5 Things For Solar Power

We have two solar setups on the homestead. One is being used to generate electricity for the greenhouse and fish pumps for the aquaponics system. The second system is generating electricity for our office. The office is basically a 16ft pull behind trailer that we converted into an office. It’s used to charge our cell phones, laptops, phone line, wireless router and DSL modem.

The homestead is not in any way connected to the electrical grid.

That being the case we have learned a lot about solar. When we first moved out of the city to live this new lifestyle, we were under the delusions that all we needed was a simple 25 watt solar panel and a dolly toted battery and we would have all the power we needed. We quickly realized that for solar to really supply power needs, you need a lot of it. There are also other things you need.

Electricity from the grid is cheap! When I say the grid, I mean your local power company. In the US, the average price for power is around $0.12 per 1000 watts (1kwh). The reason people think their electric bill is so high is because they have a million+ appliances hooked up. Go around your house and count how many things you have plugged in.

We have 1000 watts of panels to supply power to our greenhouse that is only consuming 243 watts of energy inside. But that is not nearly enough power. I know, I know. You say, but Zac, you are only using 243 watts of energy and you have 1000 watts of panels…what gives?

Keep in mind that my pumps should be running 24/7. The panels would need to be taking in energy 24/7 in order to be effective. On average, they take in around 3.9 – 4.7kw every day. There are only a few hours every day where the sun is in perfect line with the panels and in optimal position to generate maximum energy.

So lets see what we have here.

Greenhouse power = 243 watts x 12 hours running time = 2916 watts.

That is not a problem since my panels on sunny days produce that much and more.

But what happens if I want to run my pumps 24/7 as should be done for an aquaponics system?

Greenhouse power = 243 watts x 24 hours running time = 5832 watts.

Uh-Oh. That is a BIG problem since my panels don’t come close to producing that even on perfect sunny days. What about days with partial cloud cover or total cloud cover? Now you see that you need a lot more solar than maybe you thought before. If you don’t have big energy consumption, than you will probably be fine. I think ours is minimal. We want to be able to use our laptops and have a phone line, but that is about it. We have learned to live without lighting and appliances in the home.

It doesn’t matter if you are building a 1kw system or a 30kw system. There are (5) five main things you will need to complete that setup. I wish I would have had a list like this when I was starting out.

To learn more about the 5 things you need for your Solar Set-up, visit the blog post link below from An American Homestead.