skuzuker28
New Member
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2022
- Messages
- 13
Finally got my shed installed, and the plan from the beginning was to have its own self-contained electrical system for a couple reasons, one of which is: it seems like it would be fun! Where I especially am looking for guidance is in regard to sizing of the panels and batteries. One idea I had was to have a large chest freezer out in this shed not only for additional food storage (so we can buy more in bulk and such) but also give us a contingency plan for keeping our food safe during a power outage. With that I'm estimating about 1kWh per day on average. Using alt-e's calculator to get some ballpark figures, it's saying I need 300ah of battery at 12v for two days "without sunlight" and 750w worth of panels.
Batteries are obviously a big cost, and 3600wh of battery is going to be expensive no matter how you slice it. How much can I reduce my battery needs with more panels? Big concern is the winter time, as it is almost constantly overcast in my area and in December it seems we only get 64 sun hours in the month on average. If I could manage to put together 1800w worth of panels, how much less battery would I need in that case?
I also need to plan out the rest of the system, but this is the driving question. If I decide that it's not practical to have the freezer then my power needs will go down considerably and so will the size of the inverter, SCC, etc.
Batteries are obviously a big cost, and 3600wh of battery is going to be expensive no matter how you slice it. How much can I reduce my battery needs with more panels? Big concern is the winter time, as it is almost constantly overcast in my area and in December it seems we only get 64 sun hours in the month on average. If I could manage to put together 1800w worth of panels, how much less battery would I need in that case?
I also need to plan out the rest of the system, but this is the driving question. If I decide that it's not practical to have the freezer then my power needs will go down considerably and so will the size of the inverter, SCC, etc.