Getting off the conventional power grid to use only solar panels requires more than money

and courage, and it is important to plan things well. Join us in this note, where we rethink
the planning stage.

What is important to consider when thinking about installing a solar panel system or
"photovoltaic" is the objective you want to achieve and have an idea of the final values of
the entire system and then evaluate if it is sustainable. Do I want to run my entire house
with solar energy? Maybe I want to feed only a part or if I just want to have a light in a
certain place.

Every system of solar panels is amortizable in the long term. If we want to feed an entire
house with solar energy, it will be amortized longer than if we plan, for example, to feed
only the light of a room. The initial investment of a house entirely fueled by solar energy is
so high that is why they are so few in the world in relation to energy from the state network.
In the developed countries there are houses with solar roofs that are also connected to the
state distribution network, with which when there is surplus energy it is reintegrated into
the electrical system causing the cost to decrease.

In this article we will use basic values to feed a room in sunlight and put values on the table
that will clarify what is the investment and what we need. Based on this we can draw our
conclusions on whether we decide to extend the installation even to the entire house. We
leave for another item the most consumed products such as a washing machine, an iron or
an air conditioner for example.

Room

To illuminate a room of 2.5 x 2.5 meters with a height of 2.60 meters in good light we need
about 14 watts (w) of power in technology. The LEDs always work at 12 volts. Let's say
that we are going to use the light of the room about 4 hours per day, then 14 watts of our
luminary multiplied by those 4 hours of consumption gives us 56 watts a day.

Luminary

We already know that we have to buy a 14 watt LED lamp for our room.

Solar panels
We are now going to choose our solar panel and we choose one that charges 14 watts per
hour of sunlight per day, so with 4 hours we will be able to use that energy at night. There
is no need to worry about falling hail because all the panels have tempered glass.

Very important! As we know that during a sunny day there are more than 4 hours of sun ...
the surplus load will serve to balance the cloudy days where although the solar panels
charge, the process is slower. It also helps us to have excess load for when we want to
exceed the 4 hours of average light chosen for this example.

Then we need a battery that stores the charge and a regulator.

Battery, regulator and cables

To calculate the capacity of our battery Imagine an unfavorable scenario, a week with 3
cloudy days. The panel loads little and we need to use that battery power - that is, our LED
luminaire consumes 56w a day. 56 watts for 3 days gives us an energy of 168 watts that we
have to store. The account indicates that we will have to have at least one 168-watt battery
and since the batteries are sold in amps we can buy a 14-amp battery, which is the same as
168 watts. Also, if we want to have more stored energy we can buy one with more capacity.

The regulator is a device that is placed between the solar panel and the battery, and its basic
objective is to protect the battery from overloads by the variability of the solar power on the
panel.

Both the cables that connect the panel with the regulator and the battery and the luminaires
must have adequate diameters (usually thick), since as the solar installations handle 12
volts, if we put thin and long cables we can have voltage drops that translate into
inefficiency of the entire system. For this installation example, a 4mm diameter cable can
be fine.
Costs

Solar panels of 14 w (the standard model is 20w) 700 $

Controller $ 500
Battery 18 amperes 12v -1400 pesos
Cables 4mm length 9 meters bipolar (two cables attached) 234 $
100 $ security fuses
Panel support 300 $

This gives a total of $ 3234. If we multiply by 5 rooms, we could already light a house
perfectly by investing $ 16,170. We realize that this value is amortizable in the medium
term, comparing it with current electricity rates. Therefore it is advisable to build a small
system and then expand it to the entire house. After amortized, the rest is savings. Would
you put panels in your house?