How do you calculate the number of solar cells needed for a residence?
Question:
Answer:
First you need to what your electrical load is. All the things you want to run should have a name plate on them somewhere with a load rating. Add them all up.
If you want to charge batteries so you have power after the sun goes down you'll need to figure how much storage capacity you need.
From the battery capacity you can determine how much current will be needed to charge the batteries and run your loads when the sun is up.
You also need to determine how much solar power is available to you. This is available from some websites if you know your latitude. The amount of power changes with the time of year so you'll need to design for the least amount of sun.
You'll need to size a battery charger for your panels.
If you want or need an inverter to change from DC to AC you;ll need to size that.
This is kind of complicated but not impossible. You just need to do some research.
There are some good web sites that can help.
http://www.solar4power.com/index.html...
http://www.cosolar.com/system_design/wha...
Do an inventory of the electronics in your house, how many watts does each item use, then add it up. The watts can be found on a tag on each appliance.
If you are on the power grid, you can always consider that you don't *have* to be 100% independant. Every solar panel you put up will just cut your electric bill down by that much.
Example: you put up two 100 Watt panels, that's 200 Watts * 12 hours (average sun per day -- just for quick calculation purposes) * 30 days in a month = 72 kiloWatt hours in a month off of your electric bill.
You can add more solar panels as you can afford them.
For my 1700 sq. ft home in a city with a LOT of sun, I calculate I can get by with 4 kiloWatts of panels and be mostly energy-independant. You might need fewer depending on how much energy you use, and how much sun you get.
.
More Questions & Answers...