solar power

Read and learn more about solar power. For more, visit the Renewable Energy website EnergySourceRenewable.org

Q: Solar power?
We are looking at buying a house and renovating it, and were wondering about using solar or wind power to power much of our house. We will have a well, be on a septic system, have a wood burning furnace for heating the house, so we would like to have solar or wind power so we can use as little electricity as possible (its insanely expensive here!). We also have our appliances (fridge, stove, washer, dryer, freezer).
How much would a basic set up be for a 900 sq ft, 3 bedroom house? For either wind turbines or solar panels and necessary equipment? I am in Southern Ontario.

Thanks!

A: Go to canadiantire’s web site and search solar panel.

they range from $30 — $1000

Q: solar power?
I want to make a solar power generator for ac use not dc use, how long will it last if iam running a total of 1600 watts ? I was planning on making one with 8 batteries.
thanks
any websites that explain this would be greatly appreciated.

A: The question is not too clear, as solar chargers are in fact d/c power as is the batteries they charge. To get a/c power from the system you will need an “inverter”, and they come in various sizes, watts that is.
The amount of time will also depend on the batteries used, as they are all not the same. Reserve amps will be the determining factor to look at.
There is a formula published by the makers of these inverters that will give approximate running times, and most can be found through Google under the manufacturers brand name.

Q: Solar Power?
Hi,

I have some questions about solar power, it’s for a school project. Thanks for all your help in advance.

What is solar power?

How does it work? (Please be as specific as possible and list details)

What is solar power used for? (A list would be great.)

How efficient is solar power?

How cost efficient it is?

What are the advantages and disadvantages?

And anything you find important to share would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

A: Solar power refers to the utilisation of the sunlight for meeting our energy needs, which are otherwise met by electricity or coal, oil, gas etc.

There are several ways for utilising solar power:

- photovoltaic cells for producing electricity (very expensive to set up but maintenance free)

- solar water heaters very popular in several countries to produce hot water

- solar cookers for cooking food

Solar power is environmentally very clean – no carbon dioxide, no radiation, no health hazards etc.

but it is very expensive right now.

Q: What kind of solar power setup would I need to power a single room’s energy needs?
I live in the basement of a house and would like to run my room on solar power. I have two power strips that run a TV and DVD player, a laptop, printer and two external hard drives and I would need to use a couple floor lamps in the room as well. What kind of solar paneling setup would I need and what would be the ballpark cost on this?

A: Let me just say, the cost would be too much to be worthwhile. It appears you would need at least 750 watts. if you wanted to use the electrical things at night too, the system would have to deliver that much power for the equipment, and more to charge the batteries. Make it a total of 1500 watts, and you would need between 10 and 15 panels, plus an inverter, mounting rails for the panels, two fused disconnect switches and wire. I expect around $10,000 or more.

Q: Could Solar Power work more effectively if the solar rays were magnified?
If we focused the sun’s energy like a magnifying glass does into the solar panels, would this generate more power at all?

A: No, it would not. If the magnifying glass is the same area as the solar collectors, then it would be the same amount of energy the solar collectors would be gathering without the magnifying glass.

In a way it would be cheaper, using cheap mirrors to focus the sun’s rays onto a smaller solar collector surface area. And solar collectors are far more expensive. But as to more power? No.

Q: Solar panel and motor: Any way to regulate the power transmission?
I’m an engineering student and for an individual hobby-like project i purchased a small solar panel and a small solar motor. I am planning on making a small solar powered toy car. The question i have is: is there a way to connect a control or some other ways of regulating the power that is absorbed by the cells? Other wise the motor will just continue to run. Any answer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

A: I assume it is a DC motor. You should have DC voltage coming out of the solar cell (For example 10V). You could use a transistor to switch the voltage on and off, then filter the output with an RC filter. You will have to choose the right RC time constant . It will have to be slower than the control pulse frequency, but faster than the desired motor response time.

If you switched the voltage with a 50% duty cycle, then filtered the output, you would get 5V, with a 75% duty cycle, you would get 7.5V, etc. Therefore, you could control the motor by controlling the duty cycle of the switching. A microcontroller like the BASIC Stamp can produce the control pulses.

Q: How to prevent solar power lights from getting stolen?
Although they haven’t been stolen YET, I expect my solar power lights to get stolen sooner or later. I was wondering if you know a good way to prevent them from getting stolen (other than moving them somewhere else or not putting them out at all)?. Oh, and i would not like to make a cement foundation for them or buy different ones -lol. Any help will be greatly appreciated
oh, and please make the answers reasonable, don’t be crazy.

A: Drill a hole through the base of each one, just below ground level, and string a plastic-jacketed steel cable through them all; then bury the cable in a shallow trench between the lights.

Q: How do you transport solar power tower energy to a building that is 4 kms away?
And is an area of 1 km^2 for a solar power tower enough to produce energy for five houses? can you make an approximation of how much it could supply?

A: If you want the heat energy, consider tracking mirrors at the site and solar collectors on the houses. If you want electric energy, that area is enough to support a traditional steam turbine, much more cost-effective than photovoltaic. That area is about 15 times the area that Solar One used to generate 10 megawatts in the Mohave Desert, so it could supply a theoretical maximum of 150 megawatts during peak sunshine. That’s probably enough to match the demand of about 25,000 homes. Best bet would be to feed it to the electric power grid.

Q: How can I power a couple small appliances using solar power?
What would I need to power a small fan, some LED lights, ect in my home, without spending hundreds or thousands of dollers? How would I set it up? I think I would need a Solar Panel, a AC/DC converter or some kind, and a Battery?

Any Help! Thanks!

A: Look up solar solar power supplies, battery charger and solar charger on the Internet.Lots of good information there.

You will need to know how much current you will be drawing, the number of hours you will be using power, the rating of the power supply and the insolation ( this is spelled correctly) from insolation tables on the Internet.

Q: How Can I Use Solar Power in My House?
As far as I know that it’s more economic to use solar power at home. What are the ways that solar power can help me with? How can i do it? How much will the devices needed cost?

A: install solar power panels its that easy !
This will heat your water, For energy you can install a wind generator but be warned this might anger neighbours who might not appreciate the noise of the fan rotating in the wind.

Q: How effective is solar power?
I am very concerned about global warming, and when I grow up (I’m only fourteen) I plan on using solar power to power my home (and I hope that when I grow up it’s customary). How efficient is solar power? How many square feet would it take to power a 2,000 square foot home? How much would it cost?

A: Comment to “Ed” added…

There are two main types of solar power. One produces electricity, the other produces heat.
The electrical type are called “photovoltaics”, the heat type are “thermal”.
Photovoltaics are not presently very efficient, converting less than 15% of the suns energy to electricity, but by the time you build, they should be better, and cheaper. Thermal solar is much more efficient, especially if you use it to heat your water, because the system runs all year. Home heating is not as good, because winter is not a good time to collect solar. When you design your house, you can take advantage of “passive” solar, which is basically putting a lot of good windows on the south side (or north side if you are south of the equator!) and letting the winter sun shine in. These windows need to be very good, or have an insulator to cover them at night and cloudy days or they will gain energy all day, only to lose all of it at night.

As far as your house goes, it’s not so much a matter of how big it is, as how well insulated it is. If you “super insulate” it, you will need very very little heating or cooling energy.
The other cost you will have is for things like computers, refrigerators, TVs, sound systems, lights, fans, cooking equipment and water heating. By picking the most efficient, you can reduce the size of the photovoltaic system you would need, and using solar water heating will handle 50% of the yearly amount with present technology for about $3500. A photovoltaic system to handle all your electrical needs would be quite expensive now, in the $10,000 to $20,000 range, but that cost will continue to fall, and by the time you build it should be closer to $5000.

Hey Ed….I don’t know when you bought your system, or what other costs were associated with it…but 6KW systems don’t cost 40K anymore…this from Solar Today “A 25-year warranty accompanies the Sharp panels. In 2003, we paid $18,000, which included the eight batteries, two inverters, hardware, 6,000 watts of solar panels and labor.”….and King solar sells a “whole house” package for $11,000… but they don’t say how big it is. The average home in California uses about 7000 KW per month…so to get that much is going to be more expensive. Our young friend here is thinking ahead. If a house is located right and designed well, then the most efficient appliances and lighting is selected, it would be easy to live well on half that 7000KW.

Good luck, and good thinking!

Q: What are the drawbacks to using wind turbines or solar panels for providing all power to a home?
What are the drawbacks to using wind turbines or solar panels for providing all power to a home?

A. The wind and sun are not constant, so there would be times when no electricity would be generated.
B. The wind and sun are constant, so there would be plenty of electricity for the home.
C. Wind and solar power are inefficient and too expensive to use and maintain.
D. Wind and solar power are efficient, but they are not able to produce enough electricity for a single home.

A: again trying to help..again thnx 4 the previous………
nothing else…………but A.
NO COMMENTS ON THE OTHER OPTIONS….
except these there is another drawback…….its when your brother breaks the solar panel after quarrel with you……then no electricity will b produced………….hope this funny answer u liked……..its just to make yahhooooooooooo answer FUNNNNN…………

Q: How to generate solar power for the home?
Solar power is the essential power in the home and tell me the way to generate it..

A: Solar generators produce electricity using so-called solar cells or photovoltaic cells, which convert the energy of sunlight to electric energy by the photovoltaic effect. Solar panel is used to save your money once your fixed it to your home you will access that power to all your home appliances.. You have to buy solar panel setup along with inverter which going to invert the AC into DC power. For more details search in google..

Q: What are the advantages and disadvantagesof using solar power?
Mainly what are the plus/minuses of SOLAR THERMAL DISHES but any information you have on SOLAR POWER would be a great help!

Thanks, 10 points best answer!
Oh, and by the way!
I kinda mean using solar power for companies like as a alternative to using coal, not just for your own use at home by setting up your own private solar powered devices!

Thanks!

A: * Advantages
- Solar energy is a renewable resource. Oil, on the other hand, is not renewable
- Solar cells are totally silent. This is in comparison to the noise generated by drills, turbines and pumps for oil
- Solar energy is non-polluting. Solar power creates no air pollution, greenhouse gases, or radioactive nuclear wastes
- Solar cells require very little maintenance (they have no moving parts that will need to be fixed), and they last a long time.
- Although solar panels or solar lights, etc., may be expensive to buy at the onset, you can save money in the long run. After all, you do not have to pay for energy from the sun. On the other hand, all of us are aware of the rising cost of oil.
- Solar powered lights and other solar powered products are also very easy to install. You do not even need to worry about wires.
- Solar panels can be used to run small vehicles
- Sun light is a free energy source

* Limitations
- Solar cells/panels, etc. can be very expensive initially
- Solar power cannot be created at night. It must be collected during the day and stored for later use.
- Solar power is still developing and in a state of continuous improvement
- To provide large scale amounts of energy huge areas of panels would be required

Q: How do I calculate for much solar power I require for my new shed?
I am trying to work out how many solar panels I require to power my shed and am unsure how to work it out.

A: Firs you must know how many kWhr/day do you plan on using in the shed.

This info can be found on your power bill, or by multiplying each power device’s Watts x Hours of use per day, then dividing by 1000 to get kWhr. The sum of all the devices kWhr/day is your useage.
(ex. 800W device x 2hr/day /1000 = 1.6kWhr/day + 900W device x 6hr/day /1000 = 5.4kWhr/day = 7kWhr/day)

Take your usage and divide by 5 sun hrs /day. This the annual average in the mid latitude united states. Latitude: 43.6
(ex 7kWhr/day / 5hr/day = 1.4kW)

The number you get is the solar panel array size that is required to meet you demand.

Since the calculation is base on an average, this array size will work when grid tied. However, if you are off grid you will require batteries and twice as many panels. (ex 1.4kW x 2 = 2.8kW)

Hope that helps!

For more information:

http://www.aurorapower.net/alternative-energy/solar-electric.aspx

Related Posts

• solar cells
• solar lights
• solar roof
• solar panel
• solar systems
• solar thermal
• solar heat
• solar battery
• solar energy
• solar pv