What can I do with just one solar panel?

[DanLaw]

Hi all!!

I am so green to this whole "Going Green" idea. I have been thinking about it for quite some time and I have actually viewed several "Do It Yourself" or DIY Guides. The best one for me yet is the one I found at *greenpaneldzine.com* . This one did give me the places where I can find all of the tools I need to build a solar panel. But the problem that I'm having is knowing exactly what I will be able to run off this panel once I build it.

I have 36 1.8W 3.6Amp- 3"x 6" cells that I plan to run 3 rows of 12. How can I tell how many watts and volts this panel will expend? and what can I do with this amount of power?

I know I can not run the entire house of course. But can I run a couple light bulbs? computer? TV? I'm just looking for an idea of what this one little panel can do. And that's just the beginning of the questions that I have for implementing a green Dzine for my home.

Help anyone ,
DanLaw

[ Mod note - don't add anymore links to your messages, we don't like provideing links to scum sites. Not open to discussion. ]

[Sunking]

I have 36 1.8W 3.6Amp- 3"x 6" cells that I plan to run 3 rows of 12. How can I tell how many watts and volts this panel will expend? and what can I do with this amount of power?

I know I can not run the entire house of course. But can I run a couple light bulbs? computer? TV? I'm just looking for an idea of what this one little panel can do.

Power is simple 36 cells x 1.8 watts = 64.8 watts in theory. You will never see that much power out of it.

As for the voltage your only option is to wire them in series to make an 18 Vmp panel at roughly 3.6 amps so again the power = voltage x current = 18 volts x 3.6 amps = 64.8 watts in theory.

What can you run with a 64 watt panel, not very much of anything usefull.

Light Bulb, yes say a 40 watt bulb for about 3 hours per day assuming you had the proper sized battery for it.

Computer and TV is out of the question. Maybe a Netbook for a few hours per day.

[Steve]

Hi DanLaw.
I made two solar panels and plan to make 6 more for a good power backup system and to run a few CFL backyard lights.

My project can be found here.

My personal suggestion is to disregard any advice from anyone who would sell you something. I would stick to the advice of those neutral people with experience in solar, like within this knowledgeable community. Me? I'm very new to this too and have accepted the suggestions of the more seasoned people here with success.

Sunking is correct, you won't be able to run much with your single panel. More, the useful power delivered from a single panel will be further limited to only a few hours a day on a clear sunny day - and can be useless on a bad weather day. You'll need to purchase batteries for those off-hours, and those too can be severely limiting.

I have two panels, each one probably performs as your single panel likely will. Together they charge two 6 volt 240ah golf cart style batteries for 12 volts. I have an inverter which converts the 12 volts battery DC into 120 volts AC so it can run common things.

The only thing it regularly powers is a back yard post light with two (working) 15w CFL bulbs.

In a nutshell, it takes more than a whole day of full sunshine to replace the power consumed by about 9 hours of CFL use. So my yard remains dark every other night to let my batteries recover with enough power from the panels. If the weather is bad my yard is dark for longer periods.

(Well OK I cheat and put the post on the grid for those times to keep my yard lit)

I made a thread you might be interested in:
Power losses

There are some figures I made in that thread to estimate my backup power capabilities, with my present 240ah battery system. None of the calculations account for the Peukert Law with lead-acid batteries so the higher loads will significantly drain faster than calculated.
Also, cut the running times by more than half because I won't drain my batteries below 70-60% charge.

[dman446]

You can actually get 12v CFLs now. I have 2 wired and set up in my back yard. Just one used car battery out of my brothers non-op car and a spring wound 60 minute timer switch to connect the circuit. they are amazingly bright and no converter to worry about. although there would probably be less loss using an inverted ac voltage than the low dc voltage, but hey it works so.....