Sunforce 50044 60-Watt Solar Charging Kit for $283.86 at Amazon.com.

Product Features
Solar charging kit is designed for RVs, homes, boats, back-up and remote power use, and more
Built-in ultra-bright blue LED charging indicator
Made of durable ABS plastic and amorphous solar cells
Includes PVC mounting frame, 7 Amp charge controller, 175-watt inverter, and wiring/connection cables
Maximum temperature range of -40 to 176-degrees Fahrenheit

I don't have this yet, but I'm really tempted...

-Blast

I'm glad to see they're both 60 watt systems. In my experience that's what you need for a useful setup.

The Sunforce panels appear to be identical to the panels I've been running happily for several years. For a time they were rebranded by Canadian Tire, a big hardware retailer up here, but now C/T sells them with the Sunforce label. All this is based on the Amazon photo, though, so take that with a grain of salt.

If super-portability is an issue, you can get panels that produce more power for half the weight and size. With a corresponding jump in price of course.

What do people about using solar power in general? I've messed around a little bit with it and it seems to me that these smaller size panels have a definite place in and around the house.

I like the idea of having some modularity, is that a word?, by that I mean instead of a single system replacing my power company feed, a collection of smaller, self contained solar systems combined with some decent batteries and inverters.

I know that currently the cost of solar is still higher than traditional forms of energy production so I'm not going to save any real money, I simply like the idea of having a couple of hundred watts worth of power available should the mains get shut off. I also believe, from what I've been reading that we are on the verge of making some major improvements in the efficiency of solar technology in general.

At a minimum I'm going to set up a solar system to power my Ham radio "shack", everything I use is either meant to be used with 12volts or can be easily used with batteries and an inverter.

Solar electric systems can be designed for any application you find necessary. They are ideal for remote locations and for powering 12 volt equipment, like travel trailers. Best is a combo solar/wind system or solar/generator system. You can get a small system to power a few lights, or a refrigerator and freezer in case of power outages, and grow they system as funds are available to power more equipment, say a well pump or whatever.
Their portability is limited by their physical size and need for batteries to maintain power in dark or cloudy times of day. Modular systems can easily be set up to power whatever you need, when needed. Just depends on how much you want to mess with it.
You can get lots of info from Backwoods Home Magazine, backwoodshome.com, which has articles by Jeff Yago about small alternative power systems. He goes into much detail about system sizing and gives formulas to figure how much you need to produce to power what you want to run. He even has an article about a cargo trailer he converted into a portable generating station.
Study it out, then go for it.

I can see using this myself to recharge my batteries in the event of a power outage.

If my chicken coop had more sun exposure it could power the light in it...

Easily could power 12v LED lights for my garage or my house with just two batteries.

I may order it just to learn my 12v wiring in the house, and play around with direct 12v

Just to update this... the price is now $313.60

I didn't snag one... I`m doing a lot more research on solar first, gonna try to figure out what I need to power certain areas of my house My goal initially will be to get my office 100% solar, then the fridge/lights(rest of house minus dryer), then the dryer, and then the well.

This won't happen soon but that's the plan.

Just a thought. Modularizing solar power in this fashion may not be the most efficient means of building a comprehensive system. If you are going to continue down this path, I suggest considering an overall scheme to begin with, then breaking that down into a modular system based on price breaks, such as staring with a storage capacity well beyond what your supply will keep topped off.

Just a thought.

benjammin - Yeah we rethought it over and the plan is to get an inverter big enough for the whole house, and add panels, and batteries as we can afford it. EVen if it's not in use for everything (maybe just 1 outlet where it's setup) we`ll be adding to it and to grow to do the whole house.

We use 450kWh a month w/electric dryer and 240kWh a month w/out the dryer. So our system req. are MUCH lower than most city folk homes.