Solar for daytime use.

[Compton_effect]

I've been reading up about this for a while and it seems to me the next few years are going tobe a case of smarter, not harder.

The one thing about solar that looks like the biggest headache is the batteries. Even deep cycle ones will need to be replaced in a few years. So I got to thinking - what in my house is critical, but only runs during the day? The pool pump comes to mind.

The question then is - what is the most cost effective way to get it on solar? As in initial expenses vs cost to maintain. Yeah, yeah - I know you get dc pumps for solar,but I already have a pump, not to mention they are expensive.
So it doesn't run on a cloudy day,boo hoo. We have 89% sunny days. A properly maintained pool would be ok.

Panels, inverter, charge controller? Modified, or true sine wave.
What would be the easiest solution?

 

[Valken]

I've been reading up about this for a while and it seems to me the next few years are going tobe a case of smarter, not harder.

The one thing about solar that looks like the biggest headache is the batteries. Even deep cycle ones will need to be replaced in a few years. So I got to thinking - what in my house is critical, but only runs during the day? The pool pump comes to mind.

The question then is - what is the most cost effective way to get it on solar? As in initial expenses vs cost to maintain. Yeah, yeah - I know you get dc pumps for solar,but I already have a pump, not to mention they are expensive.
So it doesn't run on a cloudy day,boo hoo. We have 89% sunny days. A properly maintained pool would be ok.

Panels, inverter, charge controller? Modified, or true sine wave.
What would be the easiest solution?

I am currently running all my "Critical" stuff on solar during the day. Now let me start by saying that your pool pump is going to need a lot of power...

To give you an idea - Just my network and computer equipment draw about 400W - 500W! Just to run that small amount i have 4X 300W Solar Panels...Why? Because of efficiency! A small soccer ball size cloud drifts past the sun and you output drops considerably.

Also stay away from square wave inverter's... Not good for motors and sensitive electronic equipment.
And go for at least a 48V system

Batteries would me mostly for backup or night time use - Be prepared to pay BIG $$$
In my opinion the batteries are the most expensive part of this all.

I have small system (4KVA Hybrid with 1200W Solar and 210Ah batteries)
This will set you back around R60 000

So make sure you first know exactly what you want to run and how much power those items draw, and then over spec you system about 40% of that.