PV Gap

Christian Said:

please help me find stores that sell solar plates in the phils. what is the downside in using solar power?

We Answered:

Catalog shopping is your best bet. Try American Scientific & Surplus, or perhaps Harbor Freight Tools, (at least that's what I use, this is not an endorsement). You will need a power inverter of the appropriate wattage to handle whatever it is you want to power. A deep cycle battery or two will also help. As for the downside, cloudy days don't help much, solar panels are kinda fragile, they don't charge at night (obviously), and so far they aren't quite cost effective. That said, this is how I power my travel trailer. You get used to it.

Isaac Said:

How widely used is solar power in the united states?

We Answered:

4.3%.

Barry Said:

What is capacity hour rate for solar power batteries?

We Answered:

Watts = Volts * Amps.
So a 12 volt battery supplying 10 Amps is producing 120 Watts of power.
Batteries are rated in Amp-Hours. For example one battery might be rated at 100 Amp-Hours. That would mean it could supply 1 Amp for 100 hours or 2 Amps for 50 hours. But it could probably not supply 100 Amps for 1 hour. Batteries work better at low rates of use. Your examples are 20 hour rate gives 120 Amp-Hours, meaning it can supply 6 Amps for 20 hours (6 Amps times 20 hours = 120 Amp-Hours), but if you drain it more slowly, taking 100 hours instead of 20, it will give you 145 Amp-Hours, which would be 1.45 Amps for 100 hours.

To get Watt-Hours, multiply by the number of volts. Most such batteries are 12 volt (but not all are so check). So a 12 volt battery that has a 120 Amp Hour capacity has a 12 * 120 = 1,440 Watt-Hour capacity. Since one kilowatt (kW) is 1,000 Watts, that would be a 1.44 kilowatt-Hour (kWh) battery. You electric bill is usually in units of kWh. Check your electric bill to see how many kWh a month you use, then divide by 30 to get the number per day. That will give you an idea of how many batteries you need to store enough energy to make it through the night if you are off grid and relying on solar panels for all your power. I suspect you will be shocked at the number of batteries needed.

Myrtle Said:

Anyone help me to know what to consider when designing solar power for the home?

We Answered:

First of all, the conversion is chemical to electricity, as in the chemistry of a car battery which provides an output voltage.
To meet your needs, you need to figure how much useful sunlight you will have per day. Such sources as the Weather Channel, or National Climatology office can supply that to you. You need to determine the total load. Just add everything up, and that is the load you need to have sufficient energy to provide power for. If this works out to be, let's say 200 watts, then you need at least a 200 watt solar panel, provided that you have enough sunlight from the time that you get up in the morning, until you go to bed at night. Count on it, you won't have enough sunlight for your needs, unless you live up in Alaska. Even then, there is part of the year where there will not be enough light at any time of the day. What you need, for full 24 hour coverage is a battery bank, and unless everything will run on 12 or 24 volts, then you need 1 or more inverters. With inverters, you lose 10% in conversion loss from DC to AC. Batteries should be RV, Trolling motor, or best yet, electric fork lift batteries, or the reasonable equivalent of such as these. I would recomment at least double to quadruple the total energy need for the solar panels, and to multiply the battery capacity by the total load supply that you have figured out, for at least a 24 hour run time. All of that, then multiplied by 90% to know how long the system will provide power, IF you use any DC to AC inverters. Within reason, the larger the battery bank, the better. Do NOT use regular car batteries, they will not last as long as you need them to last, unless you understand the difference between cranking amps, and reserve amps. Another point is that auto batteries are simply not designed for this kind of service.

Christopher Said:

What makes a region suitable for solar power?

We Answered:

Sun angle and cloud cover are key to solar power. The Persian Gulf is close to the equator so sun angle will be good. It's a dry area so cloud cover should be low which is good. You also have a low infestation level of environmentalist so there should be little objection to developing solar power.