Great video. I have been ploughing around google for some time looking for PV calculators for panels and batteries. They are all terrible! This is the first attempt I've seen that takes a complete, logical, understandable approach to designing a PV system. Good job!
This is amazingly good. I feel like I should be paying for this, not watching it for free on youtube. Thank you for posting these! I also liked the wire sizing video.
Hi AltE, On your loads list at 7:45 the Watt-Hours/day for the table saw seems to be out by a factor of 10. Keep up with the videos - absolutely love watching them.
John, I can see that it is difficult to see on the screen, but it is .4 hours, not 4 hours. I was figuring about 25 minutes. I'll be sure to write it as 0.4 in the future to avoid confusion. Thanks for pointing it out.
at 7:58 there is something wrong with the calculation of kwh/day of table saw, 1400 x 4 is 5600, not 560. Although it is just for illustration, it means that there is an error in that load calculator (if you actually used it)
It's hard to see in the video, but it was actually .4, not 4. I should have written it as 0.4 to be more clear. I figured on using it for less than 1/2 hour. (Small project)
I'm being a stickler for fine detail but anyhow I thought I'd bring it to your attention: Given the power rating for the well pump is listed as 375W, it should be declared as "1/2HP" not "1/5HP". Also, Wh/day should be 1875, not 187.5 .
You are totally right on that one, that's a typo. Thanks, I never noticed that. I must have used the number pad where the 5 is above the 2. I'll put a note in the video. The total Wh is another case of the decimal point not showing up well. I was planning on 1/2 hour a day.
Amazing video. Thank you so much. But I don't really understand the connection between the surge and the Watt-Hours /Day calculation. Again, thank very much. Eric Azomahou.
Thank you. That's a great point, I didn't make that clear. Because surges happen so fast, they usually are not calculated into the watt hour calculations. If you are using something for an hour, the 5 second surge really doesn't make much of a difference in the long run, so you would just make your calculations based on the constant power, not the surge. Surge really just comes into play when you are determining the size of the inverter needed to handle that momentary surge.
Some appliances like refrigerators or water pumps switch on and off periodically by needing a surge power for a very short period of time to start. After that short period of start phase they begin to consume a constant rate of power over time until the next OFF/ON cycle. To have a real weighted power usage a'' kill a watt meter' measures the energy consumption of those appliances over a period of time, lets say 40 hours. In 40 hours enough ON/OFF cycles are included to produce a representative hourly power consumption for that appliance. In a next step you divide the total measured KW consumed by 40 to get the hourly energy consumption for that appliance. The result has to be multiplied with 24 (number of hours per day) to give you the power consumption of that appliance for a whole day. I hope it was helpful.
Hi, I think the results in rows 4 and 5 are wrong. The should be 1875 watt/day and 5600 Watts/day. Accordingly the sum or added load should be 8919 Watts/day. Am i correct or wrong? Please explain it if i should be wrong.
Hey altE, thanks for the video. How can I calulate Watt-hours, if my load is variable? Like a heater, which I need to turn on when ever the weather is cold. Because some loads depends on the weather.
That's always a tricky one, same with a fridge. You can get an energy meter that you plug your device into that measures the accumulated energy used over time. Kill-A-Watt meter is poplar in the USA, but there are meters available all over the world that work with your local power specs. They are usually fairly inexpensive, and worth the money to make sure you get the righ size solar system.
Surge is when a motor starts up. For example a refrigerator draws about 4 times the current for a few seconds when it first starts to get the compressor going. Then it settles down to its constant lower current draw.
Hello My project is to design a stand alone solar system for a data center( Switches, Routers ,etc..) , I didn't know how to find the power from the data sheet or actually I found a lot of powers that made me confused , can you help me?
hello altE Store thank you very much when accounting the surge how can i know the surge for every device because some devices not including its surge in its data shett
+Eng Mahmoud Samy Excellent question. This can be difficult to determine. Some meters may be able to help, but since a surge is often very quick, it may be difficult to capture if the meter isn't fast enough. A Kill-a-watt meter may be able to capture it if it is a 120V 60Hz load. www.altestore.com/store/Meters-Communications-Site-Analysis/Meters-Battery-Monitors/Power-Meters/Kill-A-Watt-EZ-Electricity-Cost-Usage-Meter-P4460/p6659/ A clamp on amp meter may be the best option, like this one, www.altestore.com/store/Meters-Communications-Site-Analysis/Meters-Battery-Monitors/Ammeters-Voltmeters-Battery-Monitors/Blue-Sea-Systems-8110-Mini-Clamp-Multimeter/p7199/, since it can just clamp to the wire and tell you the amps, then you would multiply that by volts to get your watts. Then there's the good old fashioned guessing based on experience. Things with motors, compressors, pumps, tend to have a high surge, figure 2 or 3 times their run time use. Electronics tend to not have enough a a surge to be a concern.
hello all, i need help/ info, i have three 12V, 156Ah Agm Haze batteries connected in parallel to make a single 12V, 468Ah battery bank (3X156Ah) but the battery is showing on a volt meter as 155/160Ah even when connected as parallel, can someone tell me what is wrong or is't how it meant to be. can someone tell me in details how and what to use in getting a proper watt, volt and amperage reading. any info will be appreciated.
A volt meter is not able to give you Ah readings. The best way to do this is with a battery monitor with a shunt. The shut would be wires in line in the negative wire, and measures the amps going into and out of the battery. This way it can keep track of how much energy is in the battery. Never try to measure amps across a battery with a volt meter.
You may notice that your fridge compressor isn't always running. When the fridge is plugged in, but you don't hear it running, it isn't using much or any power. So in this example, the fridge compressor was only on a total of 9 hours. The best way to calculate a variable load like that is to put on an energy meter like a Kill A Watt meter to get exact numbers. Otherwise, unless you watch it over a period of times, you may need to guess. Some people use 12 hours, figuring it is running half the time.
Thank you so much for making these videos. I will buy from your store as a thank you.
Great video. I have been ploughing around google for some time looking for PV calculators for panels and batteries. They are all terrible! This is the first attempt I've seen that takes a complete, logical, understandable approach to designing a PV system. Good job!
Hi Steve do you have interest in solar design with pvsyst or helioscope
This is amazingly good. I feel like I should be paying for this, not watching it for free on youtube. Thank you for posting these! I also liked the wire sizing video.
We thank you for you have posted these!
Many thanks madam for your nice detailed explanation.
Excellent video and very useful information. Thank you.
Very Nice Presentation!
Hi AltE,
On your loads list at 7:45 the Watt-Hours/day for the table saw seems to be out by a factor of 10.
Keep up with the videos - absolutely love watching them.
John, I can see that it is difficult to see on the screen, but it is .4 hours, not 4 hours. I was figuring about 25 minutes. I'll be sure to write it as 0.4 in the future to avoid confusion. Thanks for pointing it out.
Thankyou.
Thanks for the service
if you don't know the surge wattage you can usually double your running wattage and you are usually not to far off for most house hold appliances.
Great Vid's
Thank you for posting this information
Hi Larry do you have interest in solar design with pvsyst or helioscope
You are amazing
Thanks
Hello, I have a question... For the fridge, Why do you list as hours of usage 9 hours? When a fridge it's connected 24 hours... Thanks
That's when the compressor kicks in
thx for the classes
at 7:58 there is something wrong with the calculation of kwh/day of table saw, 1400 x 4 is 5600, not 560. Although it is just for illustration, it means that there is an error in that load calculator (if you actually used it)
It's hard to see in the video, but it was actually .4, not 4. I should have written it as 0.4 to be more clear. I figured on using it for less than 1/2 hour. (Small project)
love it
I'm being a stickler for fine detail but anyhow I thought I'd bring it to your attention:
Given the power rating for the well pump is listed as 375W, it should be declared as "1/2HP" not "1/5HP". Also, Wh/day should be 1875, not 187.5 .
You are totally right on that one, that's a typo. Thanks, I never noticed that. I must have used the number pad where the 5 is above the 2. I'll put a note in the video. The total Wh is another case of the decimal point not showing up well. I was planning on 1/2 hour a day.
Thanks for pointing that out. I figured "you were right, I was wrong" somewhere along the way!
Keep up with the great videos.
How to measure solar pannel watts in parreral and series please solve my problem
thanks alot
Amazing video. Thank you so much.
But I don't really understand the connection between the surge and the Watt-Hours /Day calculation.
Again, thank very much.
Eric Azomahou.
Thank you. That's a great point, I didn't make that clear. Because surges happen so fast, they usually are not calculated into the watt hour calculations. If you are using something for an hour, the 5 second surge really doesn't make much of a difference in the long run, so you would just make your calculations based on the constant power, not the surge. Surge really just comes into play when you are determining the size of the inverter needed to handle that momentary surge.
Some appliances like refrigerators or water pumps switch on and off periodically by needing a surge power for a very short period of time to start. After that short period of start phase they begin to consume a constant rate of power over time until the next OFF/ON cycle.
To have a real weighted power usage a'' kill a watt meter' measures the energy consumption of those appliances over a period of time, lets say 40 hours. In 40 hours enough ON/OFF cycles are included to produce a representative hourly power consumption for that appliance.
In a next step you divide the total measured KW consumed by 40 to get the hourly energy consumption for that appliance. The result has to be multiplied with 24 (number of hours per day) to give you the power consumption of that appliance for a whole day. I hope it was helpful.
Hi, I think the results in rows 4 and 5 are wrong. The should be 1875 watt/day and 5600 Watts/day. Accordingly the sum or added load should be 8919 Watts/day. Am i correct or wrong? Please explain it if i should be wrong.
Hey altE, thanks for the video. How can I calulate Watt-hours, if my load is variable? Like a heater, which I need to turn on when ever the weather is cold. Because some loads depends on the weather.
That's always a tricky one, same with a fridge. You can get an energy meter that you plug your device into that measures the accumulated energy used over time. Kill-A-Watt meter is poplar in the USA, but there are meters available all over the world that work with your local power specs. They are usually fairly inexpensive, and worth the money to make sure you get the righ size solar system.
what is the difference between surge power and continuous power ????? please
Surge is when a motor starts up. For example a refrigerator draws about 4 times the current for a few seconds when it first starts to get the compressor going. Then it settles down to its constant lower current draw.
Hello
My project is to design a stand alone solar system for a data center( Switches, Routers ,etc..) , I didn't know how to find the power from the data sheet or actually I found a lot of powers that made me confused , can you help me?
do you have a video on grid tie?
Indeed we do! We ave a whole playlist. ua-cam.com/play/PLoHd6hGDqS06K8QJisE08SZQPMa1IehkV.html
thank you altE!
Great videos.but let me ask, I have two lead acid and two gel batteries on my system will it create a problem?
hello altE Store thank you very much
when accounting the surge how can i know the surge for every device because some devices not including its surge in its data shett
+Eng Mahmoud Samy Excellent question. This can be difficult to determine. Some meters may be able to help, but since a surge is often very quick, it may be difficult to capture if the meter isn't fast enough. A Kill-a-watt meter may be able to capture it if it is a 120V 60Hz load. www.altestore.com/store/Meters-Communications-Site-Analysis/Meters-Battery-Monitors/Power-Meters/Kill-A-Watt-EZ-Electricity-Cost-Usage-Meter-P4460/p6659/ A clamp on amp meter may be the best option, like this one, www.altestore.com/store/Meters-Communications-Site-Analysis/Meters-Battery-Monitors/Ammeters-Voltmeters-Battery-Monitors/Blue-Sea-Systems-8110-Mini-Clamp-Multimeter/p7199/, since it can just clamp to the wire and tell you the amps, then you would multiply that by volts to get your watts. Then there's the good old fashioned guessing based on experience. Things with motors, compressors, pumps, tend to have a high surge, figure 2 or 3 times their run time use. Electronics tend to not have enough a a surge to be a concern.
hello all,
i need help/ info, i have three 12V, 156Ah Agm Haze batteries connected in parallel to make a single 12V, 468Ah battery bank (3X156Ah) but the battery is showing on a volt meter as 155/160Ah even when connected as parallel, can someone tell me what is wrong or is't how it meant to be. can someone tell me in details how and what to use in getting a proper watt, volt and amperage reading. any info will be appreciated.
A volt meter is not able to give you Ah readings. The best way to do this is with a battery monitor with a shunt. The shut would be wires in line in the negative wire, and measures the amps going into and out of the battery. This way it can keep track of how much energy is in the battery. Never try to measure amps across a battery with a volt meter.
she passed away, I'm very sad to know that.
In the calculation of load, fridge is on for 9 hours but usually fridge is on 24 hours I didn't understand why you on the fridge for 9 hours.
You may notice that your fridge compressor isn't always running. When the fridge is plugged in, but you don't hear it running, it isn't using much or any power. So in this example, the fridge compressor was only on a total of 9 hours. The best way to calculate a variable load like that is to put on an energy meter like a Kill A Watt meter to get exact numbers. Otherwise, unless you watch it over a period of times, you may need to guess. Some people use 12 hours, figuring it is running half the time.