I've been messing around with some solar ideas around home for the last few months. I thought I'd share some of the things that I've started doing.
The biggest project that is almost finished is a small pv array.
I traded my little electric scooter for 4 older used solarex utility grade PV panels from a local aquaintance. I'm told they were originally off a library in Oklahoma city. They were 6 volt and 70 watts each when new. Age has degraded them closer to 60 watts and I figured out how to convert them to 12 volts. It was important to convert them to 12v so they would be compatible with the grid tie microinverter I had in mind (like this one
Enphase Micro-Inverter M200-32-240-S02, MC4 cables) . I will probably buy one of these in the next few days. I found this model as cheap as $185.
Here is a pic of the 4 panels on the rack I made. The rack will soon be mounted on the south side of my yard out of all the tree shadows.