Any solar power Gurus??

[msmeg26]

Looking to do a camera setup for the coop/run via solar as well as possibly a small fan inside the coop and automatic coop door.

I know that there are solar power fans, and the autocoop door and sep cameras, but anyone know what I need to be looking into to tie this all into 1 or 2 panels... versus all separate components? If this is even possible.

Also thinking of a oxygenator or pump for my rain barrel system which would run on solar too..

 

[MROO]

 

[paneubert]

The trick is supplying the correct voltage and amperage to each device. The coop door is most likely going to want something like 12v and not a horribly large amperage. Just that one jolt to open and one jolt to close it daily. The camera, while probably constantly running, will most likely be much lower of a power hog, usually wanting around 5V and maybe 1000mA on the high end. When you get into fans and pumps, the needs usually jumps a lot. The need to constantly energize the core of the fan to keep it spinning or the diaphragm of a pump to keep pumping air thru the line eats up energy quick.

Long story short is that you would be best served with a solar panel or two that are able to charge a nice sized battery. Then you can have each device pull what it needs via a controller. You would need to spec out both the solar panel capacity as well as the battery capacity to ensure that in a daily sun cycle, your power consumption is less than the panel can charge and the battery can hold. Obviously.

 

[msmeg26]

The trick is supplying the correct voltage and amperage to each device. The coop door is most likely going to want something like 12v and not a horribly large amperage. Just that one jolt to open and one jolt to close it daily. The camera, while probably constantly running, will most likely be much lower of a power hog, usually wanting around 5V and maybe 1000mA on the high end. When you get into fans and pumps, the needs usually jumps a lot. The need to constantly energize the core of the fan to keep it spinning or the diaphragm of a pump to keep pumping air thru the line eats up energy quick.

Long story short is that you would be best served with a solar panel or two that are able to charge a nice sized battery. Then you can have each device pull what it needs via a controller. You would need to spec out both the solar panel capacity as well as the battery capacity to ensure that in a daily sun cycle, your power consumption is less than the panel can charge and the battery can hold. Obviously.

So in theory, my best bet may be to keep any sort of ready made coop door on it's own system, then work to tie in any fans, pumps and cameras potentially on their own system provided the amperage and wattage etc work out. Keeping the panel storing energy to a battery for backup??

 

[msmeg26]

The trick is supplying the correct voltage and amperage to each device. The coop door is most likely going to want something like 12v and not a horribly large amperage. Just that one jolt to open and one jolt to close it daily. The camera, while probably constantly running, will most likely be much lower of a power hog, usually wanting around 5V and maybe 1000mA on the high end. When you get into fans and pumps, the needs usually jumps a lot. The need to constantly energize the core of the fan to keep it spinning or the diaphragm of a pump to keep pumping air thru the line eats up energy quick.

Long story short is that you would be best served with a solar panel or two that are able to charge a nice sized battery. Then you can have each device pull what it needs via a controller. You would need to spec out both the solar panel capacity as well as the battery capacity to ensure that in a daily sun cycle, your power consumption is less than the panel can charge and the battery can hold. Obviously.

Do you know what I should be looking for in an invertor by chance?

 

[msmeg26]

Ok I ended up finding this calculator which is most helpful--- based on this tho my idea is not financially feasible Unless I can figure a way for cheaper amp hour batteries...

https://www.altestore.com/store/calculators/off_grid_calculator/