Your guide to smart, optimal, self-sufficient energy.
Your guide to smart, optimal, self-sufficient energy.
The following article explains an easy way to estimate the size of the system in kW (kilo-Watts), and the number of solar panels that you need to offset 1500 kWh (kilo-Watt-hours) of monthly energy consumption. How many solar panels do I need for 1500 kWh per month 1500…
To determine exactly how many solar panels you would need to offset 2000 kWh of monthly energy consumption, you need an estimate of the average amount of sunlight that you receive in your location. In this article, I’ll explain how this works and show you how to estimate…
In general, solar panels can work in the shade, but the effects that shade has on solar panels might be different than what you would expect. For example, in the image above, you can see that one shaded cell (out of 36 cells) can have an enormous impact…
If the inverter you’re using to run your refrigerator is undersized, the refrigerator may not work at all. Or it might work, but at the expense of the inverter, which will fail prematurely. Since no one likes to waste money, there are a few details worth looking at…
A 100-watt solar panel can produce anywhere from 300Wh to 700Wh (Watt-hours) of energy in one day. At 12 Volts, and with an MPPT charge controller, that’s 25Ah to 60Ah (Amp-hours) of daily energy production. But is it enough to run a refrigerator? In this article, I’ll show…
To run a refrigerator on batteries for 24 hours, you would need anywhere from 50Ah to 300Ah (Amp-hours) of battery capacity. 50Ah being for a small 12-volt fridge/freezer (1.6-2.5 Cu. ft.), and 300 Ah being for a full-size refrigerator (18-22 Cu. ft.). The right amount of battery capacity…
So, you have a 12 Volt battery, a refrigerator, and you’re wondering “how long will the battery run the refrigerator?” Due to the many factors involved (temperature, usage, age of the refrigerator, etc..), there are no general or 100% accurate answers to this question. However, you can still…
The amount of electricity a mini fridge uses depends on a few factors, such as ambient temperature, insulation, usage, age and model of the fridge, etc… However, in general, mini fridges consume between 200 and 280 kWh (kilo-Watt-hours) of energy per year. In this article, I will put…
On average, full-size refrigerators (16 – 22 Cu. ft.) consume between 1500Wh and 2000Wh (Watt-hours) of energy per day. To run a full-size refrigerator on solar, you would need 300 to 400 watts of solar power. The exact amount of solar power you need mainly depends on the…
While residential solar panels are – on average – 20 square feet each, the average home in the U.S. has a roof area of at least 1500 square feet, which intuitively seems like more than enough space to install all the solar panels that you need. However, the…
