Consumption and storage calculation
chart
Please note: that before you start this, that
most people cannot afford to write a check to cover $30-40,000 to convert
the energy hog house they currently live in to alternate energy.
The energy companies know this and use this against us
everyday.
We have been tricked into buying many energy hog appliances
over the years, that we have become dependant on.
Like electric stoves, the electricity used by 1 stove
for 1 hour can power almost everything in your house for a day.
The power companies love the fact that we are completely
dependant on them, its a reliable steady income that they can increase
at any time, we are at their mercy.
And if they let us down by not providing cost effective,
and reliable power, too bad for us, because as far as they are concerned
there is no alternative.
Since we all want to be rid of the
soaring energy bills and not live like a caveman to do this...we
have to rethink our whole power consumption needs.
In other words: the things we use
..are they worth the energy we spend on them for what we get from them?
Can we get the same job or service
from something that uses less energy?
Once we come to terms with this,
we can move forward and enjoy everything we do today without compromising.
That is the biggest hurdle in getting away from the
grid.
Calculating your power is not as hard as you may think.
Most outputs for the items you use are already
calculated for you, and are found
on the bottoms and backs of the items you use everyday.
All your AC appliances ( household ) need to be converted to
watts, in order to estimate
how much battery capacity you will need, to power them by a DC to AC
inverter powered by the
storage batteries being charged by your wind turbine or solar panels.
See bottom of page.
If you are using 12 volt lights and appliances
you only need to know amps to calculate battery storage as they will not
be run by an inverter, they will be run directly from the
batteries themselves.
It is recommended to eliminate
high energy hogs such as electric heating, electric stoves, electric clothes
dryers, electric water heaters, etc.
Try to substitue
these with propane or solar appliances, or similar products that don't
use as much energy.
Also note it is far less expensive to reduce
your power, then it is to produce power.
Example: replace your incandescent
lights with low watt flourescent bulbs.
Think of it like this:
5 - 20
watt flourescent bulbs uses as much hydro as 1 - 100 watt
incandescent
bulb
and are just as bright.
by just changing your light bulbs your light
energy consumption is now 1/5th of what it used to be.
Once you have done all that, then size your system, You have saved
yourself 10's of thousands of dollars, on extra windturbines, solar panels,
batteries and inverters.
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Watt hour / amp hour Math Lesson:
Battery storage/ AC to DC calculations / watt hour and amp hour
calculations.
Deep cycle batteries are measured in amp hours
not cold cranking amps like car and truck batteries.
Car and truck batteries will not last very long for alternative power
usage as they are not meant to be cycled (drained).
Batteries are DC ( direct current )
not AC ( alternating current ..*hydro*..).
An amp hour is a measurment of how many amps are available in
the batteries for use.
It means 1 amp used for 1 hour.
So if a battery has 370 amp hours it has 1 amp available for 370 hours.
Although this is technically true, it is best not to remove more then
80% of the amp hours from the battery at one time...ideally it is best
to use no more then 50% to make the batteries
last a long time.
So in a backup power situation having 370 (AH ) amp hours available
would mean:
From full to 80% discharge you would have 296 (AH ) amp hours available
to use.
From full to 50% discharge you would have 185 (AH ) amp hours
available to use.
To calculate how much power any one item you wish to power needs
in battery storage:
So if its an AC device that you are trying to figure out how many amps
it uses in DC
A TV that uses 200 watts for instance = 200 watts AC divided by 12
volts DC battery voltage
= 16.66 amps DC/hr.
( watts divided by volts = amps )
So if you have 185 amp hours available (50%) in your 370 AH battery
you can run the TV for 11.10 hours.
185 AH divided by 16.66 amps DC = 11.10 hours.
The electrical equation I'm using above is :
Watts = amps X volts.
you can use it like this too:
amps X volts = watts.
OR .
watts divided by amps = volts.
OR.
watts divided by volts = amps.
By knowing 2 of the 3 numbers in that equation you can find the
third number easily.
Most appliances , TV's , radios etc have at least 2 of the numbers
available on the silver sticker on the back or bottom of its outer casing.
Lights are already measured in watts.
Note:
120 volts AC is common household power in North America.
12 volts DC in common battery voltage.
If a electric fan uses 5 amps @ 120 volts AC you would calculate as
follows:
5 amps X 120 volts ( house power ) = 600 watts / hour. ( 600 watt hours)
In battery power that would =:
600 watts AC divided by 12 volts DC (battery voltage) = 50 amps DC
/ per hour / consumption.
If you have low watt lighting:
14 watts AC, divided by 120 volts = .11
amps/per hour.
So with that in mind if you want to calculate the consumption of
10 , 14 watt lights you would do so like this:
.11 amps X 10 lights (14 watts) = 1.10 amps. (
for 10 low watt lights on for 1 hour ).
1.10 amps X 120 volts = 132 watts.
In battery power that would be:
132 watts AC divided by 12 volts DC(battery voltage) = 11 amps DC /
per hour / consumption
A 370 amp hour battery using up to 50% discharge( 185 AH ) could power
those 10 lights for:
185 AH divided by 11 ampsDC = 16.8 hours. (The lights could run).
If you are calculating the consumption of your whole house or cottage:
If you have printed out and filled in the chart above , and have calculated
your total amounts per week you would calculate the amount of batteries
and or charging needed like this:
Example for 12 volt DC calculations:
If you use 500 amp hours per week:
500 AH divided by the amount of battery storage
you have, or, plan to have.
So if you have a 370 amp hour battery, using the information from above
on batteries.
(50% discharge) = 185 amp hours available from your 370 amp hour battery.
500 divided by 185 = 2.70.
So you would need 2.70 or 3 batteries
of 185 amp hours to have enough power for the week, if you needed 500 amp
hours of storage.
If you want to know how much that is per day.
500 AH divided by 7 (days ) = 71.42 amp hours a day .
You would only need 1- 370 amp hour battery for storage.
But you would also need to produce 71.42 amp hours or more of power
to charge this battery per day so that you have a balanced system.
Also now you know how much power you need to make!!
If you are calculating watt hours from AC to figure out battery capacity:
If you use 19,000 watt hours a week you would calculate it is follows:
19,000 WH (watt hours) divided by 12 volts (battery voltage) = 1,583
amp hours, of battery storage you would need to have if you did not
have any power charging the batteries for that period of time.
You can divide this by 7 (days) to see how much this would be per day.
1583 AH divided by 7 (days) = 226 amp hours per day.
So if you can produce that many amp hours per day with your wind and
solar the amount of batteries needed would be around 2 - 370 amp
hour batteries @ 50% discharge.
226 (amp hours day) divided by 185 AH (50%battery) = 1.22 batteries
(or 2 batteries of 370 amp hours.).
This is also a good guide to see how much power you need to create per
week to keep your system balanced, so you don't have to use a gas backup
generator.
It is even better again if you have a very large battery bank as you
will use even less of the total battery capacity, which will extend the
battery life even more.
Also it is good insurance to make sure you have extra power for those
times when the sun and wind are not co-operating with you, or in the event
of extra electrical needs.
You can never have too much power!!!