solar panel array - garden, allotment, outhouse etc

[HawkEye244]

Hi all, recently had a chat with a mate who is fitting a solar panel to his garden shed rigged up to a charge controller and then a 12 volt battery. I think there's an inverter in the setup as well which converts DC to AC. Not seen it yet.
I thought how handy this would be down at the allotment for charging phones, drills, running the odd tool, potentially running a heat mat for warm loving plants early in the year to get them started (tomatoes,aubergines, peppers).
Anyone have such a setup or know anyone that does and has some good info to share?

 

[scbk]

I would scrap the idea of heat, unless you spent a lot of money, it would just use too much power.

How much can you run off the 12v? USB charging, lights, radio etc is easy.

Inverters are easy enough, that will give your 240v, but it's more money, and less efficiency, as the inverter itself uses power.

 

[HawkEye244]

I would scrap the idea of heat, unless you spent a lot of money, it would just use too much power.

How much can you run off the 12v? USB charging, lights, radio etc is easy.

Inverters are easy enough, that will give your 240v, but it's more money, and less efficiency, as the inverter itself uses power.

Thanks scbk, good info.
Perhaps the inverter could be a standby option ..
Some heat in the greenhouse would be ideal but I guess that would be too much of a luxury and there are low tech options which are just as viable such as a paraffin burner.
I do like the idea of installing something which serves more than one purpose.

 

[HawkEye244]

I've looked into this a little further and watched a few YouTube videos of solar panel and shed setups.
I think you're probably right, it doesnt seem fit for purpose. A phone you can keep charged from a battery pack and there are decent LED lamps that can hold charge for 24+hr before needing to be recharged. Power tools run off a small generator.
A heat mat would pull too much energy and wouldn't have enough power to run off the energy the panel would produce from the low light levels at this time of year.
One key benefit would be the ability to run some sort of solar powered water pump in the greenhouse .. but really it's not necessary. Can the idea