maybe this will help. when superstore sandy was about a week away i ordered 2 panels from the sportsman's guide. 3'x2'. i mounted them to my shed ran the wires into the shed to a high shelf. i cut a hole in the shed and put a roof vent on it and stuck an optima battery i had from my truck before i traded it in up there. i added a volt gauge and a 12v converter like you would plug in your car to run 110. long term i don't know how it would do fortunately we only lost power for 8 hours as opposed to the rest of town that was either destroyed or without power for weeks. it ran my refrigerator and my freezer for that time though. during the night my wife said it dropped to 8 volts then when the sun came up it went back to 14. if i were to do it again at my new house (now divorced) id probably run 2 batteries in line with an additional panel. its currently still at her house with all the yard led plugged into it and maybe drops a volt if its a full night and foggy morning. once i close on my house and move my hot tub and build the shed to house it and a 3000 gallon pond ill be getting a legit panel setup with capacitor and battery. i won't be using much electric in the house with just me and whenever the kids come over so i figure the tub uses a lot of power and the pond probably will too id rather run it by the sun. save me that money after a year i figure offsetting cost of system by power saved. plus i won't have to run electric from the house and in the event of another big storm i could just run an extension cord to refrigerator and my indoor fish tanks.
hope that helps.
hope that helps.
