Solar Cell Question

phoenix833

Hi guys,

I'm doing my thesis work in Atchitectural Technology and I'm using solar cells on my project. I've done the calculations as to what energy they will produce over a year and this total comes to about 3000 kwh. I know its not much but can abybody give me any sort of indication on what this would power in normal everyday life?

My building is a leisure centre so i was hoping it could be used to power the low voltage lighting. Or help with heating the swimming pool, anything really.

Sorry if this seems a stupid question but im no good at volts,watts,amps etc.

Thanks

Macha

David MacKay of the UK is a great one for bringing these abstract figures back to human activities.

He has a book called "Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air", which you can download free or check chapters online:

http://www.withouthotair.com/

Basically, one 40W light bulb will use up 1kwh/day. So your 3,000 kwh would keep 3,000 40W light bulbs going for a year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR8wRSp2IXs

Daegerty

However much a solar panel generates over here, it will generate nearly twice as much in spain/north africa

quentingargan

phoenix833 wrote: »

My building is a leisure centre so i was hoping it could be used to power the low voltage lighting. Or help with heating the swimming pool, anything really.

Preferably don't use it to heat the pool - it is more efficient to use solar water heating for that. Electricity is a premium form of energy. If the electricity is put through a grid-tie inverter, it will supplement the supply running the pumps and filters, lighting, fridges etc. Even the cash register.

Of course, it will only do so during daylight hours, and more in the summer than the winter. I assume your simulations will give you daily outputs. You would need to check that the consumption always exceeds what you are producing, because only residential accounts can export power back to the ESB. Pity...

I assume your PV modules are about 3Kw peak, so that will be the maximum output in bright sunlight at the optimum angle. That is the equivalent of 3 off 1kw heaters (the old bars on electric fires were usually 1kw each), or one 3Kw immersion heater. Or 150 20W CFL bulbs. Every pump and appliance has a label on it showing what its peak consumption is, usually in watts.

edwinkane

quentingargan wrote: »

Preferably don't use it to heat the pool - it is more efficient to use solar water heating for that. Electricity is a premium form of energy. If the electricity is put through a grid-tie inverter, it will supplement the supply running the pumps and filters, lighting, fridges etc. Even the cash register.

.

It would be interesting to see the financials on this, and see if it's likely to be financially viable. Most of the financials i have seen for solar cells generation projects have demonstrated that they are more expensive than alternatives, and also less reliable than projected in the business plan too.

A great use for solar cells can be seen all over africa, where small houses are fitted with a water tank and solar cell unit on the roof, to provide hot water for the house. While it's not reliable, they are not expensive, and do provide hot water where none existed before, and the resulting improvements in sanitation are beneficial.

Capt'n Midnight

3000 kwh. = 3,000 Units of electricity, so about €600c worth.

The bad news is that in winter you will get very little power (Donegal average less than an hour in winter) so you would have to spend a lot on storage to be able use the power during DAYS in which there is little or no usable light. ( Human eyes can work over wide variations in light levels, electric gadgets don't like wide variations )

Have you checked the met office records for sunshine ?
that 3000 units will vary by 50% from Donegal to Wexford, will vary by a factor of TWO between different years, will vary from mountains (bad) to coasts (good)


http://www.met.ie/climate-ireland/sunshine.asp?prn=1


Solar power varies considerably over different years - by a factor of TWO http://www.met.ie/climate/sunshine.asp

1887 was the sunniest summer in the 100 years from 1881 to 1980, according to measurements made at the Phoenix Park in Dublin. A more recent summer, 1980, was the dullest. The difference was considerable, with the summer of 1887 being twice as sunny as that of 1980.

Capt'n Midnight

Macha wrote: »

Basically, one 40W light bulb will use up 1kwh/day. So your 3,000 kwh would keep 3,000 40W light bulbs going for a year.

Except that there are 365 1/4 days per year
so it's more like 8 bulbs (less when you consider energy losses in storage) and perhaps just 4 if we get weather as bad as 1980 again


It's worth investing in lower powered devices like LED bulbs and paint all the walls white, use PIR's to turn off lights, getting up at dawn

Pure Sound

If I was doing the project I would steer clear of photovoltaics for this kind of setup and consider using solar thermal panels for just heating the pool. They are more efficient and there are grants available for them unlike PV panels.

phoenix833

We Need Community wrote: »

If I was doing the project I would steer clear of photovoltaics for this kind of setup and consider using solar thermal panels for just heating the pool. They are more efficient and there are grants available for them unlike PV panels.

I cant really use the panels anywhere because the proposed site is absolutely ridiculous. There is a 12m tall apartment block blocking almost all the sunlight from the south. The solar ceells are actually incorporated into a curtain wall assembly so im getting two for the price of one if you get me.

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Except that there are 365 1/4 days per year
so it's more like 8 bulbs (less when you consider energy losses in storage) and perhaps just 4 if we get weather as bad as 1980 again


It's worth investing in lower powered devices like LED bulbs and paint all the walls white, use PIR's to turn off lights, getting up at dawn

Yeah i had the idea of LEDs, motion sensors, all that kind of stuff I just wasn't sure how my cells would fair out. I was just using my fantastic solar cell glass as the sustainable seller to the lecturers so i needed a way to relate it to everyday use.