What kind of system do i need?

devon8822

Hey, to run 720 watts 24/7 (house), how would I figure out how many solar panels and batteries I need?I not even completely sure if that is a lot of power needs. The issue is that it will be running this much constantly. Lets say mainland british columbia (Canada).

NorthGuy

Re: What kind of system do i need?

If you want to run it in winter too, it's going to be a lot. You need 17.3kWh/day plus all the losses. And there's only 2 hours of sun in winter, so you will have to produce 22kWh or so in these two hours, meaning 11kW of panels. You will also need a battery bank about 1500AH @ 48V, which is huge.

Does it have to be non-stop? Or is it ok for it to switch off in a cloudy weather? If you want it to be non-stop, you have to use a generator. If you rely on the generator to provide some of the energy in winter, then you can get away with much smaller system sized for the rest of the year.

waynefromnscanada

Re: What kind of system do i need?

That's a huge and very expensive system. If you cannot drastically reduce your consumption, you'd be better off going on grid and forgetting solar. Or, you could go Grid Tie and use some solar to help reduce your energy costs.

devon8822

Re: What kind of system do i need?

Ok, i think i could probably get it down to a 1 amp (120V) = 120 watts running 24/7, instead of the 720 watts. What kind of system would I be looking at than?

westbranch

Re: What kind of system do i need?

Is that a constant load or the average of a bunch of loads?

zoneblue

Re: What kind of system do i need?

westbranch wrote: »

Is that a constant load or the average of a bunch of loads?

This is all too vague, mate. The key to sucess here is understanding your loads. Make a list, measure things, make a list and add it all up. What you need is Wh/day. Holler if you need help.

solar_dave

Re: What kind of system do i need?

waynefromnscanada wrote: »

That's a huge and very expensive system. If you cannot drastically reduce your consumption, you'd be better off going on grid and forgetting solar. Or, you could go Grid Tie and use some solar to help reduce your energy costs.

+1 on the grid tie IF you have a decent utility net metering plan, then a 2-3 Kw system would probably easily break even.