Today is a good day. I am writting this on my Laptop that is being completely powered by my portable 12V PV system - almost off grid style (except the 3G modem used to connect to the internet) - but crucially - no household electrics, communications etc are used.
On a perfect day, with the panels perfectly square on to the sun, I can generate about 160W, my little Sony Viao laptop only needs 30 of those watts.
Just now I used a WAECO car kettle to boil a litre of water for tea (stupid thing to do normally, but I needed to test it, and empty the battery a bit so I can see the system recharge properly

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I know this isn't going to add much to the pool of information here, sorry about that, but I figure it would be fun to post about it. Later I will write up more details of how the system works for anyone interested.
A..