Solar panels and calculations?
Question:
2) if we know how many KWH's we use per month, do we just divide by number of hours per month to find out average KW usage?
3) what is an estimated ratio of DC to AC transformation/convertion @ 30 C?
4) do the solar panel voltages have to be the same? what would happen if the voltage going into the house is greater/lower than that of the house's defualt voltage
5) for added chance of getting 10 pts add some contrators that do business in ohio for installing solar panels or sell them
Answer:
1. A grid tie system has the following items for a one string system
String of solar modules
Roof or ground mount racking
DC disconnect
Grid Tie inverter
AC disconnect
AC breaker to place in the house breaker box
Wire and conduit
2. Take your last 12 months electric bill and total all the kWhs and divide by 365 will give you the daily usage. Find what the peak sun hours are for your area and divide that by your daily kWh usage. This will give you the size of a system you need.
3. You take your avg coldest temp and your hottest temps for the year and you go to the inverter's brand website and input the info and it will tell you how many solar modules you need to have in each string by brand and size. Normally there is about a 10% loss in convertion. If you have a battery in the system you have more like a 20% loss. Heat loss in the modules on a hot summer day is around 20%.
4 Grid Tie inverters require from 48 volts to 600 volts DC from the modules to produce 120 volts or 240 volts. Depends on the inverter. The inverter will hold the out put in a set range or it will turn it's self off. If the AC from the house is out of a set range the inverter will turn it's self off. If the power goes out the grid tie only systems will turn off.
5 Go to www.sunwize.com and you will find a dealer installer in most every state in the USA.
You can check out this page and find most every thing you need to know in one of the links.
http://www.oynot.com/how-solar.html...
The site you need to visit is http://www.builditsolar.com
The reference section has all the formulas you are looking for and there is a list of dealers by state, plus various state rebate information.
Yes, you can hook up different panels to the same system. There are special controllers that regulate the voltage. I'm more of a hands on nuts and bolts guy so I can't help you with the formulas and engineering explanations.
Another great place to get information is Home Power Magazine. You can get the issues online or in print. Thanks for going solar!
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