Solar Power – Anyone Can Understand

Today there are classes to teach us anything and everything we ever wanted to know about solar energy. Many people just want to know the hard basic facts to kick them around in your had and see if they start to make sense. If that is you and you'd like to learn more, start slow, then continue reading.

To begin your solar power project, you will need a battery. Automobile batteries are not designed for deep discharge and have very thin plates to keep their weight at a minimum. Solar batteries must be capable of providing long periods of deep discharge with only a few hours of a full recharge when the sun is out. The perfect battery choice for this type of use is a golf cart battery. Slow to discharge because of thick plates but only needing minimal charging, these batteries are very heavy with a small amount of amperage so many would need to be banked together for any large application of electrical use.

Next step in the project you will need solar panels. Voltage of the panels is important, but size is not. The voltage needs to be higher than the battery. For instance, if there is less power going into the battery than there will not be any power coming out of the battery. The panel needs to have more pressure to push into the battery. Wattage also needs to be higher than the battery. As long as the watts and volts are equal to what you need, you can purchase large or several small panels.

Determining the amount of electricity your going to need will measure how big the battery needs to be. With a little bit of work, you can follow this rule of thumb: Watts equal volts times Amps. The formula will begin by adding up the volts and Amps of everything that will need to run on solar for a grand total.

The solar panels will determine by the number of amp hours that you will use in 24 hours during sunlight. Estimated at 6 hours of total sunlight hours, take 1/6 of an amp times the 14 volt panel. The answer is 2.33 watts, but now you'll round that up to 3 watts. You need a 14 volt, 3 watt panel to generate one amp of power to power your pond pump.

Now that you have your power stored in your batteries, the DC needs to be converted to AC in order to power your electrical products. An inverter comes in different sizes and many options. You actually only need a simple unit but it has to be able to support the loads that you are going to draw through it. Remember when figuring your estimated voltage that some motors will use as much as seven times their rated power just to start up.

Connections and the condition of your cables are very important whether it can support the load of current. Don't try and cut corners or skimp when buying small wire that will burn out (making it dangerous to catch other things around it on fire).

There is going to be a lot of maintenance and checking on the process of your energy and battery function. If you think you are ready to learn more, now is the time for a class.

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