A loads list is just a list of all electrical loads that may be employed in the finished system. Everything from lights, to TV sets, to hairdryers, to cell telephone chargers must be included on your list.

Before you build your solar powered electrical system, you first need to determine the total electricity required by all electric devices at any given moment, in Watts.

Power is an immediate measure of electric supply; it’s a rate, not a quantity. A 100 watt light doesn’t consume one hundred Watts, since the Watt isn’t a measure of quantity.

For quantities of electric energy, we use the Watt-hour, shortened Wh, and its Big Bro the kilowatt-hour ( kWh ) which is just one thousand Watt-hours. You could be acquainted with the kilowatt-hour from your electric power and water bills; it is the energy unit your bill relies on. To finish a loads list, you’ll need to know the Wattage required by each electric device that may be used. The Wattage of light bulbs is simple to get: glance at the labels on the devices. Many devices use power differently at different times; an example is an electrical range and stove. The power needed to operate it and, therefore, how much energy it consumes over time, relies on how many burners are turned on, and to what settings, and whether the stove is on also.

In a similar way, a chiller doesn’t consume a steady quantity of energy but basically cycles off and on during the day. Typically a chiller “runs” about 13-15 hours per twenty-four hour day. The only real way to measure such devices’ energy consumption, is to trace them over time and work out a daily or monthly average. So how will we do that? There are straightforward power and energy meters available that will do this job for you. Such meters are often connected into a wall outlet and the device to be measured is then wired into the meter. Most meters of this kind measure power drawn by the device measured in Watts and energy consumed over time measured in Watt-hours or kWh.

To determine the electricity employed by the refrigerator, plug it into the meter and leave it plugged in for a week or a month. (The longer the period of time, the more correct the average will be). At the end of the period of time, read the display and divide that figure by days and hours. Knowing there are twenty-four hours in a day, you can then establish the median daily, weekly or monthly Wh or kWh energy consumption by easy mathematics. The value of a correct loads list for your off-grid system can’t be overstated. If you are off the grid, you may produce each Watt-hour you need. For instance, if we had substituted an equivalent incandescent light bulb to our CFL above, and left the incandescent on for a similar 66 hours and 40 mins, it might use over four kilowatt-hours of electricity four times the energy utilised by the CFL.

In making preparations for an off-grid electrical system, it totally pays to take the time to gauge or conscientiously guesstimate your intended loads. Not only will you make sure that you finish up with a replaceable energy system that meets your real needs, you’ll often discover ways to preserve energy which decreases the size of the system you will need. A smaller system is a less costly system and a loads list is the most significant tool to get you there.

The quantity of Watt-hours you intend to produce in twenty four hours.

Identifying your Watt-hours goal is the most vital part of correctly guesstimating how enormous a system you’ll need. If you intend to tie your solar array at once to the grid to offset your costs, start by having a look at your electrical bill for the kilowatt-hours you use in a month. If you won’t be hooked up to the grid and you may in reality be producing all of your own electricity, the Watt-hours or kWh number becomes even more crucial. If you’ve got the patience to live off-grid, then you definitely have the tolerance to finish a loads list.

If you do not know how many Watt-hours you need to produce, stop here. There’s no guessing you can do without that basic building block of knowing your energy consumption.

Insolation is a funny word for the amount of hours in a day that a solar panel will produce its rated voltage. While all of the day’s sunlight counts toward this total, not only the brightest hours, not every daytime hour counts the same.

When the sun is low in the sky, a solar panel facing it does not produce as much energy as it would at midday. An alternative way of putting it might be to assert that if you crammed all of the day’s daylight into equivalent hours of top sunlight, you’d have the sun hours, or insolation, number.

In your neighborhood, while the sun could be up for ten hours in a Feb day, not all that light is powerful enough to be counted at full worth, so the insolation price in your neighborhood may be nearer to two sun hours. In our calculations, we use average insolation values taken from years of info collection. Insolation varies by location as well as by month. If you are arranging an all year solar electrical system, the yearly average insolation value will give you a good place to begin for your estimation. If you only plan to use the array seasonally, then use the insolation values for those months only.

Take a look here if you want to know how to build a solar panel.

Standard Test Conditions is an outlined set of lab test conditions which approximate conditions in which solar panels, or Photovoltaic modules, could be used. The same standard is also used to judge potential installation locations. Since it is used to calculate the following 3 values:

Irradiance – measured in in Watts per square meter falling on a flat surface. The measurement standard is one kW per sq m.

Air Mass pertains to “thickness” and lucidity of the air thru that the daylight passes to get to the modules, remember the sun angle is affecting this value.

Cell temperature that may differ from ambient air temperature. The graph is known as an “I-V curve”, and it refers back to the module’s output relationship between current ( I ) and voltage ( V ) under prevailing conditions of daylight and temperature.

The curve appears like a seated person’s leg: Theoretically, each solar panel has multiple I-V curves ( many of which are shown above for one actual module ) – one each for all of the different combinations of conditions that will affect the Standard Test Conditions rating parameters above : temperature, air mass, irradiance that is a large amount of possible graphs. A solar panel module loses voltage as the cell temperature increases; that effect is not unusual to all crystalline modules. Due to Ohm’s Law ( and the equation Power = Voltage x Current ), the results of reduced voltage is reduced power output.

The best position on any I-V curve-the sweet spot where we are able to collect the most power from the module-is at the “knee”. That is the maximum power point ( MPP ), and you can see that its position changes with temperature and irradiance. In battery-based Photovoltaic systems, an MPPT, or maximum power point tracking charge controller monitors the array continually to find the ever-changing MPP and therefore capture the most power from the array. In straight grid-tied systems, MPPT technology is built into all of the inverters, so these systems have a tendency to have awfully high. 2 groups of conditions which can turbo-charge voltage-and change the MPP-in a Photovoltaic or solar electrical system include over-irradiance and temperature effects. Over-irradiance is simply a fancy way of pronouncing daylight with a power above the standardized Standard Test Conditions price of one thousand Watts per square meter.

This suggests less energy-robbing atmosphere for daylight to pass thru.

This condition could happen at high altitudes, for instance.

This effect happens as a cloud shade passes out of the incoming daylight’s pathway to the solar panels. Refraction can concentrate the daylight while the fringe of the shadow passes by. The result’s a lift in module voltage output. Powerful reflections from nearby bodies of water and even a surrounding carpet of snow on a bright, winter day can produce a lift of solar power that will affect voltage.

Temperature effects are the result of an inherent characteristic of crystalline silicon cell-based modules. They have a tendency to produce higher voltage as the temperature drops and, inversely, to lose voltage in high temperatures. Any solar panel or system derating calculation must include adjustment for this temperature effect. Customarily, this derating is performed when figuring out the sizes of related system parts, for example charge controllers or grid-tied inverters, as these components must be sized to deal with the possible current spikes from the Photovoltaic array due to over-irradiance and temperature effects. Grid-tied inverter sizing, especially, depends on identifying the lowest recorded temperature at a suggested site. Inverter manufacturers include this variable in their tables or online Photovoltaic string-sizing tools. They, in turn, get factoring info. If a low temperature is even remotely possible you may plan for it or you risk frying your charge controller or inverter. Since module voltage could spike under bright daylight and lower temperatures, you want to make sure that your charge controller or inverter can handle the highest possible voltage and current. For site temperature info, I counsel consulting the weather info available at weather base.

In planning a Photovoltaic system, Standard Test Conditions is your first guide for sizing and planning. But Standard Test Conditions relies on lab conditions. Following acceptable derating procedures will make sure an effective and safe Photovoltaic system. Click here to read more on how to build a solar panel.

Purchasing an RV is a big call and something everybody needs to think about hard.

An RV is also an investment, an investment in time and cost but you won’t see any profit in an RV, well not in money terms but it can have a big payback re satisfaction and pleasure but if you go out and buy an RV without giving it a large amount of thought then it might be, at best, a pricey waste of money, and an RV can be, at worst, a wedding breaker.

When we were trading up to a larger and newer RV, my sister in law from Atlanta decided she was going to buy our old RV. The difficulty was it was her idea and not a joint family call. He was the type who would select a sports auto to drive without thinking about where his girl was going to sit. It lasted some years with him being unhappy with all his holidays in the RV, he bumped into some wagons and did some damage to the RV and was just typically sad with the entire concept of having a holiday in an RV. It came to the stage of seriously damaging their wedding.

What she should have done is to hire an RV first to try things out. This way she could have seen if owning an RV was going to work. So what do you look for when hiring an RV? Well I would think the most vital point is to decide where you want to go with it. Pick the area you want to holiday in and then look for somewhere to hire one from. Think about how you’re going to get there. Driving lets you take more things in,than flying does, so if you are flying then you might need to make certain that you hire an RV which comes professionally equipped as some don’t have things like kitchen utensils in them or towels and so on, though many firms will supply these but often they come at a cost.

What about the dimensions of your RV from little to huge. I suspect this relies on what you need to attain. If you’re a family then you want a bigger RV and so on. Are you wanting to drag a vehicle behind your RV? Some companies will let you, some will not and if you are in a hire auto, will the hire company permit it to be towed behind an RV. Is the RV you wish to hire capable of towing an enormous vehicle or only a little car? These questions could go on but the best folk to answer them are the RV rental company you are working with. It is often good to get an RV solar panel with your RV so you can power your appliances without the requirement of a generator. You should be in a position to spot the RV solar panel on the roof.

Think about where you are going to holiday in your RV, think about the way to get there, think about your RV in particulars of size, think about the kit you want for your RV, think about pets in the RV if you’ve a pet and think about who to lease your RV from.

Get many quotes from RV rental firms and then match them and read the fine detail to see what you get for the price and what extra you want to spend. When you have done all this pick an acceptable RV to hire and an acceptable company to hire your RV from and then just do it. When you have hired an RV you will then have a better concept of what it is like being an RV owner,then make the decision to buy an RV or not.

Conventional solar panel systems are not particularly efficient and can be more than a little bit of a monstrosity. Since the solar panel systems only convert a small percentage of the daylight that hits them into electricity, there actually isn’t any alternative to putting the massive panels on your roof.

Holographic tuning, often referred to as Holographic Planar Concentrator, is a new technology with one goal in mind – less expensive and little solar panel collectors. The technology is predicated on a novel speculation in which solar cells are holographically tuned to draw in and focus different spectrums of daylight on solar cells. The cells are tuned to draw in certain spectrums that may be converted without unnecessary heat production. This permits the cells to make the maximum quantity of energy while maintaining a miniscule size. Current silicon cell technology is prohibited to just a couple of spectrums and is highly wasteful as it fails to convert up to 85 % of the daylight into power. To make things even better, the method is being engineered to “tune” the solar light onto both sides of each cell, so doubling the energy output. The first merit of holographic tuning is it will change forever the solar panel as we all know it.

The prototypes are really extraordinarily striking and are a major improvement over current solar cell systems. Prism Solar Technologies is the leading company in the holographic tuning field. The company is a division of Direct World Power, and is pushing the advancement of the technology thru a sole rights license from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Prism Solar Technologies will begin producing of the new holographic tuning solar cells this year.

Keep an eye open for these interesting, efficient solar energy panels.

Technology looks to be invading virtually each part of our life for better or for worse. In the case of portable rv solar panels, it is for the better.

They are similar to the panels you see in peoples’ backyards or on their roofs. Even better, one of the weaknesses of home solar cells does not exist with an RV. Solar energy panels produce DC electricity that needs to be converted to AC for a home. Since an RV runs on DC, the difficulty is eliminated and you get more kick out of your panels. A portable solar panel system can be really powerful. Really, it can put as much power into your batteries as a gas or propane generator. Another advantage is your rv solar panels will not make the noise of a generator. On the other hand, it also does not produce energy at night, so you want to do some planning for your energy needs. Using solar energy panels for an RV is a reasonably straightforward process. You can attempt to work out your energy usage to pinpoint the correct number, but it is simpler to just ask the dealer.

Anyhow, you mount your panels on the roof. They fold down flat to the roof when you’re driving. When you park, you must park in the sun and in a direction where the panels will get the maximum exposure.

If you like to park in the shade, you can purchase a moveable system that you can position on the ground. Make sure you have a long wire in case the shade covers a large area. The power from your solar energy panels should be ready to keep your batteries charged as long as there is sun. The biggest issue you will run into is powering your air-conditioning. RV air conditioners use the power in large quantities, so use it sparingly or turn on a generator.

Before you start searching for the cheapest solar electric panels, systems and accessories such as an inverter, generator, battery or batteries (for off grid storage). You need to first calculate your energy requirements in watts. You can do this in a number of ways, you can go round and look at the wattage of all your appliances and add them up, or you can look at your electric meter and determine how many kilo watt hours you use per day on average and then multiply that figure by 10% to 25% just to give you a little to play with.

Once you know that figure then you can go and look for the cheapest products. You can get a 1.2 watt panel for $32, and you can get a 210 watt panel for $836, and there is a whole range of different sizes and prices in between.

However, when looking for the cheapest system you must remember that buying the products only accounts for half the cost. The other half of the cost is fitting the systems, paying contractors to install and wire them up to your home. If you do this job yourself, then you can make considerable savings or if not do it yourself then control the project. You might then want to spend a little more on getting more efficient panels and so generating more power for your buck.

Remember that you do not have to purchase and install all your panels at once. You can spread it over time, start small and inside your budget, and as you see the benefits in reduced energy bills and have new savings, then you can invest again and add another solar array or two. It is a fairly straight forward process of adding cells when you have the basic installation in place.

Build Your Own Homemade Solar Panel

Of course the ultimate way to save money is DIY. There are plenty of books around which will teach you how to make a solar panel and the pitfalls to look out for when building one. They do go into real detail so you can see exactly how to assemble the photovoltaic cell into an array and build a panel. They even explain where you can source the cheapest solar cells and find damaged ones which you can repair. Their efficiency won’t be as high as a factory made one though.

The down side here is that you’re exchanging time for money. If you have plenty of free time and are good with your hands then this could be a good option for you. This residential solar power system is sitting on your house and is exposed to all the elements, so it has to be made waterproof else they won’t last.

To summarize, the cheapest solar power systems are the ones you make yourself but they won’t be as efficient and you are exchanging time for money. Take your time and weigh up all the pros and cons.

To turn a photovoltaic solar cell into an infrared solar energy panel the glass has to be treated during the production phase. It is turned into low ironed tempered glass as opposed to normal ironed tempered glass.

By producing low ironed tempered glass, it means that the system can absorb high wavelength sunlight. The high wave length range is from 800 to 1200nm and this is the infrared range. A lower wave length from 400 to 800nm is the normal visible sunlight.

The reason why you would want a photovoltaic cell which picks up infrared light is because it makes the panel more effective, it increases energy conversion efficiencies.

For cells covered in non infrared glass, they will only produce energy when the sun is shining directly upon them, when sunlight is in the 400 to 800nm range. This means if the sun goes behind a cloud, they stop producing power. When the sun goes behind a cloud the only light that can be converted into energy is infrared sunlight.

So why aren’t all solar cells covered with infrared low ironed tempered glass, surely it is more eco friendly? Well there is only one reason and that is cost. As the glass needs additional materials and complex production methods being applied to it, this pushes up the cost considerably. This means when deciding whether to go for the extra expense or not you have to weigh up your payback period timeline.

If you live in a part of the world where you do not experience much cloud cover then it would not be worth the extra investment because when the sun is shining directly upon the panels the non-infrared glass is just as efficient as the treated glass. However if you live in the part of the country where you do get a lot of cloud cover then it is probably worth going for. It will mean even during the winter months you can generate electric solar power.

The other benefit of the low ironed coatings is that it cuts down the emission by about 80% which increases the efficiency of the solar cell. Emission is a technical term for the amount of energy which is released back into the atmosphere. Obviously you don’t want to have the effect of energy bouncing off your panel, you want your panel to absorb and convert as much energy as possible.

So at the end of the day, it comes down to what you can afford. In an ideal world you have all your solar power being produced with infrared photovoltaic solar cells.

Solar panels generate electricity and are often referred to as photovoltaic or PV panels. Different makes and models of solar panels use different technologies such as monocrystalline, polycrystalline and thin film (amorphous). Each has their advantages and disadvantages but the factors to focus on when designing your solar system are space, sunlight and cost.

Do not use photovoltaic panels for heating or cooling systems because they are not efficient enough. You want to use solar collectors for heating hot water.

Our recommended supplier of Solar Panels is the altE Store, who offer a range of solar panels and accessories including:

1 to 50 Watt Solar Panels

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51 to 99 Watt Solar Panels

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100 to 149 Watts Solar Panels

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150 Watts & Up Solar Panels

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Flexible and Rollable Solar Panels

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Foldable Solar Panels

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Solar Panels by the Pallet

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When calculating how many solar panels you need for your home, you don’t need to be too concerned about the efficiency rating of your panel because photovoltaic solar panels are specified by their energy generating capacity. For example, 100 watt panels will output 100 watts of energy under ideal conditions. So if you are looking to produce 1kw per hr of energy you will need 10 x 100 watt panels.

Solar panels range in their energy output. Typically they range from 30 to 205 watts. If you are DIY then pay special interest in calculating your energy requirements. If you are getting a company to draw up plans for you then they will take care of this calculation.

There are three main types of solar photovoltaic cells and these are polycrystalline, monocrystalline and thin film. Each has different efficiency ratings when converting the suns energy into electricity and they all have their pro’s and con’s.

The main difference between them is size and price. The more efficient technologies like monocrystalline panels are more efficient than the other two and so the panels are smaller and take up less space when comparing like for like in energy output but they are more expensive.

So before you decide which panels to go for, you need to calculate your energy requirements, establish how much you want to invest and then go and compare the different panels.

There are many other aspects that can affect the efficiency of your panels. We find the following to be the most common: how often you clean them, are they infrared, how much sun do they get and how hot do they get. It is a surprise to many people that for most panels their efficiency drops when the temperature starts to go above 25 Deg Celsius.

Keep in mind, in this article we have been talking about photovoltaic electrical solar power generation. If you want a hot water heater conversion then solar thermal panels are a lot more efficient.

In summary, on face value solar energy does not seem very efficient, although it is improving year on year. However, don’t get too tied up about the efficiency of the panels, focus more on the output, size and level of investment.

If you have any efficiency figures of your own which you would like to share with us then please feel free to add them to this article by adding a comment below.