What can a 100 Watt solar panel actually do?
Well, it can boil an egg pretty easily. There are a lot of complicated and expensive ways to cook off of solar. But this is not one of them.
One of my favorite ways to use a small solar panel to cook is to simply plug it into a 12V DC heated cup, boil the water, and drop an egg in. Doesn’t take long to cook the egg. Boiling noodles and making hot coffee are a snap.
No electronics are required, but the user can connect a standard 12V DC golf cart converter if concerned about overvoltage. Some 100 watt solar panels could potentially produce too much voltage and burn out the cup. I’ve tried it both ways with / without a DC converter and all doubts were proven wrong – both methods can work. Simplicity is key, as a DC converter might not be available in austere circumstances.
If the sun is too bright, tilting the solar panel away from the sun will reduce the power and voltage into the cup, allowing one to control the temperature. Typically, these 12V heated cups don’t like to go too much over 12V or they get a bit too hot.
What else can a 100 Watt solar panel do?
It can:
Bake bread and roast a hot dog
Make Tea
Run a HEPA air purifier
Run a Hot Glue Gun
Run a soldering iron
Power a netbook
Run a shed ventilation fan
Wack weeds
Charge 18V power tool batteries directly
And much more, hopefully there will be more experiments posted in the future.
Thanks for reading! DD
I have a YouTube channel about solar power. Below are embedded copies of some videos I made demonstrating what a 100 Watt solar panel can do.
Solar Thoughts blog 