Z
Zebedee
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
I have a small 12v solar panel. I'm quite interested in solar power and as
an experiment, did manage to charge my mobile phone battery using the solar
panel although it did take 3 weeks to charge enough to allow 15 minutes
conversation instead of the normal 3 hours.
Obviously the site and orientation of solar panels are very important. I'd
be very interested in running my PC totally from solar power. I already have
a UPS, which is what put the idea into my head. It struck me that as
sunlight is free and inverters are relatively inexpensive as are car
batteries, it would be a nice idea to combine some larger solar panels plus
diodes together with car batteries and an inverter. I'm not sure how much
power my PC uses but from the mains I'm currently running: UPS, halogen
desklamp, a server (standard PC case and PSU), a PC (standard PC case and
PSU), LCD monitor and a modem. For the sake of argument, let's assume that
the two PSUs are 400w and the modem is 100w and about the same for the
halogen lamp. We'll ignore the UPS as that can be retired when solar power
is assured.
Given that car batteries do not like to be fully discharged and that the
PC/Server get 18 hours daily use (the server is switched off 90% of the
time. The halogen lamp is on between sunset and about 3am on average) then
I'd assume I'd need to be able to accommodate 1000w for 9 hours of no
sunlight. Assuming I could get sufficient batteries to provide me with 9kwh,
how large an area would I need to cover with solar cells in order to
generate that amount of power:
a. on a summer's day
b. on a midwinter day
No need to be brutally accurate as it's an interest question only.
--
Yours
Zebedee
(Claiming asylum in an attempt
to escape paying his debts to
Dougal and Florence)
an experiment, did manage to charge my mobile phone battery using the solar
panel although it did take 3 weeks to charge enough to allow 15 minutes
conversation instead of the normal 3 hours.
Obviously the site and orientation of solar panels are very important. I'd
be very interested in running my PC totally from solar power. I already have
a UPS, which is what put the idea into my head. It struck me that as
sunlight is free and inverters are relatively inexpensive as are car
batteries, it would be a nice idea to combine some larger solar panels plus
diodes together with car batteries and an inverter. I'm not sure how much
power my PC uses but from the mains I'm currently running: UPS, halogen
desklamp, a server (standard PC case and PSU), a PC (standard PC case and
PSU), LCD monitor and a modem. For the sake of argument, let's assume that
the two PSUs are 400w and the modem is 100w and about the same for the
halogen lamp. We'll ignore the UPS as that can be retired when solar power
is assured.
Given that car batteries do not like to be fully discharged and that the
PC/Server get 18 hours daily use (the server is switched off 90% of the
time. The halogen lamp is on between sunset and about 3am on average) then
I'd assume I'd need to be able to accommodate 1000w for 9 hours of no
sunlight. Assuming I could get sufficient batteries to provide me with 9kwh,
how large an area would I need to cover with solar cells in order to
generate that amount of power:
a. on a summer's day
b. on a midwinter day
No need to be brutally accurate as it's an interest question only.
--
Yours
Zebedee
(Claiming asylum in an attempt
to escape paying his debts to
Dougal and Florence)