Electronics Novice - Is is possible to get enough electricity from a few solar panels to power a laptop, light, minifridge, and air conditioning?

Hi team,

I am building a tiny house and wanted to know if it is possible with a few solar panels to power a light, laptop, minifridge, kettle, and some form of air conditioning (even if it is only a fan).

Obviously this could be done with enough electricity, but I want my tiny home to be on a trailer, with the solar panels in the roof. Obviously, this restricts how much room I will have for the solar panels.

I knew someone in that past who did this but they could only run one thing at a time. They put a fan on with something else and it ended up damaging melting something (I forget what it melted).

I know nothing about electronics, I intend on learning more about it over time. But is my actual goal achievable? Please keep your answers non-technical. I start my electronics journey today.

Look at the devices and write down all their wattage ratings. Then figure out the highest total wattage of some real combinations. You won't use a heater and AC at the same time or cook and sew at the same time so figure out real worst-case scenarios. 9nce you have a total, multiply by 1.25 for a 25% safety factor to get your grand total. Then look at some panels. If they are rated at 200w each and your grand total is 2500 watts, then you'll need 12 or 13 panels. Look up the real wattages of devices and panels.

If you need to use the solar power at night (such as the fridge), then you will need to charge a battery with the solar cells during the day.
The panels will need to provide enough energy to the battery to run everything you need at night.

And note that the maximum output of a solar panel only occurs with direct sunlight perpendicular (90 degrees) to the panel.
As the angle between the panel and the sun changes, so does the panel output (by the cosine of the angle).

How how much roof area for the panels do you have?

laptop (100W peak gaming, 50W standart), light (300W peak?),
minifridge (10W peak?), air conditioning (demend on temperature, room space, kW peak?)
100+50+300+10+1000 -> 1460, Yeah few (6) at least 300W panels placed on sunny area like sahara could do that.,

If you use 1/2 of your watts during the day there may not be enough to make it through the night. (battery) I think you need to plan on half of the power going to charging batteries.

The panel rating is based on noon, clear day, no smog, everything being just right. You are not going to get that. Some where there should be numbers on what you can get from 6am to 6pm, which is probably 1/2 of the noon rating.

I knew someone that can only run one appliance at a time. You have to plan ahead.

BTW if you are building new house think about passive home design. No cooling needed...

MacIntoshCZ said:

BTW if you are building new house think about passive home design. No cooling needed...

Click to expand...

What's a "passive" house and why wouldn't it require cooling on a hot day?

crutschow said:

What's a "passive" house

Click to expand...

Passive houses are heated (with out panels) but by south facing windows. House is cooled by vents usually with out fans. Usually the house does things with out or with little electricity.

crutschow said:

What's a "passive" house and why wouldn't it require cooling on a hot day?

Click to expand...

A passive house uses an extensive amount of insulation so that very little energy is needed to cool or heat them.

The problem with doing this with a tiny house is that just opening a door can exchange a good percentage of the interior air with the hot or cold outside air.

Depending on where you live:
Where I live "normal" houses must have 6" thick walls and some well insulated houses have 12" walls. In a tiny house this leaves very little area to live in. I have not looked at the codes for a while but I think the tiny houses can have 4" walls. I have see 3" walls.
Passive: I have seen houses where the south wall is all glass. The Sun's heat enters the house and heats the floor and walls with out any electricity. Some people have black stones for a floor that traps the heat and holds for many hours.

To Configure a Solar Plant isn't an easy Task.
First You have to calculate how much Energy need ( kWh ).
Any heating and cooling devices need the most Power.
( A simple Water Cooker has about 1000W )
When using LED Light this would be one of the smallest consumer.
Where do You live ( Cloud free time )? What Season it is ? ( Sun Time per Day ).

The Power of the Panels datasheet are described for maximum possible.
In Middle Europe You can get a Maximum of 80 percent of this at meridium on good summer day's.
When it is Cloudy or Foggy You can get about 10 Percent of max Power.

A Sun Tracking of the Panels can increase the collected Power!

How much kWh You need in the Night time? - That will give You the Capacity of Your Buffer Akku's.

The Panels have to deliver the Day - Power plus Charging the Akkus for the Night plus reserve.

I guess a 200% Over Powering of the Panels and the Akku is the lowest possible Calculation ( It could rain 3 Days long with 10Percent Power Collecting ).

All that Calculations above are valued and has to be verified and exact Calculated!

A zero-emission home was built in my locale two years ago, and was displayed for a time on campus ( www.sait.ab.ca). Its whereabouts are currently unknown; I never patronized it nor am I part of the alumni.

I've heard that passive homes often develop mold issues after a few seasons.

If I were you, I wouldn't deal with it myself, but get a good electrician to do it for me.

Whatever the size of your solar panels are, count about 4-5 hours of "power" on average. That is, I have about 10kW of panels, and on spring and fall months, I average about 40-45kWh of energy a day total. That is "average". Some days it will be a lot less (less than 10kWh), other days a lot more (well over 60kWh). This is in a northern climate (45 degrees north latitude). Winter months are a lot less. Summer months are a bit more. When solar panels heat up, they lose efficiency, so really hot summer days, while lots of sun, only give peaks of around 70kWh on a hot sunny day. In winter, snow on the panels just about kills any generation.
Your location, weather patterns and angle of panels all change the power output expected.
Calculate your total daily loads, including night time loads (total consumption in kWh). Then calculate the battery size/capacity required to power those loads for 2-3 days if you have bad weather. Only then can you size the solar panels so that they can run loads and charge the batteries.

Hire a professional to do this if you can't

This is a six month old thread, started by a one time poster who never came back.
The thread has been re-animated by a hit and run meaningless post.
Don't waste your time guys, thread locked.

JimB