Rough cost for basic solar setup for garage

I think most people will agree that is a really bad (expensive) application for stand-alone solar if you only need a small amount of power for two hours a week. I would just park my truck outside and hook up a simple 12VDC-110VAC inverter to power a few lights inside if it were me.

Hello Vinent96 and welcome to Solar Panel Talk

Based on personal experience and input from other members it can cost about $1500 for each kWh the system can safely produce in a day.

But that is for every day cycling and if you have identified your actual watt hour usage.

Identifying the cost of a solar/battery system for a load used only a few hours a week gets much harder. You can spend less and under-size it or spend too much and oversize it.

IMO I agree with azdave. It may not be practical to go with a solar/battery system for your needs. Using an inverter that can be run from a battery (charged by other means) may be the cheapest way to run your loads.

Get a cost estimate for a trenched power cable from the house to the garage. Buried cables across public roadways are allowed, just follow the local codes. I think that would be a good starting point before spending any money. Amortize the cost and you will find that it is most likely (affordable).

you can also find out if you can get virtual net metering or meter aggregation for two meters owned by the same person.
Often a small fee for the second meter but still one bill and if you do a grid tie solar on either one, it offsets the total usage.

If using an inverter plugged to a car/truck isn't ideal, you could also get a portable power station and charge it up before you go to the garage. Are you set on those 135w lights or are you open to using more efficient LED's? LED shop lights aren't too expensive. I bought a few 40w 4ft units for $15/ea and they provide around 4000 lumens apiece. The less wattage you pull the longer it'll last obviously.

Another option is to buy the battery powered shop lights. Most of the major tool MFG's have LED shop lights now that work with their ~20v batteries. A couple spare batteries will keep you going for quite awhile.

Solar is do-able but will be more expensive than the options above and you'll need much more equipment in order to power ~270w of lights using up to 800wh/day.

Also, some of the nicer power stations have built in charge controllers to allow you to plug in a panel directly to recharge. Give you flexibility to use and recharge anywhere so long as you use a compatible panel that doesn't go over the input wattage of the controller.

option 1 Small inverter generator $1000

option 2 bare bones PWM based system:
2ea 100W PV panels $300
1ea PWM 20A charge controller $100
1ea efficient 300 - 500w 12V mod sine wave inverter $80
2ea 6V 200ah golf cart batteries $200
handful fuses, wires, lugs $80

option 3 higher output MPPT system
1ea 250-300w panel $300
1ea MPPT 30A charge controller $300 (Prostar) or $200 (Sunsaver MPPT)
1ea efficient 300 - 500w 12V mod sine wave inverter $80
or
1 ea Morningstar Suresine 300w pure sine controller $300
2ea 6V 200ah golf cart batteries $200
handful fuses, wires, lugs $80


And, there are photographic use LED lighting systems, that consume about half the power of incandescent rigs
many lights mentioned/listed here http://www.screenlightandgrip.com/ht...rClean%20Audio

"as much sun as england gets" is too general. Some areas are brighter, some in eternal fog.