[Still updating details of this post, quite a lot I had written down and lost]
In 2018 we spent the holidays in the village at our family home along the Maggi Highway, Makana Dobu. A lot has changed back home and although much of the land still looks the same there are a few homes up now and the community is growing bigger each year.
A few of the homes now have solar lighting but the usual setup a single 20W panel, one or two lights and a 12V battery. Just recently we had power poles erected and electricity brought in through a New Zealand government funded (have to confirm this) project. Before this project this was the off-grid setup we had at home.
Our house had the following equipment:
- 65 Amp battery - 12 volt
- 100W Solar Panel
- 50W Solar Panel
- Lights:
- 2W x2
- 8W x4
- 10W spotlights x2
- Charge controller x1 rating 10Amps
- max panel 100W panel
- for >100W panel you need at least 15-20 Amps rating controllers.
The final setup on paper...
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| This was a draft on paper of how things were setup in the house. |
Calculations:
- 65 Amps / Hour X 12V = 780 Watts/Hour
Everything depends on the load of appliances connected and used in an hour or so.
Formula
100W solar panel divided by 18 volts = 5.56 Amps
(18 V, Nominal output / max output if sun is strong)
5.56 Amps x no. of sun hours.
E.g. 5.56 A x 8 hours of sun = approx. 40 W total power.
Therefore, it depends on the sun (the hours of sunlight you get).
100W is able to give you 40amps in 8 hours of direct sunlight.
