I'm trying to decide on how to power up the coop we're building. See my BYC page. Anyway, I was thinking that it would be nice to use solar to power a light, a water heater and for those really extra cold New England Winter nights, an oil radiator space heater. Any suggestions?
If you wanted to run just a water heater it would easily be 100 watts required, lights could be 12 volt setups and use let for sure. You are looking at needing at least a 200 watts panels and several batteries or a few panels and a couple batteries, alot of money. My advice would be to get a panel and a battery to run some lights and then do a "passive thermal solar heater" with a water tank to keep the water thawed and maybe even heat the coop if you wanted to. To run an oil space heater I am assuming it is at least 1500 watts right? That is ALOT of demand on a solar setup.
I have used solar power for lighting before. Most use LED lights that use very little power. Hot water heater might be another story.
I only use solar power for lighting so far, and I highly recommend solar lights. We have an inexpensive single outdoor spotlight that is used to accent a garden, it lights up the coop so they know where bedtime is. It's not too bright (we don't shine it at them) and it goes off in an hour or two. Good luck!
