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My main question is, if you buy an 1800 watt system (that's 1.8 kW, right?), what exactly does that mean? That it is constantly generating that much electricity? Or that much withing a certain time interval?
I have been looking at my energy usage via the smart meter and if I understand it correctly, I am using just under 5 kWh in an hour when my air conditioning is running.
I want to start with a small kit to kind of understand the nuts and bolts of it, but I need a little more understanding of how it works to begin with. I am hoping to get a small one to charge a battery to run my pool pump at night. I'm not sure if that is a good starter project or not.
I'm no expert, but I have had solar panels before and I worked in an industry that utilized them for the communication systems we built.
If you have a 70 watt solar panel, then under perfect conditions the panel will generate 70 watts per hour.
To charge your battery, you will need a voltage regulator so you don't overcharge the battery.
A small panel would probably be all you need. However, for the investment and input, consider getting more batteries. You want to connect them in parallel to keep the same voltage. Parallel is negative to negative to negative and positive to positive to positive.
To connect batteries negitive to positive is in series and doubles your voltage. You don't want to do that unless, say, you have something that runs 12 volt and all you have are two 6 volt batteries.
If you have a good sized battery bank poolside, you can go to an auto parts store and get a small inverter that turns the 12 volt DC into 110 AC. Then you can plug in to listen to the radio, charge cell phones and what ever else that does not exceed the output capabilities of the system.
Looked at the link after posting- the charge controller is what I meant by voltage regulator. That big monster power hub is, I'm assuming, a inverter that turns DC into AC and is for bigger needs like an whole entertainment center.
That system is way more than you would need just to charge a pool pump battery.
That's the maximum wattage it will generate in ideal conditions, e.g. full sun directly shining on the panels. During ideal conditions you could for example power 18 100watt light bulbs. Those conditions are going to vary depending on the location, time of day, time of the year etc. There is calculators available that will take that into account and how much energy you'll be able to store on average.
"I want to start with a small kit to kind of understand the nuts and bolts of it, but I need a little more understanding of how it works to begin with. I am hoping to get a small one to charge a battery to run my pool pump at night. I'm not sure if that is a good starter project or not."
Do more reading before spending money. A pool pump would be something that you would want to try to power directly without involving a battery. The day time is when there is the most need for the water to circulate. However... inground pool pumps require too much current to be a good candidate for solar. What you COULD do is get an Aquabot - 12volt pool "robot" that walks all over the bottom of the pool cleaning dirt and mixing water, and power that directly. The motor in it is much less powerful than a pool pump motor AND it does a far better job at keeping a pool clean.
Every 24 hour period, the Earth averages some 250 watts per square meter of sunshine. Give or take from this number depending on where you live and plan on 100 watts per square meter for solar panels. Since you aren't likely in Alaska or the Tropics, realistic numbers to work with within 1000-2000 watts per square meter of sunshine per 24 hours (SUNSHINE, cloudy days do not count). Storage is key, and the utility company is your friend with grid-tie. Worst case scenario is a bank of batteries.
"I want to start with a small kit to kind of understand the nuts and bolts of it, but I need a little more understanding of how it works to begin with. I am hoping to get a small one to charge a battery to run my pool pump at night. I'm not sure if that is a good starter project or not."
Do more reading before spending money. A pool pump would be something that you would want to try to power directly without involving a battery. The day time is when there is the most need for the water to circulate. However... inground pool pumps require too much current to be a good candidate for solar. What you COULD do is get an Aquabot - 12volt pool "robot" that walks all over the bottom of the pool cleaning dirt and mixing water, and power that directly. The motor in it is much less powerful than a pool pump motor AND it does a far better job at keeping a pool clean.
My thinking was that I could use a PV system to charge batteries and have it pump at night. We don't run the pool pump during the day necessarily. We do have an aquabot (or similar) and it's okay, but doesn't really perform as well as we would like. It tends to gravitate toward the deep end and stay in one section.
If I can't use PV for my pool pump, I'll be very disappointed. I was hoping for a small project and to defer some of my energy usage. I know of someone who uses a small PV system to power his swamp cooler, but I would like to run some of the energy guzzlers off of an alternative system like PV - especially the pump since I have to run it year round. I live in southern Nevada and we have very few cloudy days.
We even thought of redirecting the pumping system so that it would utilize the pool's water to help cool the PV system. Does that seem too far fetched? The batteries and the PV panels function better if they are kept cooler, right?
I do appreciate the explanations and if anyone has anything further to add, I'd appreciate that too. A suggestion to very basic beginner reading would be appreciated as well.
The batteries add significant cost, could be double.... Ideally you want to use it as it's being produced. For example put your hot water heater on a timer so it only heats during the day but then again if you have that much sun and it's always hot look into solar thermal for that application.
My thinking was that I could use a PV system to charge batteries and have it pump at night.
Yes, and that sounds like a good sized project to get some experience with solar power generation without a huge investment and without it being a "Mission Critical" application.
The first thing you'll need to do is to figure out the right size for this system, and that starts with finding out what the power requirements are for that pump.
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We even thought of redirecting the pumping system so that it would utilize the pool's water to help cool the PV system. Does that seem too far fetched? The batteries and the PV panels function better if they are kept cooler, right?
Yes, although most systems just use passive cooling methods which are much simpler, such as keeping an air-gap behind the panels. But if you don't mind the added complexity and complexity you could pump water through tubes behind the panels.
There are lots of websites than can get you started. Some of the best are by companies that sell solar equipment over the interenet. But for basic FAQs, these are a start:
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