diy solar

diy solar

Need help to design a small solar setup for my indoor garden.

Clint

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Feb 3, 2021
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Hello all, I’m a total newb to the solar world. I have been doing a lot of reading lately on how to set up a self sufficient power supply for our tower garden. The more I read the thousands of articles and forums the more confused I get. Information overload. Lol. So I’m turning to you folks for any advice you’d be willing to give.
My current setup is all 110volt. There is a 11 watt water pump, a 4 watt air pump and two 40 watt grow lights. The two grow lights are on for 9 hours per day and the water pump and air compressor are on for 10 minutes per hour. So I’ve got it roughly figured that I need around 800-850 watts of power per day. The garden is set up near a large window that get marginal sunlight during the day. We live in Alberta Canada so not near the sunlight in the winter as summer time. Any help with the sizes of batteries, panels and inverter and how many would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.9503B882-B8F5-407E-A267-F1758B75DA36.jpeg
 

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Budget? How much room do you have?

I am thinking 400-500 watts of panels min, MPPT charge controller, 100ah 24v battery (or 200ah 12v), 250 watt inverter, misc wiring.
 
We live in Alberta Canada so not near the sunlight in the winter as summer time. Any help with the sizes of batteries, panels and inverter and how many would be greatly appreciated.
How many "solar hours" of sun do I get per day throughout the entire day at a city near me?

With the number of hours you can determine the size of your array. I will use Edmonton.
Screen Shot 2021-02-03 at 10.56.31 AM.png
So in January you get .79 "hours of sun". 850w / .79h = 1075w of solar panels operating at 100% efficiency.
In january, you pretty much have to run everything from battery except for .79 hours so lets size your battery that way.

850wh / 12.8v = 66ah but lead acid can only be discharged 50% so will require 132ah lead acid (deep cycle) battery. All operating at 100% efficiency.

There are months that are worse, i see december is .48h so to handle december, you would need 850w / .48 = 1770w of solar panels. There is obviously a point where running off of AC power is more economical!
 
So in January you get .79 "hours of sun". 850w / .79h = 1075w of solar panels operating at 100% efficiency.
In january, you pretty much have to run everything from battery except for .79 hours so lets size your battery that way.
Holy crap! Not a lot of vitamin D potential in Canada eh? Super important detail I missed....
 
Hello all, I’m a total newb to the solar world. I have been doing a lot of reading lately on how to set up a self sufficient power supply for our tower garden. The more I read the thousands of articles and forums the more confused I get. Information overload. Lol. So I’m turning to you folks for any advice you’d be willing to give.
My current setup is all 110volt. There is a 11 watt water pump, a 4 watt air pump and two 40 watt grow lights. The two grow lights are on for 9 hours per day and the water pump and air compressor are on for 10 minutes per hour. So I’ve got it roughly figured that I need around 800-850 watts of power per day. The garden is set up near a large window that get marginal sunlight during the day. We live in Alberta Canada so not near the sunlight in the winter as summer time. Any help with the sizes of batteries, panels and inverter and how many would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Water Pump: 11W *10/60*24h = 44Wh
Air pump: 4W * 10/60 * 24 = 16Wh
Lights: 40W * 2 * 9 = 720Wh

You need to supply 780Wh of energy per day, 917wh accounting for DC-AC inefficiency.

1612379156444.png
Rather than selecting flat panels, I ran it for panels at a steep angle for maximum winter performance.

That would indicate you need about 1000W of solar and 150Ah of 12V AGM/GEL/FLA or about 89Ah of LFP.

Note that 1000W of solar paired with those smaller batteries may result in excessive charge currents in summer. 400Ah of FLA/AGM/GEL or 200Ah of LFP would be better.

P.S. Welcome to the forum.
 
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