Calculate Power System Requirements

[mwhynot]

I am looking for some type of calculator or chart for determining solar panel and battery bank size.  Anyone know of a good site etc where I can find.

Cheers

Mark

[wpowokal]

http://www.homepower.com/magazine/downloads_past_articles.cfm

http://www.homepower.com/files/loadcalc.xls

[veewee77]

You can go to my calculator and see what it says.  The calculations were taken from a conglomeration of vendor's websites where they tell you how to calculate these things. Ths website does the math for you and gives you system sizing information.

http://dsjscrd.gotdns.com/~simpsond/study.html

Hope this helps in your quest. . .

This calculator is not comletely finished but it does go all the way through sizing a solar system, based on the fact that most general users will be using their current, existing usage.  As the calculator develops, it will show that simple conservation and using CFLs will drastically reduce the size of system required to do the job.

If you have already done conservation measures, you can plug in your current usage information and it will calculate based on your usage. The number of "no sun days" can be adjusted if your system is a supplemental system, meaning you are still grid-connected. The number of "no sun days" is basically how many days you would like to be able to go with no sun and severely affects the size of your system.

Also, if you are wanting to go comletely off-grid, and can trim your usage to the bare minimums, you can plug in the numbers for that.  Like using a propane refrigerator instead of an electric one.  Not using any air conditioning and not using a clothes dryer.

Visit the calculator and you'll see it can be figured in many ways.

Doug

[mwhynot]

Thx wpowokal and veevee77.  I am a newbie to the solar scene and just now starting to look into a backup design to run my furnace for approx a day.  Up here in Canada in Nova Scotia we have been experiencing lotsa power outages lasting upwards to a day, mostly under 12hrs.  With winter quickly approaching (and no other heat source)I decided it was time to try my hand at solar power as funds permit.  I currently have a 3000w mod sine inverter and will be getting some batteries next month. Hopefully 5 - 12vdc 100amp hr 205min reserve.  This most likely will not be enough but its a start and should cover the 12hr outages. Think I will need a minimum of 8.  The furnace has one motor rated at 2.5amps 120vac.  Any suggestions or errors in my calcs plz feel free to point me in the right direction.  

Cheers

Mark

[bob g]

isn't Rolls or Surette a Nova Scotia company

for my money i would use their batteries

for your intended use, you shouldnt need that many batteries.

reserve capacity leads me to think you are referenceing marine batteries which are commonly listed a marine deep cycle. Deep cycle they are not! but rather a hybrid between starting and true deep cycle batteries.

i would think that 400 amp hours minimum should do the job for a 12 hour period

do a search on Rolls or Surette batteries.

bob g