I recently purchased a 100 Watt solar panel that at it's peak produces 18 Volts of electricity. Since I'm working on a small aquaponics system for my porch, it seemed like a good use for the panel.
The system works by pumping water like a fountain over a container of water (basically like a fish tank). On the water's way back down to the main container, it passes through the roots of plants of your choosing that thrive off the nutrients in the water. The water also on its way back down, splashes and generates dissolved air in the water that fish use to breathe.
So then the water pump needs solar electricity to operate. I set it out today in a slightly overcast sky and just hooked the panel up directly to a 12V .35A water pump. In the early hours of the day, there was not enough electricity to run the pump. But shortly thereafter it started working. I then covered the solar panel just to test if it would shut off and it did.
What this means is that a 100W 18V solar panel produces enough electricity to pump a generous amount of water (about a gallon every 45 seconds) a few feet in the air.
Since this little experiment, I've also hooked up a charge controller and a 12V 12Ah battery to the system. The idea is it will generate enough electricity during the day to charge the battery and operate the pump so that the pump continues to operate overnight. More on this later.
No comments:
Post a Comment