How To Build Your Own Solar Panels

Hi I have just got a house out in the dessert in the middle east and its sunny most year round and hot.

What I would like to know is how meany solar panels will I need to run 2 flat screen TV’s 32" 4 bed rooms with ENERGY efficient light bulb’s and and a Kitchen with microwave and fridge Freezer?

I am at a loss and its a project that I would like to do.

Add up the wattage on all of the appliances. Each one has it listed somewhere or in the manual. Remember that the microwave and the fridge are not on all the time. Try to get average number and peak number. For example, the frig may only run 20% of the time, so if it is a 200 watt unit, it’s peak power is 200W, and average is 40 watts. The uwave may be a 1000W unit, but on only 1% of the time, so it’s peak is 1000W and it’s average is 10W.

Say it adds up to 200 watts average, 2000 watts peak.

I’d multiply the average value by 3 at least to allow for times when there is no sun and get a solar array that size. Also to allow for the lower output when the array is not exactly perpendicular to the sun’s rays. So in this example, you will want a 600 watt array, or larger.

You will need a charge controller and batteries, and an inverter.

Battery size, decide how many hours without sun you will have. Say 12 hours.
12*200 is 2400 watt-hours. A large battery is good for about 1000 watt-hrs, so you will need 2-3 batteries. Get only sealed marine lead acid batteries.

The charge controller will need to be sized for the size of the batteries.

Now get a 120 VAC inverter sized for your PEAK load, when everything is on, perhaps 2000 watts.

Hook it all together and you are set.

.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 1:18 am and is filed under how to make a solar panel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.