What do I need to have greenhouse equipment solar?

[Bananaguy]

I have a greenhouse with some diy exhaust fans totaling 20.8watts from my fans. Have a thermostat wired to the fans. No idea on any info with it. Have a 1500watt electric heater with built in thermostat. Fans will only run when temps hit 80. Heater only will come on at 52 degrees. So was wondering if there was a simple system out there to use that's not going to cost more then it's worth for the power that's being used. Just figured neat way to run stuff and save some money on electric bill. I have two 1.5watt panels that I have run small fans off in the past and ran off a old car battery until it died. So never messed with any other solar equipment.
thanks.

[SunEagle]

Hello Bananaguy and welcome to Solar Panel Talk

A couple of things you should get your head around. Powering any HVAC system from solar is not cheap. Heating is the worst since it usually runs when the sun is not around and the temperatures are colder at night. With that 1500 watt load it will require a huge & expensive battery system.

You might be able to get away with a small system to run your 21 watt load for fans but when you use batteries you will never really save enough money compared to using grid power.

[Wy_White_Wolf]

The only type of system that could possibly be cheaper would be a grid tied system to offset your usage in the greenhouse.

WWW

[Bananaguy]

Hello and thanks. I thought about trying the HF 100w setup. I know on here it's looked down on. But for a small setup like mine I wouldn't be able to use that system and one battery even? Or no matter what I would need several batteries?

Ok... for just the fans what would I need?

[Sunking]

A whole lot of money is what it will take, so much so this will never happen. The box the Harbor Fright stuff came in is worth more than is inside the box.

Your real issue is the heat. The numbers ought to tell you something. How do you expect a 100 watt panel to work with a 1500 watt heater?

If you use the HF kit to run that heater for 1 hours per day will require 15 of those Harbor Fight Kits, Plus a $700 controller and a 450 pound $1100 battery. Want two hours you say of hear. Double that. Never going to happen.

Use commercial AC power. Anything you take off-grid is going to cost you 5 to 10 times more than buying the power from that mean ole nasty greedy power company the rest of your life. So the question becomes is: Why do you want to pay 5 to 10 times more for power? What were you thinking?

[SunEagle]

Hello and thanks. I thought about trying the HF 100w setup. I know on here it's looked down on. But for a small setup like mine I wouldn't be able to use that system and one battery even? Or no matter what I would need several batteries?

Ok... for just the fans what would I need?

To size the solar/battery system for your fans we would need to know how long they will run each day to calculate the estimated watt hour usage.

A napkin estimate of say 25 watts for 12 hours would be 300 watt hours. If those fans eat more watts or you run them longer then your watt hour usage goes up.

Oh. Forget about the HF kits. They are over priced and under powered for just about anything except maybe a porch light.

[Bananaguy]

Okay, well guess I will just keep the setup the way I have it. Wasn't aware solar was going to be that much money involed and equipment. Not like my setup using that much power anyhow. Fans I have no idea, might run for along time. Heater, not that often as I insulated the greenhouse with bubble wrap and siliconed all the panels. Things online you see for greenhouse stuff people did you never see long term. So like you did it might work for alittle while but eventually their battery dies as well.

[SunEagle]

Okay, well guess I will just keep the setup the way I have it. Wasn't aware solar was going to be that much money involed and equipment. Not like my setup using that much power anyhow. Fans I have no idea, might run for along time. Heater, not that often as I insulated the greenhouse with bubble wrap and siliconed all the panels. Things online you see for greenhouse stuff people did you never see long term. So like you did it might work for alittle while but eventually their battery dies as well.

I agree. Most videos you see on Boobtube are short duration and more than likely never make it past 1 year before the battery system fails.

The sad part is that while solar pv connected as a grid tie system does have a payback which varies from place to place, just about no where will a solar / battery system ever pay for itself.

That is why we recommend someone to do the math first and then weigh the cost of a solar/battery system and compare it to installing a grid connection.

[Bananaguy]

10-4. Well thanks for your help and everyone else's.