Can I get my laundry room working on solar energy alone?

Question

I have a room that has a washer and dryer. I really want to get it working solely on batteries charged with solar panels (of the grid) What system will I need and what kind of batteries and size of panels should I get to turn my laundry room working on solar energy. I only wash three loads once a week.

Answer 1

If you dryer is electric, Nope, not a good idea.

Take you clothes outside to dry outdoors---  much cheaper.

You will probably need the capability of delivering 500 watts for an hour per load for the washer.

The electronics will add some load.

If you have a week to recharge,  that's  a little slow, but say 8 hours a day for 6 days, so you will need to supply 10 watts supply for charge the batteries, minimum, per load.

Buy a P3 meter to determine the power you need to supply.

http://www.p3international.com/products/...

All that will estimate the size of the system you will need.  This will help you hire the right firm to install it.

It will also be good for other uses, like powering a computer.

Answer 2

yes

Answer 3

actually you can. My wife and I were looking into solar energy for ourself. They said that you can either run an ac system with it or run the other electronics in the house!!!! Kinda expensive though to set up. Some power companies offer rebates just not ours.

Answer 4

no you need some one

Answer 5

If your washer is a front load, and you switch your dryer to a small plastic lined closet with a small dehumidifier, it would save its cost in reduced solar panel and battery cost.

But you do not need to have capacity to run both washer and drier at one time, just the larger load.

(That is why you need to change to a small dehumidifier in a plastic lined closet... a clothes dryer demands so much power).

Front load washers will cut your electrical load directly, but also cut the amount of water left in the  laundry, so less drying energy needed.

My system has a starting load of 400 watts, so I need a battery pack to provide that much starting load, but my continuous load is 220 watt.

Now this is supported almost entirely by a battery array and a 540 watt inverter that converts 12 volt to 120v  60 Hz.

One load of washing uses 250 watt hours(Up to 300), and drying  takes about 500 watt hours.

Using a top load washer might use 500 watt hours, but would also demand more current. Using a clothes drier would be unthinkable.

If you use the system more frequently with smaller amounts of power needed per usage, it cuts down the amount of battery power you need. That is why you want to cut down your energy need to a minimum.

A battery is sold with a number of ampere hours.

When you look for more watts, remember to multiply ampere hours by 12 to get watt hours, so that a 100 ampere hour battery will store 1200 watt hours of power. One large deep discharge battery is enough to wash and dry a load of laundry (or almost dry it) depending on how much sun power you are collecting.

If you want to recharge that 100 amp hour deep discharge battery for use next day, you need to have enough solar panels to deliver 100 ampere hours of power per average winter day. (1200 watt hours)

This map will give a hint as to the amount of rated capacity you will need.

http://www.solarcraft.net/sun-hours-map....  

For battery charging you also need a voltage regulator.