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RJsfishin's avatar
RJsfishin
Explorer
Feb 02, 2014

Self Sufficient on Solar? Something Not Right !

I'm happy w/ my small 200 watt solar, but it dawned on me the other day that if the sun hangs in here as long as I do (here in QZS) I will have saved a whole $60 of gasoline I usually burn in my Honda...
doughere's avatar
doughere
Explorer
Feb 02, 2014
30 lbs propane is about 7 gal.
7 gal propane * 95000 BTU/lb * 65% EFFICIENT = 432250 btu
1 AH @ 12V = 12 watts * 3.5 BTU/watt = 42 BTU/AH
432250 BTU / 42 BTU/AH = 10291 AH

If a 30 lb tank lasts 2 weeks, that means you need to harvest 735 AH a day (3 weeks 490 AH a day). You're looking at 1500 to 2000 watts of solar.

This is based on resistance type heat; as SMKEENTR above mentioned, in mild weather a heat pump could provide significantly more heat per watt than resistance.

THINK BIG.

Doug

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