Can solar energy generate electricity in a home alone? what is needed?.?
Question:
i am building a new home in a rural area in Africa where electricity is not constant and i would like to use solar energy alone or with electricity(whenever it is available) is it possible? It sometimes rain alot in some months- will rain be a problem eventhough it is generally hot most of the time.
Answer:
Depending on locality, a windmill or water power (close to a stream) may be your best, most cost effective solution. ~
Solar cells only work during the day, and would need more storage (batteries) than the other sources. On cloudy days your power production will drop quite a bit.
You'll also need electronic control equipment to give you the voltage and frequency (50HZ or 60Hz) needed by most equipment.
I recently check and found solar cells with 2.5KW capacity for about $7,500 which was low compared with what most places charge.
Solar energy will cost about 30K in the United States. You will need solar panels that face the sun. More expensive will move to keep facing the sun all day, They need to be in the sun not shaded by trees or buildings so usually on a south facing roof. You will also need a bank of batteries to save electric for nights and overcast days, rain won't damage them. If you have electric I would buy a generator for the times it doesn't work and maybe solar just as a backup system. Simple letting the sun heat hot water can be as little as pipes in the sun to preheat the water before it goes into the hot water tank to raise the temperature from ground temp to about 100 degrees. You can also have a water jacket on a wood stove to heat water.
Where I am to save money on solar or any other method of generating power if you are on the grid and generate too much it runs the meter backwards so you reduce your bill. Use your power days and sell some back then use their power on rainy days and at night.
idk my bff jill
Adequate #of Solar Panels
Adequate #of Storage Batteries
Battery Charge Controller
System load management Controller
Mounting and wiring equipment
Gas or Diesel Generator (Properly sized)
I would figure on spending around $30,000-$40,000 for a decent system. This system will not give you air conditioning or heat, but will probably be adequate for a small homes other electrical, with some inconveniences at times.
There are many companies offering these on the Internet. Some of them have forms and calculations for sizing all the equipment based on your location. You are not in a very good area because of a lot of rain, so diesel will need to run a lot. The most important thing in sizing system is to be accurate in listing ALL appliances electrical loads you have and how many hours/day they operate.
Cost would mostly depend on the size of the system you would need, the number of batteries you would need, and the amount of power you would need on a constant basis.
If you are only using it for lights and some limited cooling, you would not need as big a system as you would for a full time heavy load like refrigerators, lots of lights, computers, televisions, cooking, etc.
I would suggest you design your new home to be ultra efficient in heating and cooling (maybe a straw bale design), use energy efficient appliances, make use of gravity fed pumps for water, use solar water heaters, and limit the time spent using power. That will reduce the load on any solar arrays used so you can get by with a smaller system.
It is expensive . I installed a solar system in the jungles of Ecuador. The solar cells alone cost $15,000 US then there is batteries and the more rain the bigger storage u need . Then charge regulators ,and then converters to take the battery voltage and make the 120 V 60 cycle for the units u need like Refrigerators etc. We got our installed and about 3 months later we had a big wind that blew all the solar panels all over the jungle. It was an important communications repeater so we rebuilt it and put in an emergency generator just in case.
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