Is it possible to take a one room air conditioner and make it solar powered? How can I go about doing this?
2006-06-14 16:51:20 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Home & Garden ➔ Do It Yourself (DIY)
Doable but expensive. Your better off buying a portable/fixed solar powered evaporative cooling unit.
It would be fairly easy and reasonable money wise, to run the A/C fan off of solar.
You could run other items off of solar, like lights, etc.
But the best overall solution is to install a grid tied system. You can start as small as you want(or what the power company dictates) and then add on. It's expensive to generate your total need. For my house where I live the system is over $55,000.00. But you can offset it.
A grid tied system generates power for the electrical company and that power goes into the electrical grid. The power company installs a new meter, if necessary that spins in both directions. So, if your system is producing more power than you are using, the meter spins backwards. Should you generate a surplus of power your bills will show a credit and/or the power company will pay you a rate per kilowatt hour of power.
Along with your grid tied system and transfer switch to disconnect you from the grid, you can also install a battery bank. The system can keep your batteries charged and send power to the grid. When the power goes out, you can disconnect from the grid and use your batteries to keep essential items running(refrigerator, lights, a well pump for water, etc)
For backup power you'd probably be better off with a generator system. But for small outages, batteries could get you buy.
Solar power can be affordable. If you are a do-it yourselfer you can make an inexpensive system for $300 or less that you can run a light, fan, laptop, etc off of. You could most likely power your most used room for a reasonable amount of $$.
2006-06-15 06:10:21 · answer #1 · answered by Carp 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes there are solar air conditioners & attic fans. Just do your google search- many solar companies are selling it. Absorption chiller air conditioner units have been commercially used since the early 20 the century. These units use no harmful coolants such as Freon, etc. and some of these units actually operate without any moving parts. When engineered to operate on solar power, the absorption chiller air conditioning units provide the lowest operating costs and the best return on investment of any air conditioning system in the world.
2016-03-27 04:17:36 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
yeah solar powered ac is possible, solar power is expenisve over all and the technology we currently have is not as good as it could be. However, improvements are being made on a daily basis and with the oil prices going up the way they are things for solar will only get better. Depending on what state you live in, You can get a good tax break installing solar systems to your home. Here is a good link on a company that actually makes solar powered systems. Hope this helps http://www.solarac.com/
2006-06-18 08:16:24 · answer #3 · answered by david f 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is theoratically possible but I disagree with the other responders. The difficulty is not in the solar panel, although you would need a large panel. The difficulty would be in housing the array of batteries that would be needed to kick start the unit on and otherwise maintain the power to run it. I am assuming your window unit would be in a window.
An alternative would to somehow figure out how to install an alternator on the window unit as well which in theory would charge a battery as it ran similar to your car battery. You have a spinning motor. The Factory motor is probably not going to be large enough of a motor to handle an alternator as well as run the unit. The other problem would be designing a battery that could keep the motor running itself.
In that case the solar energy wouldn't be needed and/or used only to maintain the battery when it was not in operation.
2006-06-14 17:28:25 · answer #4 · answered by Sam B 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Air conditioners require a lot of power. There really aren't that many watts of solar power available, and solar cells aren't very efficient.
The answer is yes, but you'd probably need a solar cell about 3 times the size of your roof.
2006-06-14 16:55:14 · answer #5 · answered by Hillbillies are... 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you can but the power draw would be huge .... think huge roof top pannels..... There are alternatives like a heat pump or a system taht used the earth under the house to cool the house. -- you can do things to help your house like a film on the window - bright or white drapes to reflect some light back outside.. Celing fans ....
2006-06-14 16:57:44 · answer #6 · answered by theevilfez 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Homemade Solar Power Videos - http://Solar.eudko.com/?NYH
2017-04-01 09:56:58 · answer #7 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i suppose it's possible, but hardly feasible.
2006-06-14 17:08:04 · answer #8 · answered by mr_resistor2003 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋