I am thinking about buying a 5,000 Watt Continuous/10,000 Watt Peak Power inverter and a 45 Watt Solar Panel Kit, to use to run the lights and some utilities with, and I was wondering if I would need a regulator.
More Pages:
- Solar Panel: How Much Will A 40 Watt Solar Panel Power? (5/12/2011)
- Need Solar Panel Guru…..?
- Solar Turbines: Is Residential Solar Power Technology Mature Enough To Purchase? (5/5/2011)
- Solar Lights: Can You Connect Several Strings Of Solar Power Christmas Lights Together? (4/25/2011)
- Solar Energy: How Much Does Solar Energy Cost Per Watt? (5/4/2011)
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Sorry but a 45 watt solar panel will not provide enough current to allow a 5000 watt inverter to start running. Even if it did, you wouldn’t get more than about 30 or 35 watts out. Power out is always less than power in.
Hey Katrina, sounds like you’ve been shopping at Harbor Freight. There are two types of power inverters in the world, intertie and independent. An intertie inverter will take power form any amount of solar you have, up to its rated limit. If you are looking on the shelf at power inverters that cost a few hundred dollars, they are not this type. An intertie inverter that is rated at 1000 watts will take solar power from several panels wired in series totalling any amount of power up to 1000 watts and synchronize its output with the grid power. Then it will directly feed solar power out to the grid, offsetting some of what your home is using. A 1000 watt intertie inverter might cost you $ 1500 USD or more.
The less expesive independent inverters have to be hooked to a battery, so the voltage going into the inverter is always regulated to nominal battery voltage. Then you can use your solar panel to charge the battery with. Most inverters you find on the shelf at Harbor Freight, auto parts stores, truck stops and sporting good stores are this type. They cost a fraction of what the intertie models do, but must have a battery to anchor the voltage feeding into the inverter. There is no reason you can’t use a 45 watt solar panel to charge a deep cycle boat battery, which feeds an inverter of this type, but you won’t get a lot of power out of it for very long. Once the battery is discharged, it might take that panel a week to charge it back up again. We have an arrangement like this in our barn, 4 golf cart batteries run a 750 watt inverter, which is used to run a bank of compact flourescent light bulbs. The inverter is only used for a few hours each week, and the little 50 watt panel we have keeps the batteries charged up the rest of the time. Projects like this are fun and interesting, but with a 45 watt panel, you won’t be offsetting much of your electric loads from your homes system. Good luck Katrina, and take care, Rudydoo