Solar For My Gazebo

[Texas-Hunter]

If this the wrong forum to post this in please move it to the correct one. I am a novice on solar so pardon my ignorance on this. OK, here is what I have and what I am wanting to do, I have a lake house in East Texas and it has a small 12x12 gazebo down by the lake. The area where the solar panel(s) will receive 6-7 hrs of direct sun each day. I am wanting to add one 52" ceiling fan inside for some air movement during the hot days/afternoons or evenings. It would be occupied maybe 4-5 hours during any of those parts of the day, most likely afternoon evening. Since this is a weekend home it will not be used every day. My thoughts are a 100 watt solar panel and one 12v deep cycle battery with a 2000 watt inverter. Is this enough not enough. Again this is not my specialty, you want to chat about HVAC Refrigeration up to 500 tons we can talk. The specifications of the fan are below,

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[SunEagle]

Well a single 100watt panel would be able to safely charge a 60Ah battery. That battery can provide about 200 watt hours a day which can run that fan on Medium for about 6 hours.

So you are pretty close to what you need but that 2000 watt inverter is much too big for that battery. You probably can get away with a 300watt inverter.

[Texas-Hunter]

Well a single 100watt panel would be able to safely charge a 60Ah battery. That battery can provide about 200 watt hours a day which can run that fan on Medium for about 6 hours.

So you are pretty close to what you need but that 2000 watt inverter is much too big for that battery. You probably can get away with a 300watt inverter.

Thank you for the reply. The battery I have is a Universal Power Group 100Ah battery will that be an issue with the 100 watt panel. Also if 2000 is way over the top would going with a 750 watt be a problem I planned to have a few outlets for folks or the kids charge their phones or tablets.

[SunEagle]

The basic calculator to determine a solar / battery system is to have the charging amps from the solar panels to be between 1/8 and 1/12 the Amp hour rating of the battery.

A 100 watt panel usually provides about 5.5 amps so it can safely charge a 44Ah to 66Ah battery. To properly charge that 100Ah battery would be to use 2 of those 100watt panels.

The size of the inverter is determined by your battery so that 2000watt inverter could drain a 100Ah battery in less than an hour if you do not watch what you are powering.

That 2000 watt can actually see close to 180amps which would require a set of big wires between the battery and inverter along with a big overcurrent fuse. A large inverter is also less efficient and may draw 10% of its rating just being turned on. That can drain a battery if you do not pay attention.

Usually the inverter is sized based on your starting wattage of your load and then you work backwards to determine the battery and panel wattage. That fan should be able to be started with only 300watt inverter but you can use a bigger one. You just have to wire it safely and make sure the battery gets charged back up to as close to 100% SOC before you use it again.

[Fordtrucksforever]

In my opinion you need to over solar panel this specific application. That fan will be running mostly during the heat of any particular day. You need to produce enough power during this time to not drain your battery. So later when the sun is laying down that fan can still be in use for another hour or so. Look at it as running just off the solar panels when sun is out. Then you still have a full battery after sunset. This takes the load off a single battery. The next day your battery does not need a heavy charge before running fan again.

I would also consider going with two batteries and two larger panels. But still keep with a small inverter like 300-400 watt.

I initially had a similar setup like for your needs a few months ago at my cabin. If you keep the fan running on low/med for the time needed, then your batteries wont take a hit after the sun goes down.

My initial setup was 2 batteries in parallel connected to two 280 watt panels in parallel. Then a 30 amp mppt charger and 300 watt inverter. The batteries stayed above 80% charge all the time. Fan will run for most the time you need and any little extras you want to pull off the batteries. You can also have 4 led bulbs with the fan running too.

This is what worked for me before stepping up to a much larger battery bank and solar array. Everything but the control charger was found used and surplus which saved a small fortune. It is all still currently in use as part of my larger setup.

[bob-n]

If you want to simplify, you can get a 12V ceiling fan. Then you won't need any inverters. You can run the fan right off the 12V battery. Google "ceiling fan 12V" for some choices. Similarly, you can charge cell phones and tablets from 12V with a car charge adapter.

[Texas-Hunter]

Thank you all for the input, this is very helpful. At least I was heading in the right direction..