Thinking about solar but not sure I'm ready to give up my "creature comforts"

1 Posts

Dec 7, 2004 12:44 pm

I grew up with no power source at all for probably 10 years, then with solar power for about 7 years, and was very disappointed when we had "traditional" power wired in my Senior year of highschool. Having been out on my own living in standard electric powered residences for the past 8 years though, I have gotten rather attached to such conveniences as my washing machine and ready access to e-mail. So my questions are:
(a) Are there washing machines available that will run on solar power? Does anyone have experience with these that they would be willing to talk about?
(b) Is it possible to purchase a laptop that would charge on solar power? If so, could accessories such as a printer also be plugged in? Would such a laptop be a standard laptop, with all the features of any other laptop, or would it be a limited function model? Could I connect to the internet from this laptop via my cellphone?
(c) What options, if any, do I have for food preservation? I grew up taking gallon jugs of ice from the neighbors for our ice chest, but this still leaves me dependent on electricity.

Thanks!

Thomas Allen Schmidt

679 Posts

Dec 8, 2004 05:21 am

Re: Thinking about solar but not sure I'm ready to give up my "creature comforts"

Opinions are like belly buttons, everybody has one. This is mine (opinion that is).
With a properly sized system including; PV modules, battery bank, and true sinewave inverter(s) and, possibly other RE sources one would not have to give up any creature comforts. One my have to look for alternatives but you already know this.
(There is a stigma that goes with looking for an alternative and that is, that we are settling for second best. If you havent already, which I feel you have, try to overcome this.)
An all electric home could be totally solar powered off grid but cost effectiveness becomes an issue.
The cost of the system could be higher than the cost of the home itself. High amperage, 240 vac loads such as electric ranges, central hvac, clothes dryers, and water heaters do not lend themselves well to off grid solar applications for this reason.
To be concluded.

Thomas Allen Schmidt

679 Posts

Dec 11, 2004 06:36 am

Re: Thinking about solar but not sure I'm ready to give up my "creature comforts"

LAST EDITED ON Dec-12-04 AT 04:24 AM (EST)

To make a long story short, one can do with PV power what one can do with utility power. Its a matter of sizing the PV system to fulfill ones electrical needs. Study Ohm's law, calculate your electrical needs into watthours, determine amphours of battery storage from watthours, size the battery bank to stay within the top 20% of fully charged, and then size the PV array to replace that amount of amphours in at least one sunny day.
Example: Lets say you want to burn an 80 watt load 24 hours a day all year long.
24 x 80 = 1,920 watthours
then divde this by a nominal battery voltage,
1,920 / 48 = 40 amp hours
then to stay in the top 20%,
220 x 20% = 44
a battery bank of at least 220 amphours @ 48volts,
Now to replace that 44 amphours in one sunny day,
1,920 / 4 = 480
in this example 4 is the number of hours of equivilent full rated charge from a PV module. This will vary from; region to region, season to season, how the PV array is mounted and, the weather. 480 watts @ 48 volts is the size of the array, this however is absolute minimum. It may be nescessary to increase the size of the PV array and the battery bank by as much as 50% or more for total autonomy. That all depends on site conditions.

Thomas Allen Schmidt

679 Posts

Dec 11, 2004 06:43 am

Re: Thinking about solar but not sure I'm ready to give up my "creature comforts"

LAST EDITED ON Dec-12-04 AT 04:26 AM (EST)

I should also add the fact that watts are watts. Watts dont know the difference form vac to vdc when doing these calculations. Also, most any electrical gizmo will have a tag on it stating either watts or amps and volts or sum combination thereof. Again learn the fundementals of Ohm's law. Its all in the math, and in the pocketbook.

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Thinking about solar but not sure I'm ready to give up my "creature comforts"

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