Solar Questions
I am trying to figure out what I need to recharge a battery in an average 8 hours of sunlight per day with a maximum load of 2.52 amps. This is an exercise in building a system which hopefully will...
Forum Discussion
If you're using 30 AH each day your battery needs to be a minimum of 60AH. However, you have to account for cloudy days. A good rule of thumb is 3 cloudy days in a row so now you need 180 AH.
Low solar insolation in your area is around 5 hours per day. This likely occurs in December. So if you need to make 30 Ah x 12v per day that's 360 watt/hours / 5 hours a day = about a 75 watt panel absolute minimum. In reality, due to losses and inefficiency this really wouldn't be big enough to cover one day. I'd go 100 watt minimum. However, if after a cloudy stretch you really need to fully recharge the batteries after being drained for 3 days of use you will need more like 300 watts.
Low solar insolation in your area is around 5 hours per day. This likely occurs in December. So if you need to make 30 Ah x 12v per day that's 360 watt/hours / 5 hours a day = about a 75 watt panel absolute minimum. In reality, due to losses and inefficiency this really wouldn't be big enough to cover one day. I'd go 100 watt minimum. However, if after a cloudy stretch you really need to fully recharge the batteries after being drained for 3 days of use you will need more like 300 watts.
