More and more people today are now looking for alternative ways of supplying power that they need in order to run appliances and equipment in their home. For some people because of where they live setting up a solar powered system is the ideal choice. In this article, we go through a number of factors that need to be taken into consideration if you are thinking about building a solar power system.
One of the first things that you should be doing in order to see if building a solar powered system is a viable option is to find out how much sunlight you get each day where you live. To do this you need to check out weather data for the area where you live or use a solar energy map, which you can easily find online.
The next thing that you need to do when considering building your own solar powered energy system is to calculate how much power it is you actually use. The easiest way of doing his by looking at the bills, you receive for your electricity company and then dividing the figures up so that they provide you an average of what you would use on a weekly basis. To work out what your weekly power consumption for your home is you take the total monthly figure off of your electricity bill and then divide this by 4.3.
Along with knowing how much sunlight, you are likely to get and how much power it is you will need to be able carry on running all appliances and equipment in your home there are other factors, which need to be taken into consideration. You need to make a decision on the kind of inverters you will be using, how many solar panels you will need and how many batteries you will need to store the energy in.
When it comes to selecting the inverters for your system, which is what converts the sunlight that has been collected by the solar panels in to AC power rather than DC power. All inverters will be rated according to their continuous and surge wattage. So the more power you are likely to use then the much higher these wattage ratings will need to be.
As for the batteries, you need ones that will be able to take continuous charges of electricity into them. Therefore, car batteries are not suitable simply because they are not designed to be able to collect and store large amounts of power at any time. The kind of batteries that you should be selecting to use when it comes to building your own solar powered system is say a marine or golf cart battery.
Of course, when it comes to someone actually choosing to build a solar powered system they must not forget about the solar panels. It is important that you carry out plenty of research on this item in order to ensure that you have the right ones for yours. As you will soon discover when looking for these panels there are a number of different sized panels to choose from. So take your time and look for those that will help to collect sufficient amounts of sunlight for your own particular requirements.
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Help answer the question about solar power energy
How do scientists capture energy, such as from solar power, or energy from water falls?And how do they make that energy into something we can use for power? What instrument do they use to do this? I am really curious.
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June 26th, 2009 at 8:10 am
1. To charge a 12V. battery you will need 14-16V.
(Be careful in sizing your panels.
Your solar panel only produces peak charge at peak sun.)
Solar panel voltage varies. you will need a charge controller to make this work.
2. Size your inverter and battery to your loads.:
TV – 1.2A @ 220V. = 264 W., For 3 Hr.s = 792. W./Hr.s
Laptop – 1A. @ 220V. = 220 W., for 4 Hr.s = 880 W./Hr.s
Your peak load, if you use them together requires more than 400W.
so you'd need a 600 W. inverter.
(If you use them separately, 400W. will do fine.)
Those ampere ratings are peak draw.
I doubt that either appliance draws that constantly,
certainly not the lap-top.
You max battery capacity, (1692 W./Hr.s), @ 12 V. works out to
about 140 A /Hr.s in 12 V. battery capacity.
Go to 200 if you want the battery to last.
Deep discharge is not good for them.
June 26th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Why have a dump load if you can sell it back to the grid?
June 26th, 2009 at 9:08 am
Excess Energy has provided solar/wind/battery systems for Cabins, Yurts, Camps and has both installed and exported many remote back-up power systems for non-residential applications.
June 26th, 2009 at 9:18 am
I am glad more Americans are showing interest in solar power. It will take time to catch on. Sometimes things have to get really bad before it can get better if you know what I mean. Where I live, we have solar homes as the norm and wind turbines atop areas of the mountain ranges. Most people here are not DIYers when it comes to these large panels although I see some rig up a small variety in their garden and I do not know why. They do hire professionals ( yes, they went to college or school for this) for installation of the large solar panels .
June 26th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Very interesting video.
June 27th, 2009 at 11:24 am
For something like this, I recommend that you talk to a licensed contractor.
You may get some good answers here.
You might also get some answers that are not so good.
Only a licensed contractor can give a you a good answer that you can rely on with respect to this subject.
June 27th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
where do you buy this equipment from
June 27th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
I have seen some 24 Volt DC, 18 Watt fans used to ventilate a portable restroom, and they seem to move a fair amount of air. You might do well with 40 Watts of solar and a couple of fans that size.
June 28th, 2009 at 12:01 am
this is the best you can use for your aplications
http://cgi.ebay.com/800W-Pure-Sine-Wave-Power-Inverter-12V-110V-120V_W0QQitemZ120277070787QQihZ002QQcategoryZ85805QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I will suggest better batteries or just one
this will give you 90 amps 12 volts if you take under 10 amps at night this will last you about 10 hours
http://store.altenergystore.com/Batteries/Batteries-Sealed-Gel-Cell/Universal-27Dc-12V-90Ah-2Ohr-Sealed-Gell/p1991/
also try to rewire the fan motors to 12 volts or 24 volts and use 2 batteries replace the lights to LED they work better
solar panels
this is one of the best and a good price
http://cgi.ebay.com/Sun-Power-Solar-Panel-90W-SPR-90-High-Efficiency_W0QQitemZ230267072773QQihZ013QQcategoryZ78859QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
this will work with regular light in a cloudy day ,sun will be better but sometimes we don't have them ,and also you need over 8 hours of light a day
want to save money add a second battery and go 24 volts
http://cgi.ebay.com/24-volt-1000-watt-Inverter-for-Solar-Panel-System_W0QQitemZ170232893263QQihZ007QQcategoryZ41981QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
June 28th, 2009 at 3:20 am
Basically Trying to Converge The Digital Scene with the Sustainability/Green Scene.
Anyone into this sort of thing?
check it: WakingMinds . Org
June 28th, 2009 at 5:23 am
i don't know about your possibilities where you are but i would definitely suggest using as much natural lighting as possible and the alternate wood heating furnaces available
June 28th, 2009 at 7:54 am
and you can provide it
) haha
unfortunally
June 28th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
"it wouldn't take a lot of effort" ever heard of newton? The effort required to make a planet is equal to the effort required for blowing one up.
With what were you planning to draw them together? Electromagnetism won't work, so you would have to use momentum. That means that you need to shoot an equal amount of debris away from the planet as you're shooting towards it (unless you use thousands of kilometers long wires to pull two asteroids together to a common point (the rope would have to weigh many times more than a spaceshuttle). All that debris goes flying through the solar system, endangering good old planet earth (and/or any future space travelers). You wouldn't be cleaning up the belts, you'd be messing them up.
So I'm sorry, but making a planet out of rocks is impossible by any means we currently possess, or are likely to possess within the next thousand years.
June 28th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
The closer the better.
Reason: Cost(wire), Efficiency, Cost(labour)
June 28th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
The earth need it now.
June 28th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
June 29th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
This is great!
June 29th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
The price is to high! the systems fail. the though is good. mandatory? we need an energy policy that promotes clean energy/wind, solar PV, solar thermal, solar hot water, solar A/C and chillers, nukes, and taxes to the real price of oil, coal, beef….