What size of Solar System do I need to run a one Bedroom apartment?
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I get asked this types of questions a lot..
There are good reasons why it makes sense to switch to Solar System:
I. You tired of the current electricity crisis and need to save from electricity bills,
II. You are tired of buying fuels for Generators to power your Home and Business,
III. You want to live in a green and clean environment.
But if the Solar system is too small, you could be Limited to electricity need.
Too big, and it may cost too much to install, and take up too much space.
How To Figure Out What Size Solar System You need For Your One Bedroom Apartment?
This question usually takes one of these forms, for example:
What size Solar Power System do I need for my Home?
Will a 2500-watt Solar Power run a One Bedroom Apartment?
How Many of Appliances can you run with a solar system of 2500-watts size in Power?
These are actually all the same questions. You’re just asking it from different viewpoints.
This Is How You Do It
Home Appliances, like TVs, Refrigerator, come in lots of different power sizes. There are a lot of features and options available. And you’ll need to decide if you want 120-volt output, 240 volts, or both.
The thing to watch out for is that Solar Power Systems are rated in total WATTS of power output, but our Home Appliances are rated for output AMPERAGE or VOLTAGE.
That means you need to figure out how many watts a home appliances needs to produce its rated amps or volts.
How Many Watts Do One Bedroom Apartment Uses?
There’s a very basic math equation to move back and forth between volts, amps, and watts:
Volts x Amps = Watts
Volts: The technical definition is “a measurement of the difference in electrical potential between two points.”
Think of volts in the same way you think of water pressure. It’s the available “push” that gets the electricity going.
Amps: Amperes are a way to measure the flow of electrical current.
Keeping with our water supply analogy, think of amps as the rate of flow in the pipes, fast or slow.
Watts: A watt measures heat energy. As electrons flow through the circuit, friction makes heat, measured in watts.
So what you need is the voltage the appliances uses, multiplied by the input amps of the appliances.
Find Your Home Appliance’s Input Power
Step 1: Find the power & current levels
First, you need to know what power and current levels your Home Appliances needs to run. A commonplace to find this info is in the manual.
Here’s an examples from the manual of our Home Appliances:
The Rated Watts - 116W
2. OX Fan: Model No.: FS-66X
3. Hisense. Model.:REF205DR8
4. 12 Energy saver Bulbs - 24W
5. 6 Smart Android phone
6. 2 Laptops - 50W
7. 1 DSTV Decoder
8. 1Hp pumping machine - 750W
Step 2: Calculate the total wattages per hour Usages of the Appliances:
Second, you will want to calculate the load per hour usages of each Appliances In your home.
Now you can do your math: Remember all Appliances has different time of usages while at times you can use two or more Appliances at once.
Finally after Calculating the wattage compare to time per hour usages. The amount of electricity consume per day is about 13,546Wh which is 14Kwh in approximate.
BONUS: How much is my electricity bills?
If the current average cost of electricity in Nigeria is NGN36.6/Kwh electricity cost per day.
So the cost of using 14Kwh in One Bedroom Apartment at NGN36.6/Kwh is
14Kwh * NGN36.6/Kwh = NGN512.4/day
Step 3: Calculate the Solar Power Size
We have know the amount of wattages the appliances uses dialy i.e 14Kw, firstly, we need to determine the size of battery for backup storage in case of a cloudy and rainy day.
One of the hiccups in Solar Power Systems is the amount of battery. And batteries are very expensive. If we want to store this amount of electricity i.e 14kwh, we will need a large amount of battery storage and this will make the System very expensive for an individual. when 14kwh is the amount of electricity and is total size of our battery. i.e usageable size.
Example, 1000wh Lithium battery = 1000wh, while 1000wh Lead acid battery = 500wh base on depth of discharge DOD
12v 200ah Lithium battery will discharge 2400wh on 100% DOD, while 12v 200ah Lead Acid Battery 1200wh on 50% DOD.
But if you live in an area where you have Sun, you don't need to get much battery. Battery depends on the amount of electricity you want to store, your area, and Latitude.
To store 14kwh of electricity, you need 6 lithium batteries or 12 Lead Acid Batteries.
And these make the System very expensive.
Secondly, The Solar system arrays, to calculate the number of Solar panels used to generate 14kwh electricity, we will have to divided the amount of electricity that the battery can held by the amount of sun hours. I.e
Battery capacity divided by sun hours
The average Sun hour per day in Nigeria is about 7.18hours.
Do the Maths:
14000wh/7.18h = 1949.89w ~ 2000w
2000w is the amount of Solar array needed to meet up this 14kwh.
10*200w Solar panels or,
8*250w Solar panels all depends on the Solar panels available.
Thirdly, let determine the size of Charge Controller to be used. If the system is 12v or 24v then let do the Maths:
2000w/12v or 2000w/24
167A or 84A
Let takes 100A for 24V system
Solar panels: 8*250W Solar Panels
Charge Controller: 100A
Solar inverter: 2Kw - 2.5Kw inverter
Solar Battery: 12V/24V 200Ah *4+ depends on you..
This is not a prior to perfection. Pley consult with a Solar Power Systems Service Support for assistance......
By
Amuzienwa Tochi
Consultant FIXNG SOLAR Business
Contact us for SOLAR POWER SYSTEM that Works for your SME Businesses
for more info Call/WhatsApp us on
+2348029715627
email us: fixnaija001@gmail.com
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