This may either change things or shut me down. Not sure just yet which….
http://www.batterystuff.com/kb/tools/calculator-sizing-a-battery-to-a-load.html
Long story short, we ran the numbers.
400 watts at 12v DC is 33 amps. To run 33 amps for 10 hours requires a 700 amp hour battery.
Yeah.
That’s a big battery. A. Very. Big. Battery.
Honestly. It’s too big.
Not only can I not afford something that size, but I also do not have the space to house it.
So. Options.
Clearly I have to pull back a bit on my desire to run the computers all night on the battery.
If we kick it back to 5 hours, things become more sensible.
If we move to a 24 volt system, things become more sensible.
Just to complicate things, our power company has voted to go from the current 4 tier power use system to a 2 tier. I am not sure what that is going to mean for our power bill. I suspect it will go up, but it also means I have to make the solar work harder to save more money for it to become profitable (or worthwhile).
Just to make things even more complicated, there is talk of them moving to a time of use system as well, but no solid data on when that may happen.
Ugh. It’s not supposed to be this hard!!
