New here and to solar

eddiebojones
eddiebojones Registered Users Posts: 6
We are from E. Texas and just purchased 11.5 acres of land. There is a 3 bed, 2 bath mobile on the land which we will live in until WE build our cedar home from the trees on the property. I have a Lumbermate Sawmill and will mill all the lumber, but our journey is headed toward grid tie solar or maybe even off grid. I have access n ocasion to 45 watt solar panels from various companies. What can I do with a good number of these?

Comments

  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: New here and to solar

    not a whole lot except sell them so that you can save to buy some good pvs that are better made and will last longer. you could hang on to a few just for experiments or keeping aa nicad or nimh batteries charged with a proper charging circuit.
  • icarus
    icarus Solar Expert Posts: 5,436 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: New here and to solar

    How many is "a number"?

    Tony
  • eddiebojones
    eddiebojones Registered Users Posts: 6
    Re: New here and to solar

    35 panels in great shape at 45 watts each in excelent condition.
  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: New here and to solar

    it may be troublesome for you to mount that many individual pvs for yourself, but if they are in good working order it could be done. what makes and models of pvs do you have and their approximate age if you know?
  • dwh
    dwh Solar Expert Posts: 1,341 ✭✭✭
    Re: New here and to solar
    What can I do with a good number of these?

    35x45w=1575w

    Figure a fixed mounting with 4 hours of full direct sunlight a day (panels don't put out much in anything less than full direct sunlight) for 6300 watts a day.

    Now what can you do with that? You could run 15 100w bulbs for 4 hours.

    Not very useful, since you could only run them during the day...

    What do you have around the house that uses 1500w? A little cheezy portable heater perhaps? You could that for 4 hours a day. But only during the day.

    You could add some batteries and a charge controller and store the power to use later.

    If you wanted to run that 1500w heater for 4 hours at night, you'd need enough battery bank to store at least double the 6300w since draining a battery down below 50% is a quick way to wear it out.

    You would also need an inverter to change the battery voltage into 120v to run that heater.

    Or maybe you could run a water pump.

    Or a blender to make margaritas.
  • eddiebojones
    eddiebojones Registered Users Posts: 6
    Re: New here and to solar

    Are you saying they are not worth the hassle or what? Could they not be configured into larger panels fo more output/wattage? Just to think outside the box. Like solar for instance. (outside the box) ;)
  • dwh
    dwh Solar Expert Posts: 1,341 ✭✭✭
    Re: New here and to solar
    Are you saying they are not worth the hassle or what?

    1600 watts is definitely worth the hassle.

    But first you need to decide *what* you are going to use the power for.

    Could they not be configured into larger panels fo more output/wattage

    Nope. No matter how you diddle them around, they'll still total the same wattage.
  • eddiebojones
    eddiebojones Registered Users Posts: 6
    Re: New here and to solar

    Neil the panels are by Solarex and Alps tech. DWH thanks. That's encouraging. 1600 is a good number.
    We would like to be able to use the panels to power our main appliances such as fridge, freezer window ac units. The ones that run up the electric bill the most. Tell me how and what else would be needed to go with the panels.
  • dwh
    dwh Solar Expert Posts: 1,341 ✭✭✭
    Re: New here and to solar
    Neil the panels are by Solarex and Alps tech. DWH thanks. That's encouraging. 1600 is a good number.
    We would like to be able to use the panels to power our main appliances such as fridge, freezer window ac units. The ones that run up the electric bill the most. Tell me how and what else would be needed to go with the panels.


    Well, for your fridge freezer and a/c units you'll probably need something more like 5,000 - 10,000 watts of solar. It all depends.

    Find out how many watts your stuff draws, and how many hours per day they'll be running and you can figure out how much solar you'll need to run it.
  • niel
    niel Solar Expert Posts: 10,300 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: New here and to solar

    eddiebojones,
    sorry for the delay in getting back to you as had some pretty nasty weather blow through here yesterday. i am not familiar with the alps tech pvs, but i still have a small solarex pv. my solarex pv has like a pressed board backing with a front made of silicon rubber rather than glass. does this describe your pvs by chance? if it does it will not last long in the elements.
    if you have a dmm you can verify the open circuit voltages of the pvs and if carefull you can determine the short circuit current(in full mid-day sun) of each pv.
    as to the 1600w, that's alot of small pvs to mount. if you want to go the extra to mount all of them then 1600w is nice to have if they are outputting that. for every hour of full sun (defined as 1000w/m^2) this adds 1600w of power, but you will find losses due to resistance and efficiency so you may windup with 1000w/hr of full sun. summetime might yield about 5hrs of full sun and this could get you up to about 5000wh of usable power. the refrigerator might use around 1500wh per day of that, give or take and the rest may apply to some lights or even to run a small window a/c unit for a few hours.
    basically you will need a good controller feeding a battery bank that will operate a good sine wave inverter and a way to mount all of those pvs. of course that is over simplifying it as you'll need combiners, fusing, wires, etc..
    itis easier to use the more efficient pvs of today that pack more power in each pv and are made better than many of the early pvs. this was why i suggested selling them, but the choice is yours as that's alot of pvs to sell that you'd need to add $ to to get the same amount of power in new pvs.