What can you run on 200 Watts of Solar @ AZ Off-Grid (Unplugged)

Trying to answer the question of "what can I run on 200 watts of solar panels.?". .Easy answer, not as much as you think,, but a lot more than you realize.. This is to help you determine what can actually run while the sun is shining.. To finish the equation you need to add a battery (bank) to the setup and that will ultimately determine what you can run.. If you have enough fully charged batteries you can run a welder,, just not for very long.. Because of "losses" inherent in DC electricity you lose a certain percentage from wires, cables, equipment, etc.. The losses can add up to as much as 50% depending on the equipment you buy.. It is getting to the point that it's cheaper to add more panels than to buy highly efficient equipment..

link to the 200 watt system:
link to a 100 watt system:

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[JalenJaguar]

Getting into solar is so liberating! to feel like I have the “power” to go anywhere literally

[ourselfreliantlife]

Really good break down, Sir! I think you hit the nail on the head. You wouldn't be able to run much, but people might be surprised at all the things you can run. It's all about paying attention to power things consume.

[geraldmaina]

Good work.. Watching you from Kenya, I wanted to install Solar but I had no clue. I have researched everywhere in the internet but only now that I have come across something so nice and well explained.. May God bless you abundantly.

[steve]

Very simple and straightforward. I agree, so many variables, so you kept it to what people would typically take into account, plus a good insight into loss factors.

[zp]

I absolutely love that you emphasize THE LOSS that occurs between capture and storage. And yours is the ONLY solar video I've watched that mentioned halving the battery capacity in your calculations.

Not only is that important for battery health (assuming you're using "cheap" deep cycle batteries), it's absolutely critical when attempting to answer how much power you can pull "continuously." On grid, you're connecting to a network of wires that are continually fed by multiple power stations. In a grid system, the access point, your "source, " is typically only a few feet from the outlet you're using. Grid power is (generally speaking) reliable, stable, and able to adapt to changes in demand. You don't have to consider how much energy a product uses before you add it to your system. You just plug it in, and the grid delivers more power. Easy.

The aspect of using solar power that I feel is most often ignored, is that you're giving up that "security" a large grid provides. You're moving from a power source that's 200 ft away, to one that is 4, 910, 400, 000, 000 ft away. Instead of utilizing the available power dozens of different power stations provide, you're isolating yourself to a single source of power, 93 million miles away...
The sun.

I grew up in a small town with poor electrical service. There was this bend in the road about five miles from home, and every winter, drivers would slide out on that turn and hit the pole. We would lose power 4-5 days every year, sometimes it was 6 hours, sometimes over 24. It became so predictable that the county kept a stack of replacement poles right next to the one that was always hit. The fact that this happened every single year is actually what lead me to learn about energy storage. When I was 15, I bought 8 used 12v lead acid batteries that came from electric wheelchairs and alarm systems. I linked them together, and stored them under my bed. When the power went out, I'd switch on my inverter, and power my room for several hours. I believe my storage capacity was around 250 amps, and I had calculated the draw of every appliance I might "need" in amp hours, and wrote that on the plug. I had nothing to show me real time stats for the batteries. All I knew was max capacity, and the last time they were charged. So I would manually estimate the battery percent by subtracting the amp/hr number on each plug from the 250 amp capacity I started with.

I know I went off on a tangent there, but there is a point to it.

On grid power, blackouts happen. In my example the cause was known, it was reoccurring, and it was semi predictable. I never knew the exact day or time, but I knew it happened every winter. That's why I bought the batteries. I charged them up when power was plentiful, and I ran them down when the power was out.

I never knew if the blackout would last for 4 hours, or 24 hours, so I was careful to ration out my energy. I was blocked off from my power source, limiting me to whatever the batteries had stored.

And that, I think, is what's missed when discussing solar energy. If an accident five miles away can disturb power on the grid, imagine all the variables involved when you're sourcing power from 93 million miles away.

Will it be sunny or cloudy? Will it rain or not? If it does rain, is it at night or in the afternoon? How much dust is in the air? How hot is it? (solar panels are less efficient when they heat up)

The question "what can I do with X number of watts from solar" is so nuanced that it's almost pointless to try and answer. But that doesn't stop people on YouTube from doing it.

The thing is, when someone asks that question, they're looking for a certain answer. They want the answer in terms of "stuff." How many tvs, how long can it run a fridge, how long can it run an A/C, charge a laptop, power lights, etc. Because they're still stuck in that grid mentality. They understand that solar is limited by the number of watts produced, but they don't really know what a watt is. So they translate that concept of limited availability back to an analog of the grid system they're familiar with - number of outlets.

A room with six outlets can power more things at once than a room with only one. In the single outlet room, you'll have to unplug one thing if you want to use another. In the six outlet room, you can plug in twelve different things at the same time, you don't have to be so selective.

And that's the point of view people have when they ask that question, because they don't yet understand their own question. They see a setup produces x number of watts, but they wanna know what that is in terms of outlets. How many sockets are in x watts of panels? What can I plug in to that?

That's why I love your video, because you address the question, but you don't entertain that logic. You aren't like "well, I run this this and that, but you could run two of these, one of those half the time, and this thing here at night." Again, the answer depends on soooo many different things.

What you can run through August in Arizona is gonna be different from what you can run in Washington mid December. If you're talking in terms of appliances, not only would your power generation be different, but the type of things you're likely to need would be completely different. So it's pointless to describe panel output in terms of "things."

Rather than giving a subjective answer to a poorly written question, you redirected the audience back to what caused them to ask in the first place. Instead of simply giving an answer, you provided knowledge and information that will allow the asker to answer their own question. Whether it's summer or winter, if they're in Texas or Maine, your video empowers the viewer to find the solution that's unique to their situation.

And your video stands out among the crowd because of that.

You don't name a list of appliances. Instead, you explain how power is collected, converted, and stored.

You don't tell stories about how you ran this or that for so many hours. Instead, you explain that total watts used must be less than total watts gained.

You also discussed how the storage capacity of your batteries affects total available power, but that more batteries doesn't mean you can use more power all the time - because they still need an excess to charge.

So many videos just say add more batteries. But that only works in the short term, like you said. Ultimately, the power you can use reliably, every day, is limited by your panels.

Well done, sir. Well done.

[PsychoDad]

not sure what I appreciate more? the solar info or the tip on the french press....it arrived yesterday and WOW..

[philiplibby]

Awsome video thanks to you I now understand solar power after watching 100 vids thanks

[mastaangler]

Very clear vid, thanks for breaking it down.

[TwistedMetalsOfTexas]

good to know info thank you for sharing hope all is well and have a great day!

[calebproductions]

Thanks for being honest it helped me in sizing my system thank you

[keithinaz]

Newly off grid myself, I am using a pair of the 100w Harbor Freight panels to charge a pair of Jackery 290's. I can run multiple large power tools that run with chargeable batteries, ie. Chainsaw, drill, auger, etc. Of course charges phone and solar lights also. Easy to move around, and worth the money.

[pedropereira]

Very nice video, well explained, thanks for sharing!!!

[dlk]

You put it in such simple words anyone can fairly understand or at least get an idea what they need. Good job👍

[davepearcea]

Great video thanks for the advise. Good luck my friend

[blackout]

Best video to watch of you want to get motion sick. Hands down, top quality uncontrolled shaking of the camera. Almost as good as pictures people take with their finger part way over the camera and instead of retaking the picture, they post it any way.

[zeper]

thank you for sharing, love your video

[plove]

Thanks for the video, solar is addicting; more, more, more. Buy anticipating upgrades.

[zp]

For quick and dirty math, I calculate output at the inverter as 60% of whatever the panels are rated for.

I also cut the amp hours of the batteries in half, cause I always wanna leave a little extra "for a rainy day."

When estimating the daily output of a system in clear weather, my back of the napkin formula is maximum panel rating * 5. That's pretty close to the actual output (after loss) for 24 hours.

[larryperry]

Probably the simplest put real explanation. Well said.

[Uncle_Buzz]

Good stuff! FYI, you can get 300W+ panels on craigslist for $100 now.