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How can I make use of a renewable energy system?
Take our shop for instance, a retail outlet with 8 staff, located on an isolated site, We have about 10 P/C’s running non stop and lights running 12 hours a day, If we have a power cut our business effectively stops, no internet orders, no deliveries, no sales
The system we installed (see photo) provides us with emergency power to work our emergency lighting system (designed to give us sufficient working light) and power to our 2 – main servers.
This means we can carry on trading for a full working day on the battery power we have, Last year we lost power for the 2nd half of a day and the money we lost could have paid for this system.
Can I use this system in a domestic environment ?
If you imagine having no electricity in your house, what are the things you will miss the most?
Typical power needs;
i) Lights
ii) T.V.
iii) PCs
iv) Refrigerators
v) Auxiliary Power
With enough battery back up you should be able to power the above, obviously the more power you use the faster it goes, depending on the weather conditions, the wind generator and the solar panel will be charging the batteries at the same time, if you can balance the input to the output you should be able to run infinitely, unfortunately with our weather conditions you rarely get the perfect conditions to keep both generators running at full capacity, so battery drainage is inevitable (we recommend 2 – 40 amp-hour batteries as a minimum back up).
For a serious battery back-up system you need to be looking at a 200 amp back-up facility, this will power a 12 volt 600-watt inverter (running at 90% efficiency) at full power for about 3½ hours, or 80 watts worth of 12-volt low energy lighting for 30 hours and this is with no charge going in to batteries during this time.
Now this is where energy efficient lighting comes in to use, the latest 12 volt L.e.d. bulbs can produce sufficient light output with minimum consumption of power(between 2-3 watts per bulb), this will give you extended lighting time compared to normal tungsten bulbs (typically 60 watts).
Can I install a system myself?
It is usually a two person job installing the wind generator and solar panel, as much for the weight of the equipment as the technical aspect. If you install the equipment on a building with pole and brackets and your working at the top of ladders, all we can say is that it’s going to be expensive equipment to drop.
Why do I need a wind generator and a solar panel?
On a typical British autumn day (as it is today for example, as I write this) its cloudy and no wind at all, the Rutland 913 wind generator is hardly spinning and the 80 watt solar panel is producing enough to trickle charge a battery, when the sun breaks through this rises up to 5 amps. So during today the solar panel is doing the charging, as the wind starts to pick up the wind generator starts to charge and continues to do so through the night (when the solar panel produces nothing) so the two compliment each other producing a charging current in all but unusual weather conditions.
How much power does the wind generator and solar panel need to generate?
This is where you need to plan what is the minimum amount of power you require.
ie: how many lights do you require, what size inverter do you require to power P/C’s , TV's, phone systems etc.
Obviously the more energy efficient the items are the less power you require, once you’ve determined how much power you need and for how long. You can determine the size of the batteries you need.
The formula for working out battery size is;
Amount of Wattage required = amps per hour
12 volts
For example, if you have 10 lights using 7 watts each (compact 12v fluorescence for instance) and a 150 watt inverter (to power your 240 volt devices) drawing 100 watts + 25 watts inefficiency this gives a total of;
10 x 7 = 70 watts + 150 watts = total wattage required 220
Amperage required is -
220 = 18.3 amps per hour
12
So if you require this amount of power for 8 hours you will need -
18.3 x 8 = 146.6 amps
This relates to 2 x 80 amp/hr or 4 x 40 amp/hr batteries to give you sufficient power to work for 8 hours (probably longer as the batteries will be getting charged as they are being used).
At the end of this usage the batteries will be flat and will require recharging, if you estimate the charging current to be an average of 3 – amps per hour (could be more could be less depending on weather conditions) then it will take about 53 hours to fully recharge the batteries, the more charge going in to the batteries the quicker they charge.
4 x 40 amp batteries = 160 amps = 53.3 hours
Do you provide an installation service?
We do provide an installation service by our own skilled trained engineers, a site survey would be advisable and can be arranged upon request.
What’s the delivery time on the products?
The wind generators we are using at the moment are the Marlec range (probable the most efficient on the market at the moment) these products are made to order and usually take up to 2 – weeks from ordering.
Do I require planning permission?
Not normally but its always worth checking with your local council office.
Is the wind generator noisy?
When the wind generator is fitted to the house wall it does produce a slight droning noise when the regulator is reducing the speed of the turbine, this can be reduced by fitting rubber mounts under the wall bracket fixings, on the outside you can hear very little noise unless its raining, when you hear slight “whooshing” sound, obviously a solar panel is completely silent in a combined system.
What’s the expected life span?
This is a fit and forget system, normal life expectancy is 15 years.
What type of batteries are used?
We normally supply the Gel type batteries, a bit safer than the normal lead acid car type batteries, although these will work fine, the main difference between the two is the lead acid batteries (as used in cars etc) work on a shallow charge/ discharge cycle ie; the usage of the batteries is minimal, the deep cycle gel batteries are designed to be used more heavily and discharged more deeply, and to recover faster from low voltage.
The HRDX charge controller we normally sell with the wind-generator/ solar panels kits limits the amount of current to the batteries so they don’t charge to quickly(which can cause damage to the charge plates), a 10% of battery amperage is a good rule of thumb for a charging rate.
ie; if you have a battery pack of 160 amp-hour then the ideal charge rate should be a 16 amps of charge per hour, the charger should be capable of producing 20% of the battery amperage.
Does it need maintenance?
A typical system should be maintenance free for the life of the products.
Is there any restrictions to what I can use on the system?
You just have to be careful about the current loading you put on the system, even at 12 volts you can burn cables out and damage the batteries.
Can I rely solely on this system for my power needs?
A typical back up system similar to the one fitted to our shop would normally be used for mains failure (power cut) or to supplement your existing electricity supply, however larger systems can be designed. You could rely solely on this system if installed in an outbuilding for instance where power requirements aren’t as demanding.
Do we have to be qualified to install the 12 volt power and lighting circuits?
If you are going to install your own 12 volt power and lighting circuits then this work needs to comply with the latest electrical installation regulations and should be inspected and tested to the part “P” standards.
Our engineers are qualified electricians and work to the latest electrical standards.
What’s the difference between the solar panels?
There are three different types of materials used in the manufacture of solar panels.
These are;
Polycrystalline
(usually about 17% efficient and smaller cells for same power output as mono, with effective life span of 25 years)
Monocrystalline
(usually about 14-15% efficient with a life span of about 20 years)
Amourphous silicon
(usually about 5-6% efficient with poor life span and larger for same power output as mono or poly)
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