PV Gap

Eddie Said:

exactly what size solar panel would it take to run a new single door fridge energy star fridge only.?

We Answered:

To measure the power consumption of an appliance I recomend using a Kill-a-Watt unit:
http://www.aurorapower.net/products/cate…

Once you know the usage of the fridge you can select an inverter and panels to meet that usage. If you have stable grid power I recommend grid tieing the inverter so you wont need batteries.

Just guessing the value for the fridge I would estimate:

**If on grid:
200w inverter with a 200W panel to run in the spring and early summer
- or -
400w inverter with two 200W panels to run year round.

**If off grid:
500W inverter with a 200W panel to run in the spring and early summer
- or -
500W inverter with two 200W panels to run in the spring and early summer

(Note that if your fridge is in a heated house you may need to have 3 or 4 panels during the winter)

If you do the off grid setup I would recommend getting a charge controller to protect your batteries: http://www.aurorapower.net/products/list…

If you need assistance sizing a system or selecting components Aurora Power & Design can help: http://www.aurorapower.net/contact-us.as…

Hope that helps!

April Said:

What size solar panel do you need to charge a 24 volt bettary in 5 hrs?

We Answered:

I'm going to assume the battery is lead-acid, which generally must not be discharged below 80% or sometimes 50% of capacity.

Look at the amp-hour rating of the battery. Multiply that by 24 volts, and you will get the number of watt hours that the battery holds. Divide that by 5 hours, and divide by 2 again, because you won't need to charge the battery from zero. That will give an estimate of the size of solar panel you need.

Example: 1000 AH battery. 1000 x 24 = 24 kWh. 24/10 = 2400 watts of panels (about $10-12,000).

Wanda Said:

What size/strength solar panel would I require to run an ordinary laptop?

We Answered:

The 110 volts is normally converted down to 16 or 20 volts DC. If you have a 20 volt, 90 watt notebook that's about 4.5A of current needed to drive the components. Solar cells already output DC.

Most notebooks transform the 110V down to the 16V or 20V through the power pack attached to the AC cord. So the power port on the notebook is a DC input.

You would need to generate 540 watt-hours per day to sustain the notebook. You would need a sets of solar panels placed in parallel and then in series with other sets of solar panels.

If a set of four cells generates .45W x 1Hour = .45Watt-Hours then you need (540/.45) = 1200 4 set panels.

But this depends on the output of the solar panel.

You need to first create the voltage configuration to get 25volts. The two create the needed current you would place multiple voltage sets in parallel. This would run into a variable voltage controller and a current bypass circuit.

All of which needs to be on a fuse. You also need a heat sink on the voltage controller.

Grace Said:

What size should the solar panel on a satellite orbiting Jupiter be?(need help soon please)?

We Answered:

Radiation (light) goes down as the square of the distance, so take the ratio of jupiter's distance to the sun with earth's distance to the sun, square it, and then multiply the area of the solar panel by that factor.

b) yes, but the wavelength will be so long that they are not usable for much of anything.

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Pauline Said:

What size of solar panel do I need to power a 20-foot launch?

We Answered:

The general rule is that, if you are going to power directly from a solar panel, the output of the panel should be 10 times the draw of the appliance. A motor that will drive a boat of that size will draw over 125 amps at 12v. So you will need 1250 amps of output .... a solar panel that is about 49" X 44" will output 9 amps of usable power at 12v. So, You will need at least 140 panels ... they cost around $700 each in quantity. Each panel is about 14 sq ft ... so you will need about 1960 sq ft of panels at a cost of nearly $10000. A 20 ft boat with a beam of 8 ft might have a 160 sq ft of canopy available ... Sooooo You will have quite an overhang on your solar array ..