The main problem with solar is the batteries. In order to run a typical household, one needs to have 20-24 KV and that will only power 1 AC unit and the rest of the typical household loads. It would take a large array of panels, and 8 to 12K for good batteries. Wet cells are the best, but if you don't maintain them, they can be dangerous. Lithium is making some strides, but are still expensive. I priced out a system several years ago that would actually run my house. I do have propane heat, stove and dryer. It came to almost 47k. And what if it is cloudy for several days.......
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Solar power
- Thread starter 10thmountain
- Start date
Yep. Thats the way to go.
You should see the setup they put in his basement and garage. Battery banks, computer run, they gave him a 10 yr warranty on everything. He is very pleased
( power out? my secret tip for warming your kitchen using your gas stove: put a pot of water to boil on each burner , bring to boil, presto , tons of heat . )
I use small panels for three applications:
Charging a trolling motor battery (boat dock with no electricity). 40w panel, 6A charger, group 27 12v deep cycle battery. It's been set up for seven or eight years now. Been 100% reliable, and I can't recall replacing the trolling battery in all that time. It flat out works as a replacement for AC power in this application.
50w panel, 6A charger, 30Ah Harbor Freight AGM battery running a 12v 900gph pond pump. Does a really nice job of pumping the water well past sundown, and has protected the battery (two years old at this point and still working). Comes right back to life when the sun comes up.
20w panel directly running a gable vent fan in a shed I am setting up to dry green lumber. Haven't had a lot of experience with it yet, but it pushes air nicely out of the shed when the sun is up.
All of these were done to avoid running household AC to these locations, and to test the practicality of solar in small applications.
I've thought often that I should take the plunge and get a grid-connected array set up, maybe a couple of kilowatts worth of panels. I don't have a great spot in my yard, and I don't want penetrations in my roof. I will probably move some trees at some point and do it.
Charging a trolling motor battery (boat dock with no electricity). 40w panel, 6A charger, group 27 12v deep cycle battery. It's been set up for seven or eight years now. Been 100% reliable, and I can't recall replacing the trolling battery in all that time. It flat out works as a replacement for AC power in this application.
50w panel, 6A charger, 30Ah Harbor Freight AGM battery running a 12v 900gph pond pump. Does a really nice job of pumping the water well past sundown, and has protected the battery (two years old at this point and still working). Comes right back to life when the sun comes up.
20w panel directly running a gable vent fan in a shed I am setting up to dry green lumber. Haven't had a lot of experience with it yet, but it pushes air nicely out of the shed when the sun is up.
All of these were done to avoid running household AC to these locations, and to test the practicality of solar in small applications.
I've thought often that I should take the plunge and get a grid-connected array set up, maybe a couple of kilowatts worth of panels. I don't have a great spot in my yard, and I don't want penetrations in my roof. I will probably move some trees at some point and do it.
edit not to be as negative and I misread A/C unit as A/C outlet for some reason:
Since this has been a couple years -
I think you mean kVA which is very different than KV. Panels, charge controllers, batteries and invertors are much cheaper. 10yr Lithium batteries can be had for 100-150ah for <$1k. Series/Parallel those with some good charge controller/s and invertor and you could also have a backup gas generator charge the battery bank when it's cloudy.
True for large home. I need 15kv to run mine if I were to run stove air laundry water pump etc
So i have a goal zero 1200. Its literally an AGM battery in a box. Heavy as hell. Its in the back of the jeep and powers a dometic cfx45. It can run for days without charging if i want to be off grid. With a solar panel...it can be weeks. I have it plugged in to a 3000watt inverter so it draws from my alternator when driving.
During the storm...i brought it inside and powered my fridge 2x just fine.
Even though its heavy...the 1200 goal zero can be chained to additional AGM batteries. So for that matter. Im good to go.
Sent from my LM-G850 using Tapatalk
During the storm...i brought it inside and powered my fridge 2x just fine.
Even though its heavy...the 1200 goal zero can be chained to additional AGM batteries. So for that matter. Im good to go.
Sent from my LM-G850 using Tapatalk
Day 2 . Solar phone battery bank working fine.
Jackery is having a sale tomorrow . FYI
