PV Gap

Michelle Said:

i am planning to do Solar Energy & Allied R. E. Appliances buisness in tamilnadu. is there a futture to this?

We Answered:

Complete a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis and write a business plan to prove that the business idea is viable. Go to http://sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/plan… or http://www.score.org/template_gallery.ht… for instructions on how to write a business plan and sample business plans

Jason Said:

Can you name some daily household appliances that can be run on solar energy?

We Answered:

Any appliance that uses electricity can be run on solar energy, but there are two issues I can think of off hand.

The first issue is cost. Solar panels cost a lot of money. So if you have applicances that require a lot of electricity then you'll need more solar panels and so it'll cost more. The typical range can be anything from a 13 watt compact fluorescent light bulb to a 1200 watt electric heater.

Using solar energy to power lightbulbs is done frequently but unless you're rich, you would not use solar energy to power a 1200 watt baseboard heater or an electric stove. However, a 1200 watt toaster is okay because you use it for only a minute or two each day. A baseboard heater or stove is turned on for a lot longer and so you'd need much more power in total.

A fridge is also another big power hungry appliance and can raise the cost of a system by a few thousand dollars but it is still often affordable.

So, unless you're rich, no air conditioners, electric heaters, electric stoves, or elecrtic water heaters.

The other issue is also a cost one but for a different reason and involves Alternating Current (AC) appliances only (typically anything that plugs into a wall socket.) AC produces electricity in the form of a sine wave. The sine wave you get from a power utility company is very smooth and will run any AC appliance. This is called "true" or "pure" sine wave. Many inverters, the part of a solar system that converts DC to AC put out a pure sine wave. However, many instead put out AC that is in the form of a "modified" sine wave. This one is not smooth at all and is in fact very jerky. Some appliances will not work well or at all with modified sine wave AC. One example of these are power tools that use induction motors. This may also cause a buzzing sound with some cheap stereos and ceiling fans; some digital clocks will not work.

A pure sine wave inverter typically costs several hundred to a thousand dollars more than a modified sine wave inverter. So if you go with the more expensive one then you can run all appliances.

For illustrations and many more details see: http://rimstar.org/renewnrg/sp_pure_true…