Need help determining solar power requirements

jbdpark
jbdpark Registered Users Posts: 16 ✭✭
I Will be setting on a farm, in a chicken coop, a chicken eggs incubator with automatic eggs turner.
The incubator is a Hova Bator of 28.3 watts capacity, and the turner is a 1.7A unit.
I will need these units to be on 24 hours a day for 22 or 23 days a month.
It will be ideal to use solar power system. In addition to the incubator/tuner,
there will be a 13watt led light to be used occationally at night when visiting the coop.
Iam thinking of using the following equipments that I already own:

-60 watt solar panel
-100ah agm battery
-10A charge controler
-400 watt pure sine inverter
-2000 watt eu2000 Honda generator(backup)

Do I need to upgrade or get more gears for this project.

I will be getting over 6 hours a day of sun.

All advises or suggestions will be appreciated.
Tks.

Comments

  • mike95490
    mike95490 Solar Expert Posts: 9,583 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Re: Need help determining solar power requirements

    prepare to spend a lot of money for this solar project. Lots more gear, none of what you have will be sufficient.

    30 watts x 20hrs = 600wh
    2amps x 120v = 240 watts x 2 hours (how often does the turner activate, it's not always turning eggs 24/7 is it) 480 wh

    Few places ever get 6 hours of usable sunshine, so lets call it 5 hours (what about winter?).

    your 24 hr usage would be 1080wh. you need a battery that holds 5x that , 5400wh. @ 12V = 450ah or 24V =225ah.
    4, 6v, 200a golf cart batteries in series would get you there.

    Between all the losses and inefficiencies, you need to harvest 2160wh in 5 hours of sun. At 30V charging, that's 72 Ah total, or about 15A from the array for 5 hours. 15A x 30V x 1.3 loss = 600w of PV. and you still need the backup generator.

    So, that's about ballpark of what you need. If you stay with 12V, you need a 60A MPPT charge controller

    This is my wild 2 minute guess.
    Powerfab top of pole PV mount | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
    || Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
    || VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A

    solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
    gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister ,

  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,433 admin
    Re: Need help determining solar power requirements

    Get a Kill-a-Watt type meter and measure the total power usage over 24 hours (or longer).

    It will help you get the "real world" numbers for your needs.

    Do you have utility power available? It is almost always less expensive than utility power (if you have to dig a trench and run the 120 VAC branch circuit a couple hundred feet).

    On average, utility power will cost you around ~$0.10-$0.30 per kWH, and off grid power will cost around $1-$2+ per kWH.

    Off grid solar power usually only makes sense if you have no cost effective utility power available.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset