12V heater run straight from solar panel
Is there a heater product that can run off the 12V that comes directly off my portable solar panel? This would have to be something that can handle unregulated power that might peak up during bright ...
Forum Discussion
DrewE wrote:
A big resistor that can dissipate a lot of power at 12V, sufficient to be a useful heater, is also a low-valued resistor, on the order of one ohm (approximately 150 watts). Making your own with resistance wire would probably be easier and less expensive than finding and affording a commercially produced resistor, marketed as such. Having a few coils wired in parallel is probably a good idea, too.
I'd think, for heating with solar power, that a solar water heater (as in a black pipe in a reflective trough or something similar) and a radiator of some sort would be more efficient and effective overall. The cost would probably be lower, too.
Agreed. My basic motivations are like this: I have these solar panels and what if I used them to generate ~500W continuously? And to avoid the complexity of a water heater based system, I wanted to be able to attach the 1 ohm resister(s) to create passive and unregulated heat.
