How to work out how long a 100Ah battery will last
As a general rule, a 100Ah deep-cycle lead-acid battery discharged to 50% will run a 50 watt load for 12 hours, a 200 watt load for 3 hours and a 400 watt load for 1.5 hours. For...
It’s natural to assume that the question arises from concerns about the total weight of a solar panel array and the impact on the average home roof. Although becoming more and more common, house roofs are not the only place solar...
Refrigerators run over a 24 hour period, so any calculation of the power needed should reflect solar panel output over 24 hours and energy storage for the periods when the sun doesn’t shine.
An average fridge of 500 watts needs 2...
How do you size a wind turbine for your home?
If you intend to use a wind turbine to power a house, most mid-sized homes can work well with a 10kW-20kW system. However, some homes could require up to a 100kW wind turbine. It depen...
How does solar water purification work?
A solar water purifier can work in two ways:
Nullify biological contaminants directly by ultraviolet light
Evaporate and distill water by heat energy, leaving contaminants behind
Water is...
Geothermal energy is harnessed using 3 types of conversion plants
How Geothermal energy is harnessed
As the world attempts to shift to non-fossil-based energy sources, more and more companies look at geothermal energy and how to...
How much does geothermal energy cost?
Is geothermal energy cheaper than other sources?
As a general rule, the cost of geothermal energy compares favorably with fossil fuel energy over the longer term. In the past few years, there...
Such a solar panel connected to a battery in bright sunlight will charge the battery and keep on charging it over and above normal recommended voltages. It would definitely damage the battery internally. It's important to use a suitable solar charger.
Geothermal is efficient, so why isn’t it used as much as other forms of heating?
Geothermal energy is often touted as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. However, it still makes up only a small fraction of total energy sour...
Solar panel output winter vs summer
As a general rule solar panels work best in full sunshine when there is maximum insolation, which is the amount of solar radiation hitting a horizontal surface. Standard practice is to assume 10...
As a general rule lithium batteries are better than lead-acid batteries in several ways:
They have a higher energy density
They are lighter
Much longer life (several thousand discharge cycles possible)
More stable voltage over...
How Many Solar Panels To Charge An Electric Car?
Over the past few years there has been a massive increase in the demand and usage of electric vehicles (EV) due to their increasingly high mileage range and minimum impact on the en...
