Solar Panel Power Inverter?
by broodkast
Question by tabulator32: Solar Panel Power Inverter?
I have a 30 watt solar panel but I plan to expand. Can I go ahead and use a 300 Watt power inverter with the 30 watt panel? Will it work?
Best answer:
Answer by Ed
You sure can. All the inverter cares about is having enough voltage.
When the sun is going down, my 3000 watt inverters keep putting out voltage until the last minute. Diminishing with time of course.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
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about 1 year ago
Ok, you have a 30 watt solar panel which will put out about 2 amps or so in direct sunlight. I assume that you have a storage battery and probably a voltage regulator to keep from overcharging the battery.
As for the power converter, just assume that it has to run from the battery and the solar panel is just there for charging the battery. Even without the solar panel, you can run any size inverter you want as long as the battery will stand the load. A car battery or anything larger will stand the 300w inverter without any problem. the battery will eventually run down of course. The actual amount of power that the inverter will draw is in proportion to the amount of load that you have plugged into it. Just having the inverter turned on will waste a little power, perhaps as much as 1/2 amp (about 6 watts at 12 volts, volts times amps = watts). If you have a 30 watt load plugged in, you will consume about 36 watts which is about 3 amps. If you run this load for 5 hours, you will have consumed about (3×5) 15 amp-hours. If the solar panel puts out 2 amps, this will take about 7.5 hours (a whole day of sunlight) to replace. Increasing your solar array will obviously shorten the time.
If you want to know how much you can be running without draining the battery, this is going to be about 30 watts, less the loss in the inverter. This is mid-day with sun directly on the panel, it will be less in the morning and the evening.