short video describing a small solar power system that i set up at my house. it consists of twelve 1 amp solar panels (15 watts each for a total of 180 watts of power – per hour). i use it to run all lights (cfl’s), fans, tv’s, and stereos in the house. also the microwave, coffee maker, blender, can opener, sandwich grill, toaster, vacuum, computer and anything else i can think of. run time for lights/fans only is approx 8 hours. add in vacuuming, microwaving or toaster along with lights, tv and the fans and the run time is reduced to 4-5 hours a day. i bought solar panels, inverter (1000 watt) and killowatt meter at Harbor Freight tools, the batteries (deep cycle) from walmart and the battery cables from checker auto. total cost was about $1200 to $1300
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If you aren’t trolling, you are most certainly retarded. Take a look at Wikipedia’s page on power. You are blatantly wrong. You lose.
If you are a troll, fuck you.
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Diffuse light passing through thin clouds might mean 300 W/m². In very bad weather conditions with thick, dark clouds, light intensity could fall to 100 W/m² with only 5 Watts produced per hour.
So please stop saying that I dont have MY facts straight when it is YOU that dont have them straight and telling me to research.
thanks very much.
No no no. Power is measured in watts (1W=1J/s). Amps are a measure of current (1A=1C/s). An amp-hour is an amount of electric charge, not power (1 ah=3600C). A watt-hour is an amount of energy (1 wh=3600J) and means something very different than watts/hour or amp-hour. Please search Google or something and stop posting misinformation.
Solar panels are measured in watts and the watts is measured in amp hours and amp hours is also watt hours which is why a battery gets charged. It puts out so much power every hour. If it didnt get put out every hour it would just be watts or just amps and the battery would never charge.
Look it up then.
Fucking no. Watts is a measure of power. Power is the time-rate of energy usage, measured in Joules per second. Watts per hour suggests a time dependent rate of energy consumption.
A 100W bulb uses 100J in 1 second, 200J in 2 seconds, and 300J in 3 seconds. At each and every instant and span of time in those 3 hours, it is using 100W of power.
lrn2energy
desertsun02 is 100% correct, it is “per hour”
take a 1000 watt microwave for example – if you ran it for 1 hour it would have taken 1000 watts, 2 hours = 2000 watts, 3 hours = 3000 watts, etc.
same thing with solar panels, if they have the maximum amount of sun they can and are putting out the maximum amount of power it will be 180 watts per hour of electricity being stored into the batteries.
desertsun02 is 100% correct, it is “per hour”
take a 1000 watt microwave for example – if you ran it for 1 hour it would have taken 1000 watts, 2 hours = 2000 watts, 3 hours = 3000 watts, etc.
same thing with solar panels, if they have the maximum amount of sun they can and are putting out the maximum amount of power it will be 180 watts per hour of electricity being stored into the batteries.
“180 watts of power – per hour”
What? Check your units. I think you just mean “180 Watts.”
Hopefully, you are using Energy Star appliances.
Thanks!
yes, the electric bill is about 25% lower in the winter months. only about 10% lower in the summer months though, due to the fact that my central ac accounts for for a very large part of the bill and does not run off of the solar system.
batteries do put out a very small amount of hydrogen when in the final stages of charging. it is a very small amount that would easily dissipate in a large room. (the air in an average room of a house is completely exchanged with outside air every 4 hours or so just from air entering around windows doors etc…)
any dangers in hydrogen gas leakage from the batteries? i thought thats why they say not to have them in your house.. please enlighten me as I am new to all of this
Question, did you lower you montly light bill? if you do, please state how much % thanxs…..
@sirmasterpimp Trojan all the way men, they come with many years of warranty.
That’s good to know (most of the trouble I’ve been hearing about is the regular starting batteries, only 1 issue with a deep cycle group 24) I have to exchange my battery for another everstart tomorrow, because it has almost no water in the #3 cell (first day I got it, 48 hours ago). I knew something was up when I charged it (6 amp charger) for 8 hours and hooked it up to my battery load tester and it didn’t do so well. Hopefully my next everstart experience will be better.
very true. my CRT TV draws 4 watts when it is off but i’ve heard of one that draws 76.
i certainly agree with that.
The batteries are holding up well. They are a little over 2 years old now. I ‘ve heard of some people getting 5 years. A lot depends on charging and discharging them correctly.
How are your batteries holding up? I also bought a walmart battery (everstart maxx 29) deep cycle 125 ah, but don’t know how long they will last (everybody tells me they die in less than 2 years). I only need one battery, so I’m thinking about getting a trojan or optima deep cycle battery.
Just picked up the Harbor Freight system $200.00 on sale 1000 watt inverter $90.00 I plan on 3 more kits when I can afford it.I Noticed a system without useing automotive cables and a copper water pipe hammered flat to make the 4 battery conections in paralle with the batterys on a rack out side in a lock box looks safe to vent the gas caused from charging.Plan on running a backup 12 volt sump pump and lights with my system to start with yours looks good this system will pay for its self soon.
how much cost you for every thing solar panels and batteries thankx
You can reduce your power consumption by unplugging those CRT TVs when not in use. Or toss the CRTs & get some LED/LCD tvs, they use less than half the power of a CRT (Plus HD Viewing)
dude, i love it when motivation and determination outweighs perfection. great stuff bro. keep up the great work. My system includes wires everywhere too, and i don’t mind a bit.