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What are real output from solar panels? [Solved] (self.asklemmy)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by Valmond to c/asklemmy

34 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hello everyone and happy holidays!

I'm interested in photovoltaic panels, it's the future and all!

But with the subsidiaries and the general enshittification of search engines, all search results about photovoltaics leads to sites with wildly misleading information, IMO.

I don't care about a 3kWc system with installation. What even is a kWc (I know what it is) and why is nobody explaining how much power the panels would typically yield instead? Per month? During the day?

I guess it is less selling if your installation is generating near nothing in December when you need it the most?

Okay sorry, rant off. My question is, where can I find reliable information about how much panels generate every month, during the day?

I know places have more or less sun, but that's quite easy to figure out if you have the numbers for any place.

🌞

Edit: I don't need a web calculator for how many panels I need. I'd like to know roughly how many watt a typical panel produces a specific day (or better hour) in the year.

Edit2: I am not looking for how to install or calculate a typical solar panel setup. I'm looking for the typical real world output of solar panels around the day and year.

Edit3: got my information, thanks [email protected] ! You all can now continue explaining how many panels a home needs or what a kwh is, Merry Christmas to you all!

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[–] Valmond 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Thanks, this information is really useful!

Okay so here I go, this is where I am at the moment, I have this old robot idea based on the hitcher robot ("HitchBot" for the curious) and as I'm somewhat aware of my shortcomings I'm trying for a very simple start robot and build on top of the experience from that one.

So the first robot would be, and don't forget this is just napkin figures to get a first iteration, 40 cm long, 20cm wide (16x8"), and not too tall.

Inside would be, roughly, a raspberry, a camera, some 18650 batteries, two motors for moving (probably NEMA 8 stepper motors), electronics (controling the motors, charging the batteries) and a solar panel. I'll have a usb charge module for convenience too and some way to measure the solar panel charge (so the robot can angle itself as good as possible). Maybe a servo for the camera angle, maybe one for the solar panel.

Connected over wifi for starters, 4G in some distant future.

The 18650 could theoretically hold like 10Wh each, and one could drive the PI for some 10-20 hours (or weeks sleeping) or the motors, hopefully an hour or two.

Theses calculations are wrong ofc but hopefully not too off.

The robot would roam around in the summer time, in France, so lots of potential sun. Battery power to the rescue when stuck in the shadows.

Just extrapolating the numbers you just gave (3 x those 100w panels could give 100w in ideal conditions) gives 8 watt for a 20x40cm panel in ideal conditions.

So the robot would have to charge for 2 hour for a 1h of operation if losses are not more than some 35%. Not very good but somewhat usable. If it can charge in ideal conditions which is of course not the case.

So maybe 1h of operation a day?

If so, then I'd be quite happy for a first iteration.

Thoughts?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I know you don't want to hear it, but forget about the solar panels my man. It's not going to work and it isn't going to be worth it. You can charge the battery from the grid a thousand times for the cost of the solar panel. And that's excluding all the other extra components you'd need to include if you want solar charging. Plus all of the time you have to put into it.

But if you just want to do it for shits and giggles, just go look up a panel that fits your size and other specs. The watt peak is right there in the specs.

[–] Valmond 1 points 2 days ago

Ha ha yes this isn't meant to earn me anything more than blisters ^^

I'll try out some cheap panel to see if I can get anything rolling at all for starters.

If it doesn't work enough well, and I cant figure how to fold a bigger panel for example, I have a backup project which is a robo-boat, which could drift around in the ocean, but that comes with lots of other complications like is it legal, and salt water.

Cheers