Glock24
Solar Enthusiast
As for the panels, let's say the label says 500W then what you'll get on a good sunny day is around 80% of that, which would be 400W at max sun. Let's say you get 3 hours of max sun, then we take 400Wx3h and we get 1200Wh of harvested energy. If you have 2 panels then it'll be 1200Whx2=2400Wh.After reading the responses and seeing others on this site I think I finally understand more of the concept a little better. So this system I have will do the small things I need for the beginning but once I need things like the a/c to run I'll definitely need to go at least to 24 v but 48 is typically better and cheaper if u want a normal house equivalent.
I need more understanding of the amount of electricity that a battery holds which I thought with a
12v/100ah/1280wh Battery
Is saying like 1280x100=128000total watts that can't exceed 100watts going out per hour.... is that correct? I have no idea honestly but I need to know how to figure it out.
O and I'm a girl y'all it keeps throwing me off reading he lol. Yes the idea of this is to start at a minimum and move to a maximum and there's indeed a need for ac but not even true indoor plumbing so it's a give and take. I will run only ac if needed but by summer I need to have in order what I should get for running that alone and being able to upgrade to being able to run a full regular house or several smaller connected houses that make a single house in the end. Plan is to make them connecting in a circle really with doors going to the middle and the mid point will be the kitchen area that can serve also as a partial heat source in the winter. That's a long way from now though.
So the panels say like 70% efficiency which I don't know how to figure the true efficiency I would assume it would be that 70% of the 100w = 70w
70w ÷the average efficiency in the area =the amount of watts each panel produces in 1 hr?
If that's correct then I just multiply that by 3 for 3 panels that are 100w and it equals the amount expected to produce in an hr?
These rotating or swivels for the panels I've heard of but have no idea about them but it sounds worth it. Are they manual or electronic or hybrid?
I'm just making sure I can get help in an emergency and be able to look at the phone for a couple days if I'm snowed in.
I can use this as a Guage for understanding how it works and placement and such at least and have a couple outlets in the meantime lol.
Also panels must be placed where they get no shadow. Even a partial shadow on one of the panels can diminish your energy harvesting considerably.
Go to https://pvwatts.nrel.gov/ and you can get an estimate of how much sun you ca get at your location. You have to input some parameters like how many Watts you have (as per our example, 2 500W panels = 1000W or 1KW), panel orientation and panel inclination. The calculator will give you an approx. energy per year and per month.
A swiveling or rotating panel mount is more expensive and requires maintenance, from what I've read is not usually worth the trouble, but each case is unique.