Solar power help

[thrasherfox]

Need help with solar power


First thing.. does anyone have any connections or know where I can get some solar panel real cheap? Does anyone have a clue if there is a way to make home solar panels?


Second… Does anyone know the proper way to setup a solar powered system to run lets say one window Air Conditioner?

I was thinking of different ways and not sure of the best way to do it and was looking to find out generally speaking how solar powered systems are normally put together



Anyone have a clue?

 

[BiG-T]

 

[thrasherfox]

Thanks for the bump

 

[Turbo-Torch]

Harbor Freight has different size panels for charging car batteries and they can be bought cheaply when on sale. I bought a small one to play around with for $10 bucks. If I completely drain my 12 volt jump pack, it'll recharge it to full power in less than a week. You can also leave it hooked up to a motorcycle or lawn tractor battery all winter and leave it near a garage window...free float charger.

You would need MANY of those panels wired in parallel and a large pack of car or deep cycle marine batteries along with a huge power inverter to make it all work. Cool idea but the reality is that the cost would probably cover that A/C's electric bill for the next 20 years.
Then again you may be able to buy a large quantity of cells online from a close out place rather cheap.

 

[cosmo]

cost would probably cover that A/C's electric bill for the next 20 years.[/QUOTE]
That's the generally accepted payback period on current solar. We consume power in high density gulps and need to produce it accordingly. Solar (photons) are the lowest density charged particles routinely available and thus do not meet our needs.

 

[thrasherfox]

Harbor Freight has different size panels for charging car batteries and they can be bought cheaply when on sale.  I bought a small one to play around with for $10 bucks.  If I completely drain my 12 volt jump pack, it'll recharge it to full power in less than a week.  You can also leave it hooked up to a motorcycle or lawn tractor battery all winter and leave it near a garage window...free float charger.

You would need MANY of those panels wired in parallel and a large pack of car or deep cycle marine batteries along with a huge power inverter to make it all work.  Cool idea but the reality is that the cost would probably cover that A/C's electric bill for the next 20 years.
Then again you may be able to buy a large quantity of cells online from a close out place rather cheap.

My current electric bill just jumped up to $450.00 per month


Harbor freight has a 3 panel solar kit that provides 45watts of power at 115v for $199.00

They have a 2000watt sustained 4000watt peak power inverter for $145.00


I am thinking those two with a few deep cycle batteries could run 1 or 2 of my windows A/C units

One of my window A/C units is 750watts / 115v

I am thinking for less than a $1000.00 I could totally run my upstairs during the day and just switch over to regular electricity at night..

if this works then my next step is to move the pool pump and equipment over to solar powered and have it run its 2 hours per day cycle during the day strictly off solar power..


As I said, I know enough to get me started, just trying to find out if there were places that sold solar panels at a big discount other than Harbor Frieght.

Also trying to learn how long batteries will supply electricity when the sun goes down so I could determine how many deep cycle batteries I would need if I wanted to have 24 hour power.

 

[thrasherfox]

I guess I just need to go to a book store and see what they have on solar power...

 

[greyrocket]

weel i run a pool store and have access to solar panels. but i think they only work for heating the pool up. i'll check on thursday see what my books got. and you should run your pump/filter for a good 6-8 hours a day.

 

[thrasherfox]

weel i run a pool store and have access to solar panels. but i think they only work for heating the pool up. i'll check on thursday see what my books got. and you should run your pump/filter for a good 6-8 hours a day.

Yeah I know.. in the summer time I was told to run it at least 4 hours a day..

But currently with a $450.00 per month electric bill I cant afford it..

Which is why I am trying to figure out a solar solution...

Thanks for checking on the solar panels for me any help / advice from any and all is greatly apprecieated...

 

[V8Pinto]

Solar power is about $4 dollars per watt if you buy on ebay and you're really looking hard. New is roughly double and installed is something else entirely.

I run my garage off solar panels cobbled together off ebay. You'll never get enough juice to run an air conditioner. You could do it, but the cost would stagger you into "I'll just pay the electric bill".

Even a small 110V window unit is going to pull 7 amps or so - that's roughly 770Watts (at 110V). Solar panels will need to charge a 12V or 24V battery pack. If you go with 12V car batts the amperage you need for that 770Watt air conditioner is roughly 65 - that's a lot of juice. You'll need roughly 6 150Watt panels to do this and you'll have no recharge capability because all the power will be consumed running the air conditioner with nothing left to charge the batteries. That might be ok for you but go look up the cost of 150Watt panels... It's a fright.

I have enough juice to run some lights and tools and that's as far as I got into it before I said "this is expensive".

Google home power magazine if you want more info on solar.

 

[cosmo]

If solar was viable...Walmart would sell them. LOTS of them.