What does it mean when a solar panel is 100w?

Question

does it mean that it can get that much in a day? Or like, in an hour?

if my house needs 15kwh/d than how many 165watt solar panels would I need?

Answer 1

more than likely your solar panel puts out around 24 volt dc at maxamuim sunlight so (voltsxamps=watts) therefore you roughly have 4 amps coming from that panel a marine battery charges off a 4amp trickle in roughly 8-12 hours depending on how run down it is. Then what you have to do next is invert the power to AC so that it will be usable by your appliances. so your going to need close to 1000 watt invertor which drains the battery really fast. I dont know everything about this stuff yet Im no engineer but I have been researching alternative power and I have access to every tool out there in order to build things. I have been trying to balance everything out such as instead of regular light bulbs which draw and use a lot of power I have found a LED dealer wher I can get LEDS for about 15 cents apeice. 35 are the equivalent (in lumens) to a 70watt light bulb I will build lamps and light paths to make power consumption less on the other end of getting more power I will also use a generator modified to run on an altenative fuel (ethenol) which I can brew at my house. The trick to it all is to change and modify some applinces to use less power and find alternative sources to make power on cloudy or non windy days(for windmill) The next large problem is where to store all this power I have been getting car batteries for as little as $5 a peice from a mechanic freind (marine batteries are better) Yet there must be a better way to store all this power. Anyway all in all unless you are super out of the ordinary resourcefull in the long run it does not cost less to use solar panels unless of course they are free or you get free materials and make your own (very possible)

http://science.howstuffworks.com/question501.htm

http://www.fuellesspower.com/solar_cell2.htm

http://www.afrotechmods.com/reallycheap/batteries/batts.htm

Answer 2

The 100w panel puts out 100w at peak power -- full sun. You will lose some power as heat through wires and other equipment and also some will be lost when it's converted to AC, unless you will be using all DC appliances and lights, etc. I think a good estimate would be about 10 - 15% loss.

You will also need to know your average solar insolation, average amount of full sun you receive at your site. This will tell you how many panels of 100w it will take to get you 15kwh/day. Don't forget your losses as per above and add a little extra for peak usage that is needed when two or more major appliances and power uses start at the same time.

Hope this helps. I'm glad you're checking into solar and good luck.

Answer 3

That means it can handle UP TO 100W at any given time in bright sunlight. Volts x Amps = Watts. This means you can use 1 of these panels to supply a 9 volt DC appliance at 11 amps. Which is a pretty ridiculous amount of amps for a 9 volt product.

About 5 of the 165 Watt panels will give you in excess of 825W of power, which will give you 15kWh per day. But, remember that's DC. When you convert to AC, that changes. I would suggest keeping batteries for storage. Also, You might require an average of 825 W per hour, but at any given time, you'll use a higher peak. You need to find out what the PEAK is before you can decide what to get. That would be with all the lights on in your house, running the vacuum, the dryer, and the washing machine.

I think most houses are built with 100Amp breakers. That's 12 kilowatts at one time. That would mean you would need 72 panels to be at the PEAK your house can handle. You'll hopefully never use 12kW at one time. But there's no way for me to know what YOUR peak will be. I think the average kW peak demand is somewhere in the range of 2 kW. That would require 13+ panels.

Answer 4

Wattage is voltage times amperage. i.e. 10 volts at 10 amps
What they are saying is that is what it will put out when it is in bright sunlight.

Your question has too many variables for a good answer here. You should get a book from the library or visit a salesman.


From my bookmarks:
You might also try this MS Word doc. for some info.
http://www.catas1.org/eng/elec/solar/qstart.doc

You can also get a lot of good info from the Home Power magazine web site:
http://www.homepower.com/archive/

Answer 5

watt is a measurement of energy
1 watt=3.41 BTU
1 BTU(British thermal unit )=amount of energy to raise 1 pound
water 1degree f.
1 us gallon water = 8.33 lbs
1 can gallon water = 10 lbs
depending if 110vac then a solar panel can light a 100 watt bulb or 6 15watt high efficiency bulbs

Answer 6

Means the output capacity would run the equivalent of a 100 watt light bulb (NOT a lot of power)

Answer 7

Homemade Solar Power Videos - http://SolarPower.duebq.com/?AxT