redmondite said:
Interesting (and valuable) question:
Who in this newsgroup has the oldest, still working, PV system?
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<p>Is the following a system?<p>
<p> 1986. Bought one 20 watt Arco mocrystaline tempered glass alluminum
framed panel. I toenailed it onto the roof of a guest house that I was
using as and office-shop. Rand two 12 guage wires down through the window
to a 12 Volt Marine deep cycle battery. I then soldered six taillight bulbs
(positive in the middle, negative to the outside, tapped around the
soldering; each light had two @ 16 guage wires running it. The positive
wires iI wound and clamped to the batterie's (+) terminal, the negative
wires I wound and attached to an old AC wall socket togle on/off switch I
found in a pile of old stuff. Iclosed the (-) circuit between this switch
and the negative battery terminal with a few feet of 16 guage (black)
wire.<p>
<p>I bought some cheap at "Pic and Save" vanity mirrors for a dollar each
and tapped the mirrors with the wired tail light bulbs using the ultra wide
type clear tape to the walls, leaving the bulbs themselves leaning away from
the mirrors. Two of the six bulbs went on the ceiling and one on each wall.
For five years, I listened to music and watched TV in this room in the
evering and all night if I chose to, and the electrc company was never the
wiser.<p>
<p>In 1992 I found a pocket inverter, at Radio Shach for "99.00, that put
out 120 watts continuously, and by then Real Goods had low watt CFLs so I
got some and bought a few small DC TVs and boomboxes etc. Am still using
the panel. Accidentally burned out the inverter, now use two deep cycle
Trojan 105s, and the original Arco solar Panel is now on the new house 20
some miles outside of town, running lights in the summer at night, and my
wife's electric blanket during the night using a 300 watt "Shack"
