small residential solar power system

short video describing a small solar power system that i set up at my house. it consists of twelve 1 amp solar panels (15 watts each for a total of 180 watts of power - per hour). i use it to run all lights (CFL's), fans, tv's, and stereos in the house. also the microwave, coffee maker, blender, can opener, sandwich grill, toaster, vacuum, computer and anything else i can think of. run time for lights/fans only is approx 8 hours. add in vacuuming, microwaving or toaster along with lights, tv and the fans and the run time is reduced to 4-5 hours a day. i bought solar panels, inverter (1000 watt) and killowatt meter at Harbor Freight tools, the batteries (deep cycle) from walmart and the battery cables from checker auto. total cost was about $1200 to $1300 For the latest including EXTRA PICS and INFO. - Click on the "WEBSITE LINK" from my youtube channel page.

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[bedrocbedrock69]

How about the fredge

[desertsun02]

@bedrocbedrock69 it takes a few more panels and a few more batteries to run a fridge

[ZX9RinHollywood]

I want to build a system to run just a portable air conditioner. The manual says it is 900w and 115v to run. I need it to run for at least 8 hours. What do you think?

[desertsun02]

@ZX9RinHollywood Air conditioning is a huge drain on a battery bank. They pull that 900 Watts (or more) the majority of the time that the AC is running. Also i've heard that it takes 2 to 6 times the Wattage to get the compressor to kick on. and it kicks on and off a lot. You would need a good size inverter (i'm guessing you would need a 2500 watter or more), probably 10 times more panels and 10 times more batteries. (if you want to run it all day).

[CanaansCrossing]

Hi desertsun02,

Was just wondering why you chose not to run the computer only from solar.

I understand the large appliances because of power requirements, but seems the computer would be small enough to run only from solar. I am about to do the same setup as you and found your video to be the most informative to match what I am trying to do.

[desertsun02]

@CanaansCrossing Thanks. I'm glad you found the video informative. The computer is small enough. My new computer only uses 59 watts max. (including the montior). I chose not to run it (or the new computer) on solar mainly because it's a modified sine wave inverter. I don't want to chance 'stressing out' the computer. When I get a pure sine wave inverter, I will.

[donohuematthew6]

What's the name of the 150 inverter cause I want to buy that

[icearnett]

Wow. I am trying to build a solar system for my sailboat. I want to run very few electronics, cb radio 5-6 hrs, cd player/ am/fm 6 hrs, led mooring lights 6 hrs, and have some room for growth like charging cell phones etc. I currently have only a marine fuse panel and zero batteries. My plan- calculate my desired amp hour per day consumption, multiply by 2 to prolong battery life, wire to the fuse box, then buy charge controll and solar panels. It sounds fine, but I have no experience, pls help.

[LOPEZdJUNGLIST]

why do you keep the batteries in the middle of the room, I mean id do that too that but err well ...forget it

[ahmed0509099601]

i would like to know what u mean by sine wave inverter , i know what inverter mean but sine wave inverter new for me can u explain ???

[ahmed0509099601]

i would like to study the solar energy , specifically in installation the solar module and in grid - direct way ??? please if any one knows any information about institute giving this courses reply to me .thanks

[GardenDavesProjects]

Great video, thanks.

Did you connect your main lights too? Or just lamps etc? If so, how did you do it...for there are no plugs from the main lights and the wires are in the walls.

Could you buy a 2000 watt inverter for the washer / dryer?

For the fridge......hmmm......perhaps a few extra panels and another battery especially for the fridge and freezer, but then in the winter, when energy produced is at a minimum, you might not need the fridge if you store food in a cooler area of your house.

[Sethjxl]

@desertsun02 An electronic engineer may want to correct me on this but i believe computers will run just fine on a modified sine wave (monitors im not so sure) as they are converting to DC via switch mode transformer and will 'clean' the power. With that said, power supplies are rather inexpensive if a fault does occur (given you are using a standard ATX form-factor case and not slimline). The one thing i have been told only to run on pure sine is a compressor/motor.