Neede info on a portable solar panel

[jmfg06]

I am planing for my family's future. I am not one of those people that thinks 2012 is gona happen but i feel some day that something will happen. So with that said I'm starting to prepare my house so we could sustain ourselves for a while. My plan is to have at least one car batters if not a couple of them that i could charge with a solar panel and use an inverter to charge battery powered tools or lighting. But i don't want to spend an ass load of money to do it. So any suggestions on a brand or particular set up would be much appreciated

[Mike90250]

Car batteries are a poor choice, the deep cycles will destroy them in a month or two.

You need a deep cycle battery, not the same as a marine battery. Look for golf cart batteries.

Your charger source should be 10% of the total battery capacity. So if you had 2, 100Ah batteries, you would have 200Ah of storage. That would need at least 200W of PV panels to keep charged, and more like 300w installed.

If batteries get below 70% capacity, they begin to sulphate, and after 24 hours, the sulphate hardens, depriving the battery permanently of capacity, that's why rechargeing is so important.

Knowing the size of the loads you will have, will determine the size of the battery you need.