dennislewis2001
Member
how would i hook up my a/c unit to solar power?
solar power a/c
- Thread starter dennislewis2001
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DownRiverGUy
Member
- Location
- Canton, MI
Solar Panels (most of them) produce DC power. To power an A/C unit with PV panels you'd have to...
1. Size the panels to the A/C unit. This will take ALOT of panels depending on the A/C unit. If the unit is rated at 2kW it could take 5+ panels to properly power it.
2. Connect these panels to an AC Inverter and also a battery (or bank of batteries) (to provide power when there is no sun).
Needless to say this gets pretty unpractical really fast
What is the goal here? :-?
1. Size the panels to the A/C unit. This will take ALOT of panels depending on the A/C unit. If the unit is rated at 2kW it could take 5+ panels to properly power it.
2. Connect these panels to an AC Inverter and also a battery (or bank of batteries) (to provide power when there is no sun).
Needless to say this gets pretty unpractical really fast
What is the goal here? :-?
dennislewis2001
Member
to save on money and i was tood that it is about 27kw per day to run my unit
dennislewis2001
Member
Sorry "TOLD"
and i can do this myself!!!!!!just getting information on it
thanks for the reply
and i can do this myself!!!!!!just getting information on it
thanks for the reply
DownRiverGUy
Member
- Location
- Canton, MI
Hmm... 27kW is a unit of energy. Per day requires a measurement of power (kWh).
Example:
You have a 1kW A/C unit that you want to run 8hr a day.
This unit requires 1kW of ENERGY to run and 8kWh of POWER to run for those 8hr.
Lets say you have a PV system rated for the AC unit (in this case 5 200w panels). Now factor in what area of the country you live and how much sun you get. My area (michigan) gets about 3.5hr of sun a day.
So that 1kW system will produce around 3.5kWh of POWER each day... the AC system running 8hr needs 8kWh.
Factor in that solar costs 5 to 10 bucks a watt and this system can be 500-1000bucks and may still not produce enough power to run the AC unit.
Now this is a very simple calc. but at first glance I'm not really thinking this is practical to 'save money'.
Thoughts?
Example:
You have a 1kW A/C unit that you want to run 8hr a day.
This unit requires 1kW of ENERGY to run and 8kWh of POWER to run for those 8hr.
Lets say you have a PV system rated for the AC unit (in this case 5 200w panels). Now factor in what area of the country you live and how much sun you get. My area (michigan) gets about 3.5hr of sun a day.
So that 1kW system will produce around 3.5kWh of POWER each day... the AC system running 8hr needs 8kWh.
Factor in that solar costs 5 to 10 bucks a watt and this system can be 500-1000bucks and may still not produce enough power to run the AC unit.
Now this is a very simple calc. but at first glance I'm not really thinking this is practical to 'save money'.
Thoughts?
SiddMartin
Senior Member
- Location
- PA
and when its cloudy you have to hop on a bike to power it!
Solar off-grid cannot power an AC unit unless money is of no object. For one the inverter would have to be rated at least 5 times the motor load and be a True Sine Wave type which is very expensive. So if you had a 2 KW load would mean a 10 KW True Sine Wave inverter. You are pushing $50K just for that kind of inverter
The first thing is you have to know your solar insolation value in the summer. Typically that is around 4 to 6 hours depending on location.
So let's say it is 5 hours per day. For off-grid (battery) installation you take the daily load say 27 Kwh and multiply it by 1.5 to compensate for wiring and conversion losses. (1.2 for Grid Tied) so 27 Kwh x 1.5 = 40.5 Kwh. That is how much power the solar panel array would have to generate in a day. To find what the solar panel wattage needs to be is KWH/Sun Hour Day = 40.5 Kwh / 5 hours = 8100 watts. That is a boat load of panels at a cost of around $4 to $5 per watt or $64, 800 just for panels dropped shipped. Nothing else
Now for batteries you should never discharge your batteries more than 20 % in a single day. This will carry you through a couple of cloudy days and prolonge the battery life up to 5 to 7 years. So to figure th ebattery size you first decide on a nominal system voltage. At theses huge wattages you want to run high of voltage as possible like 96 volts or higher. So to figure out th ebattery size take the adjusted daily wattage of 40.1 Kwh and multiply by 5 = 202.5 Kwh. Now divide that by the system voltage of lets say 96 volts toget the Amp hour capacity needed. 202,500 Kwh / 96 volts = 2100 AH. That is a housefull of batterieries so you will need to build a 2000/ft2 addition to your home to hold all the batteries needed and remember they need replaced every 5 to 7 years. Right off the top of my head since I buy a lot of stationary batteries they will cost you around $100,000 plus shipping, EPA permits to house that much acid, and installation labor.
OK I think You see where i am going with this. Why on earth would you spend over $200K to replace the POCO who charges you about $3.00 per day to supply 27 Kwh to run your AC unit.
To do this grid tied your cost would be around $64,000 before rebates an incentives. Still no deal IMO
The first thing is you have to know your solar insolation value in the summer. Typically that is around 4 to 6 hours depending on location.
So let's say it is 5 hours per day. For off-grid (battery) installation you take the daily load say 27 Kwh and multiply it by 1.5 to compensate for wiring and conversion losses. (1.2 for Grid Tied) so 27 Kwh x 1.5 = 40.5 Kwh. That is how much power the solar panel array would have to generate in a day. To find what the solar panel wattage needs to be is KWH/Sun Hour Day = 40.5 Kwh / 5 hours = 8100 watts. That is a boat load of panels at a cost of around $4 to $5 per watt or $64, 800 just for panels dropped shipped. Nothing else
Now for batteries you should never discharge your batteries more than 20 % in a single day. This will carry you through a couple of cloudy days and prolonge the battery life up to 5 to 7 years. So to figure th ebattery size you first decide on a nominal system voltage. At theses huge wattages you want to run high of voltage as possible like 96 volts or higher. So to figure out th ebattery size take the adjusted daily wattage of 40.1 Kwh and multiply by 5 = 202.5 Kwh. Now divide that by the system voltage of lets say 96 volts toget the Amp hour capacity needed. 202,500 Kwh / 96 volts = 2100 AH. That is a housefull of batterieries so you will need to build a 2000/ft2 addition to your home to hold all the batteries needed and remember they need replaced every 5 to 7 years. Right off the top of my head since I buy a lot of stationary batteries they will cost you around $100,000 plus shipping, EPA permits to house that much acid, and installation labor.
OK I think You see where i am going with this. Why on earth would you spend over $200K to replace the POCO who charges you about $3.00 per day to supply 27 Kwh to run your AC unit.
To do this grid tied your cost would be around $64,000 before rebates an incentives. Still no deal IMO
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