I would like to buy a solar system from here in Calgary Take it down to my home in Lipa City. WILL IT WORK?

Question

I live in the Philippines and a need for solar is important I know about the adapter I'm not sure about the volt difference The solar here is rated for 110volt (Calgary) Is it the watts I should be concerned with. I want to run 2 exhaust fan, about 12, 25watt light bulbs, 2 insect Zappers about 15watt. a small freezer. Its about one thousand dollars for one panel at 123watts Would anyone know what kind of a kit package I need

Answer 1

David is correct, but buy it configured for 110/220 volts 50/60hz initially.

And get it 3-4 time more power than you need, as you will need extra power to charge batteries so that you have power when the sun is not shining.

You will need the solar panels, a charge controller, batteries, and an inverter, which converts 12v or 24v from the batteries to 110/220 volts 50/60Hz.

Power: switch the light bulbs to CFL types, and they will only use 10w each. So 120w for the bulbs, 200 watts for the freezer, 150w for the rest, a total of 500 watts. I'd plan for 1000 watts to allow for expansion, with 3000-5000 watts worth of solar panels.

Answer 2

Well, solar panels only produce DC current, the same as a car battery, not AC which is household current. In order to convert DC to AC, you need a device called an "inverter." Household appliances simply won't work on DC.(Inverters that produces 220 volts AC, as opposed to the 110 volts AC used in the USA and Canada, aren't hard to find, but trying to design and wire a system up *from scratch* would be difficult.)

Most solar power kits already come with an appropriately sized inverter.

In this case, I think you should just call or email the supplier and ask if they make kits that supply 220 VAC, not 110 VAC.

Simply add up the all wattage ratings of all the appliances you expect to run, then add to that a "safety factor" of about 10%-30% to account for inefficiencies, and fluctuations in light levels.

Obviously, solar panels don't work at night!

If you expect to have any current at all during the night, you either need to be connected to the local power grid, or you need BATTERIES. (Note: I recommend "nickel-iron" (NIFE) batteries for this purpose. They are the most reliable batteries out there.)

If the latter is the case, then you actually need 2-3 TIMES the amount of solar cells, since during the day you're not only running your appliances, you're also *recharging* your batteries.

Answer 3

Outlets in the Philipines appear to be 220V, 60 Hz.

To use a solar panel from Canada that delivers 120 VAC, 60Hz, you simply need a 2:1 transformer.

Add up the wattages of everything you want to use, then add 10% for losses in the transformer.  Get a solar panel rated to deliver that wattage.