Any solar power enthusiasts here? To calculate cost of incubating quail eggs

[User635240]

Hi, I'm trying to figure out if my current solar setup is sufficient to power an incubator and then 1500w heat lamp, for hatching and growing quail. I'm trying to determine if the meat value from 30-40 birds would justify the electricity cost, or if solar would negate the electricity cost. The solar system is compromised of: 3 @200W panels (=600W), mppt controller, lithium 12v battery, and 2000w pure sine inverter. The incubator is a Harris farms manna pro 360' with 22 slots for (chicken) eggs. Not clear what the power values are for the incubator. Would extra panels or batteries help? The location is near Cleveland and with the weather right now, seems like the battery doesn't fully charge in one day. Hoping some engineering geeks might chime in here. Thanks!

 

[Debbie292d]

The NR 360 is 60 watts. So your system could handle that easily. The 1500-watt heat bulb, are you sure it's 1500 watts? Our black ceramic heat bulb is 150 w.

Our 200-watt panel with 4 deep cycle batteries and a controller run our camper furnace overnight (100w), but isn't a big enough system to run the AC. (2000 watts to startup/then 700w to run)

The problem with ours and your setup is if we get back-to-back cloudy days, the batteries are only partially charging so the item will run a shorter period of time.

If you own this system already, then it's really worth it to try make it work and hopefully someone more solar savvy stops in, but it already would run the incubator for sure and the brooder lamp if it's 150 instead of 1500. I just would make sure you've got a backup on both for if you have a week of cloudy weather.

 

[NatJ]

1500w heat lamp...The solar system is compromised of: 3 @200W panels (=600W)

Assuming there are no typos in the numbers, I do not see any way that 600w of panels could power 1500w of heat lamp.

(That is not accounting for batteries, conversion, generating power in the day and not at night, or anything more complicated. Just a basic look at which number is bigger. I don't know enough about solar power to go deeper than that.)