# 100watt solar pannel



## moondancer (Dec 21, 2013)

Are 100 watts of panel enough for lighting in a 1500 sqf house 


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## moondancer (Dec 21, 2013)

I should say I plan to use 12 volt lights 


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

Maybe ... what kind of batteries are you putting into the system and what kind of wiring are you planning to use between the panel, the solar-charge-controller, the batteries and the LED-lighting?


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## moondancer (Dec 21, 2013)

I plan on all low voltage system so low voltage wire I'm open to all suggestions and help the system will be 100 watt panel with a 1000 watt wind mill ( I live in low wind area so not expecting much from it ) I have a 1000 watt inverter and need recommendation on number of batts for this simple starter set up 


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

Depends on what level of illumination you are looking at. Think of it this way, a 100W panel is about the size of a decent window @100% efficiency that is how much light you could produce from that panel per hour.

So many factors come into play but just a very basic and generous formula 100Wx12hours of sunlight=1200Wh (watt hours), after inevitable inefficiencies you would not have more than 1000Wh, that would let you run a 100W incandescent for 10hours or 10 for 1 hour, obviously you wouldn't want to do that. You could run 4 25W fluorescents for the same 10 hours. Or you could run 100 1W leds for 10 hours.

Realistically, you don't likely have 12hrs of sunlight and losses will be greater but hopefully this gives a bit of understanding without knowing your situation. 

Typically I would pair a 100W panel with a 100Ah (about 1200Wh) battery, again depending on circumstance, this does not give much reserve capacity for cloudy days as here our sun is fairly consistent.


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

It all depends on how much power you use. We use a 100 watt panel on our U-Haul camper conversion. It's enough for us but then we (mostly our grandson) watch about two hours of movies/cartoons daily using a portable DVD player and Susan and I use our notebook computers for a few hours every day. We normally operate one, 15 watt LED light. for a few hours in the evening. We have one deep-cycle battery and a 400 watt inverter. If we get a couple of cloudy days we run out of power and either use a generator (seldom!) or quit using electricity until the battery is recharged (may take a day or two). 

In our big motorhome we have two, 135 watt panels that keep our small refrigerator running, a couple of hours of watching television using a DVD player and small television, (all purchased for their low power consumption) and one, 12 volt light. Our notebook computers (2) use about 20 to 25 watts of power. We spend several hours a day on them (we are writers). It works for us. We have four golf-cart batteries for power storage. Right now our 400 watt wind turbine is churning it's little blades off because the wind is howling outside. We can run everything electrical in the motorhome without running low on power at this moment and probably the next few days! 

You normally get about five to six hours of direct sunlight which is needed for maximum output. So, expect to get 500 to 700 watts of power produced. Expect to lose a percentage of that power to resistance in lines, connections etc. (for example: if you draw 100 watts of power from a battery it will take approximately 125 watts of charging power to bring the battery back to it's previous level of charge). 

If you produce 700 watts of power daily you can power a notebook computer for five hours (125 watts), two, 15 watt light bulbs for four hours (120 watts), A television/DVD player for three hours (300 watts) and you'll have about 155 watts left over. You'll also need to recharge the battery to replenish the power used during the evening hours so it will be fully charged by evening. That means if you use power during the day to run televisions, etc. that amount of power is not available to recharge the batteries. Notice that you aren't using toasters, toaster ovens, microwaves, desk type computers, large screen televisions, X Box, etc. You won't have enough power to run a large refrigerator either.

The key to living off-grid is adapting to being off-grid. You adapt to your power availability. If you have lots of power being generated you can use more electricity. Cut back on electrical use on cloudy or low power days. Also, purchase electrical appliances with off-grid power generation in mind. We always open the box and figure how many watts an appliance uses before purchasing it. Around here there are enough people living off-grid that we've never gotten any resistance from store clerks or management when asking to do this. When looking at refrigerators figure the listed watt rating and divide that by 33 percent. (A refrigerator motor/compressor normally runs about 1/3 of the day - eight hours total - rather than 24 hours a day.)


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