I would like to install a solar panel in my home. I was told that 240W panel and 850W inverter would suit best for home needs. Since it is just 240 W how long it takes for charging this 850W inverter?
Also how long a panel worth 850W takes to charge the same 850W inverter?
the 240 WattPower panel provides maximum 240 wattpower at optimal conditions, facing south perpendicular to the sun radiation. When the panel is not movable with the sun, the output will be about from 9:00 hrs till 10:00 hrs and from 15:00 to 16:00 hrs. Depending on the make thie maximum output will reduce to maybe 200 WP in 10 years. If you do not clean it very often to remove the dust, the output will be much lower.
The inverter you need is therefore maximum 250 watt , but if you want to link up two more of these panels in the future you can use the 850Watt inverter.
The inverter is not charged. It is the battery that is charged. The size of the battery and the type of battery depends on the use. If you use only CFL or LED lamps, you need a deep cycle battery, usually a small solid state motor cycle battery will do. In you need to run small engines you may want a vehicle battery but charging a normal car battery with only one 240 WP panel may take several days at full output.
If your panel produces at solar peak time 220 W, your production is about 1 amp at 220Volt during one hour. Considering rising and lowering sun, your maximum daily output with cler sky and no dust on the panel is maybe about 4 AmpereHour. All batteries will have an indication of their total load capacity in AmpHour. Small torchlight batteries have capacity in MilliAmpereHour.
Depending on the battery you can thus calculate the number of hours it takes through your inverter to load the battery. You must consider that each conversion to another voltage will loose about 10% power.
The next information you need is what you want to do with the power? What lamps will be connected.
If you have three CFL of each 11Watt and 220 Volt, they consume 33W/hr.
When these 3 CFl are used for 6 hours each evening, the power consumption is about 200W/evening is almost 1 Amp without losses. This means that with full sun your one panel can de the trick and you need a battery with a loading capacity of 1 Amp at 220 Volt. A small compact solid state motor cycle battery will do.
Small size of Rechargeable deepcycle Battery could be 20Ah 12 V. Normally the charging current should not exceed 1/10 of the Ah capacity. So the 12 V charging current required for this is just 2A. The 200 W Solar PV will give about 13A approximately. You will need a good charge controller to do the charging and prevent over charging. This 20 Ah battery could get charged well within 2 to 3 hours depending on the Solar Installation. The 20Ah 12 V battery has 240 Watt stored power when fully charged can power 5 Watt LED lamps 5 of them (each giving enough light like a 40 Watt filament bulb) easily for 8 to 9 hours. You can buy small Solar LED lamps from all Chennai Post offices at very low price. Please see -- http://www.chennaipost.gov.in/solar.aspx Priced at INDRs 1700 or IND Rs 549 or INDRs 399 These are very good make Dlight design very robust. Please follow my FB pages for much more details https://www.facebook.com/kanaga.gnana
The person from whom you buy the solar panel should also have the charge controller, battery and inverter, as well as CFL or LED lamps. You need to decide if you want to expand the number of panels in the future, if not, you only need a small battery and inverter as indicated by Kanaga.
It depends for what purpose you need the light. If it is only for walking around the house so you can find your way after dark, you do not need much light and LEDs will do; they use very little power and last for many years. If you need to do detailed work, CFL give much more light and better spread out. On the other hand some high power LED are available nowadays, but may still have high purchase costs; what you need to look at is the Lumen output per Watt as well as the width/spread of the light bundle.
If you still want to use car batteries (not advised for only illumination) you need to keep them in the shade and avoid overcharging. frequent control of acid is required and they will have lost most of their power after about 5 years.
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