Bought a couple of 130W solar panels, 30A system controller, 2kW inverter and a couple of 100Ah 12v gel batteries. What could possibly go wrong?
I want to see how variations of position and angle affect performance on cloudy days and sunny days.
Plan is to initially charge batteries on off-peak electricity and determine if panels will keep them charged over daylight hours when supplying computers, monitor, Hub etc.
Arrival of winter?
"Winter is coming"
This is where you could have gotten an old photographic light meter and saved yourself all that money
Or just done a page of calculations, assuming you can.
260W of solar panel will average no more than 26W over a day and about 2.6 W over a winter day.Can your computers run off that?
I recognise where it's from, despite never watching any of it ...
Same here!
A series of full-length dress mirrors, tastefully arranged around the yard, should provide enough photons for the winter.
Paul
Or just go here:
For a 1kW system in London angled at 36degrees, that says January peak power is 241W and June 459W. When the power falls to half that is 2 hours each side of noon (GMT) in Jan and 3 hours in June. Total per day of 1.176kWh in Jan and 3.592kWh in June. For a 260W system divide that by 4; cloudy days would be substantially less.
I'm not sure 260W is going to cut it for a domestic install - maybe ok for a boat or something. 400W panels are about £130+vat so I would think about getting some of those, if you have the space.
Theo
Hi Theo, this experiment is not intended to be a complete domestic installation, it is just to get a feel for what is possible. I am much further North than London, so could have less 'sun time'.
When I was about 8 I built a perpetual motion machine to 'see if it would work;'
The greatest benefit of an engineering and science education is I now no longer waste my time doing that.
Surely the day length will be the biggest variable. Brian
Oh? I somehow feel that would not work well. Brian
You probably do very little, except criticise.
Sounds like an interesting "real world" experiment. Working these things out in theory is all very well but you cant beat actual practical experience.
Mike
But you can calculate what isn't worth trying.
If I can help other people not to waste their time I will. I am not concerned with their emotional well being and sense of self importance.
Actually, in terms of wasted time money and effort, you most certainly can beat practical experience.
Practical experience is the last resort
Bear in mind that those little garden-path-lights that are charged by little solar panels are useless in the winter (and unnecessary in the summer because the evenings are much longer).
But of course in your case, much depends on the capacity of the battery, the demand by the hardware, the size of the solar panel and the amount of sunshine, if any.
A farm is a good place for them. As there are fewer shadows and installation issues. Then the "calcs" match the "actual".
The average urban installation, isn't going to get all they have to give.
Paul
If you don't care about their emotional well being why do you bother helping them to not waste their time?
Bill
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