PV Gap

Darryl Said:

Which side of a house do you place a solar panel on?

We Answered:

In the northern hemisphere, put it on the south side of the house. In the southern hemisphere, the north side.

Audrey Said:

Where can I find inexpensive solar panel set ups for my house?

We Answered:

You can find them online for tens of thousands of dollars (before shipping and installation) or you can build them yourself with items in your house and simple tools from the hardware store. There is a great ebook about how to do this. I'll put it as my source.

Philip Said:

What type of battery bank would i need to store energy from a solar panel used to power a house?

We Answered:

a big one.

You need to answer a few questions:

1. What is your average power usage. You can get that from old electric bills. Typical is 1000 watts.

2. How many hours without sun do you want the batteries to continue to supply power when there is no sun. Obviously you need the nite hours, but how about 2-3 days when it is raining?

Lets try a sample calculation of 24 hours, and 1000 watts. That is 24000 watt hours. A large marine sealed lead acid battery can supply about 1000 watt hours, and costs about US$300. But in this case, you would need 24 of them, a lot of money and storage space and maintenance. Change to 2000 watts and 2 days and it quickly spirals out of control.

One alternative you should investigate is selling power to your power company when you have excess and buying when the sun isn't shining. Some allow this, and it saves on the battery cost and maintenance.

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Stanley Said:

What side of my house should i put the solar panel on?

We Answered:

No matter where you are on earth, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. In the norther hemisphere the sun tracks more to the south that is why positions of panels and windows to the south take advantage of the sun the best.

You need to consider not only the direction but the tilt of the solar panels too in order to get maximum efficiency.
I have included sole links about solar position and positioning solar panels. Hope it helps.

Edgar Said:

who do I make a Solar panel house?

We Answered:

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.


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