Why is it impossible to have solar Air Conditioning?
Even if it were impossible to have panels run large A/C units. Even running solar panels converting dc-ac power could easily run a window unit. Even large one are only 1700 watts? Thats only two large panels?
I don't think anyone understand how Solar Energy works that have answered so far. Nor do they understand the new technologies out there for panels. #1 the panels do not run on a continuous basis. They are stored in batteries that can output 1800 watts easily for hours at a time using inverters.
20k can run a whole on grid house… my electric bill a month is between 150-550 at peak times….it would not take 30 years to recoupe my money.
"20k can run a whole on grid house… my electric bill a month is between 150-550 at peak times….it would not take 30 years to recoupe my money."
Assuming you can get the panels for $20k, at 10 cents a kWh from your utility, that would offset 200,000 kWh. If your on-grid house uses 1,000 kWh per month, that's 200 months which works out to just over 16 and a half years.
Nope, not 30 years, but longer than most people are willing to wait for a payback.
Also, $20k is typically about a 2 kW system, which might handle a single window AC system, but a central AC system will be more like 10 kW, which would put you in the $100k range for the solar system to run it. At the same 10 cents/kWh, that puts your payback just over 83 years.
And yes, people will tell you the next breakthough is just around the corner and solar will get a lot cheaper.
Just like they've been saying since the 70's. Someday they will actually be right. But, I wouldn't hold my breath!
Coolerado Solar Powered Air Conditioning Demonstrator
The largest panels that I know of are 300 to 350 watts. You would need at least 5 of them to get enough "juice" to run an air conditioner. You also need a DC to AC inverter, not to mention a battery bank to store the energy from the panels unless you only wanted to run the AC unit for a little while during the day.
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I don't think it is the problem that it is impossible, but more that it is just not economical. Solar panels are very expensive. A better alternative is to have better insulation/design of buildings so they they don't get hot in the first place
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Not sure what your question is.
yes, you can use solar cells to run an inverter which runs an AC. It would take a lot of panels to run even a small AC, which uses about 1000 watts.
In theory you could do it directly via an array of mirrors that concentrated the sun's heat into a small area. I know there are gas operated refrigerators, so this should be possible.
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It wouldn’t be impossible, just very…. very expensive.
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Alright… Would you pay $2000 for a 1700watt air conditioner powered by power lines or do you want to pay $20,000 to have it powered by solar panels. I don't think so man. It would take 30 years to recuperate the energy savings you would get from solar. I can see how with time new clean energy technology will get cheaper, but it's not time yet and most decisions made in todays world are economical (not environmental). Just wait a while more… it will happen. And by the way… making investments into clean energy companies right now is not a bad idea.
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"20k can run a whole on grid house… my electric bill a month is between 150-550 at peak times….it would not take 30 years to recoupe my money."
Assuming you can get the panels for $20k, at 10 cents a kWh from your utility, that would offset 200,000 kWh. If your on-grid house uses 1,000 kWh per month, that's 200 months which works out to just over 16 and a half years.
Nope, not 30 years, but longer than most people are willing to wait for a payback.
Also, $20k is typically about a 2 kW system, which might handle a single window AC system, but a central AC system will be more like 10 kW, which would put you in the $100k range for the solar system to run it. At the same 10 cents/kWh, that puts your payback just over 83 years.
And yes, people will tell you the next breakthough is just around the corner and solar will get a lot cheaper.
Just like they've been saying since the 70's. Someday they will actually be right. But, I wouldn't hold my breath!
References :
There is another way to do solar air conditioning. Use the sun to bake the water out of silica gel. Then pass the incoming air over the gel to dry it, then through a swamp cooler to cool and re moisten it. You need a slowly rotating wheel containing the silica gel, one half being heated by the sun and the other half drying the intake air.
This is a lot more efficient than an electrical system, since heat is never converted to electricity.
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