An odd battery sizing question

[Sunking]

I live in south east New Mexico where we have almost constant sunshine so A/C is essential.

Neil you do not need AC where you live. Swamp Coolers work great.

[NeilTheCop]

I don't know how it is where you live but here in Florida is stays HOT even after the sun goes down so I still need to run my AC system when the sun don't shine..

You are correct you would have a hard time running any AC load directly from solar panels. You will need a battery buffer to maintain the voltage your loads need.

Oh discharging a battery more than 30% will shorten it's life and going more than 50% daily will certainly kill it so you will need a much bigger battery system along with about 5kW of solar panels.

To answer it drops to about 80 at night in mid summer but our humidity is around 10%. Here today it's 4% and you can feel the moisture being sucked from your skin.

[NeilTheCop]

Neil you do not need AC where you live. Swamp Coolers work great.

True, but a couple of things put me off. Our water has so much mineral content you don't drink it, you chew it, so everything, including PEX pipe gets a calcium buildup. I had drip irrigation in my garden but after having the emitters clog up within days I gave up. The second and major problem is that we are surrounded by dairies with the associated 'waste' products, which when dry are carried by the ever present strong winds to our house, and no swamp cooler can remove that odor so we have to keep the house closed.

[Sunking]

To answer it drops to about 80 at night in mid summer but our humidity is around 10%. Here today it's 4% and you can feel the moisture being sucked from your skin.

Thus why a Swamp Cooler works so well. Keeps you nice and cool plus adds humidity. Using an air conditioner compounds the low humidity problem.

[NeilTheCop]

More than likely the OP believes he can save money using solar panels to directly run his AC unit. The sad part is that there are a lot of people that have "drank the cool aide" and feel they do not need to spend very much to install a solar pv system which gives them "free" energy. It is a very misconceived belief.

I already posted that I am well aware that this is uneconomic and will never come close to recouping my money, but to me that's not important. I am one of many electronics hobbyists who still build a circuit costing $10 from scratch when you can buy 10 of the same circuit ready built from China for $2. If you only do something because it makes economic sense then all invention and tinkering will stop.

[NeilTheCop]

Thus why a Swamp Cooler works so well. Keeps you nice and cool plus adds humidity. Using an air conditioner compounds the low humidity problem.

I did look at the solar powered swamp cooler once that cooled incoming air by evaporation then passed that air through a heat exchanger to cool the interior air. I would still have the problem with the high mineral content of our water but I'm sure that could be overcome. not sure what happened to that company.

[SunEagle]

I already posted that I am well aware that this is uneconomic and will never come close to recouping my money, but to me that's not important. I am one of many electronics hobbyists who still build a circuit costing $10 from scratch when you can buy 10 of the same circuit ready built from China for $2. If you only do something because it makes economic sense then all invention and tinkering will stop.

I agree that tinkering can lead to inventing a new product.

I would just ask those members that want to tinker and build things, to mention in their First Post that the practice is usually not economical and should not be done if the reason to do so "is to save money".

Most people that come here are looking for solar technology to save them from paying high electric bills. When tinkerers come in they tend not to mention their actions tend to use up more money then it will save.

I just want the tinkerers to be clear when they make their posts so that others do not get the wrong idea.

[notJEA]

I don't know how it is where you live but here in Florida is stays HOT even after the sun goes down so I still need to run my AC system when the sun don't shine..

You are correct you would have a hard time running any AC load directly from solar panels. You will need a battery buffer to maintain the voltage your loads need.

Oh discharging a battery more than 30% will shorten it's life and going more than 50% daily will certainly kill it so you will need a much bigger battery system along with about 5kW of solar panels.

The discharging % of a battery issue is really interesting.
You may recognize my posts from exploring grid tied options that work in an outtage.

The company i am working with has decided that a battery is the only way to go when working with utilities that do not offer net metering.
Mainly JEA offers 30 cents to the dollar (inspiration for my username).

To help with this sale we are aiming to send as little power back to the grid as possible.
I've been trying to find information on average KW usage by the hour to help me back into a minimum battery requirement and have been researching here as well.

If i used on average 8KW and installed a 10KW system.
What size battery would be necessary to achieve this?
A big part of this sale is the ability to use the system in the outtage as well. AC etc.

I'm thinking we want a 15KW battery??

Thanks so much