Solar panels harbor freight

[doublecrossranch]

do you suggest the 100 watt or 25 watt? I plan to move my chicks into the coop when they are 4 week old. I would like to put the heat plate in the coop because some of our nights are getting into the 50’s. I will have an area blocked off so they can escape the bigger pullets. There is plenty of ventilation with the windows open. There won’t be any direct drafts.
Just curious about the solar panels for right now. Lol

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

What do you want the solar panel for?

 

[Kusanar]

That heat plate is going to draw a lot of power. Watts are volts x amps, the heat plate will have the amps listed on it, so 110 (what comes out of the wall in volts) x whatever amps the heat plate uses is how many watts in an hour you will be using. You need to factor in hours of sunlight and what quality of sunlight (is it facing due south? Angled correctly? Does it track the sun? Are there any things that may shade it temporarily during the day?) the panels will get on them. You also will need an inverter as solar is DC and your heat plate will run on AC, those lose some power when they convert it, you have to factor that loss in as well, you also need enough battery storage to run the heat plate all night as that is when you will need it the most but the panels will not be producing anything.

 

[slordaz]

solar panels only charge if you set them out though, didn't have time to get mine charged enough to run the incubator when got notice the night before we were going to be without power for an extended period. I got portable one it's 10 watt/6v but the battery storage is 500 watts so I got a little over 4 hours that it would run as long as I didn't run anything else, so fully charged it should work for extended period, if I can ever remember to get it charged in the first place, it will run up to 2 small plugged in things and a port to charge cell phones. You could also watch for a cheap or used 2 cycle battery and keep an extra one to 4 charged too depending on your expected needs

 

[EggWalrus]

I doubt you will be able to run any kind of heat off of just one of their solar panels. You would need quite a few and a huge bank of deep cycle batteries. For me it would be cost prohibitive.
It can be done with enough money. To many people find out the hard way that solar isn't a magic bullet when it comes to power devices.
I would look on several different off grid forums and find out how many of the 100 panels you would need based on how many amps the heater is. And daytime temps in the morning will add extra hours to heater use. It would be a lot cheaper to run a few extention cords to the chickens or move them closer to your AC electricity.

Good luck!

 

[doublecrossranch]

You also will need an inverter as solar is DC and your heat plate will run on AC, those lose some power when they convert it, you have to factor that loss

Another reason Tesla should have won the power race.
They would be out on the roof 24/7. I thought I had seen others use the hf panels with success.

 

[doublecrossranch]

I doubt you will be able to run any kind of heat off of just one of their solar panels. You would need quite a few and a huge bank of deep cycle batteries. For me it would be cost prohibitive.
It can be done with enough money. To many people find out the hard way that solar isn't a magic bullet when it comes to power devices.
I would look on several different off grid forums and find out how many of the 100 panels you would need based on how many amps the heater is. And daytime temps in the morning will add extra hours to heater use. It would be a lot cheaper to run a few extention cords to the chickens or move them closer to your AC electricity.

Good luck!

Not sure I can move them closer. Lol

 

[slordaz]

Not sure I can move them closer. Lol

Maybe make a grow out smaller coop closer?

 

[doublecrossranch]

Maybe make a grow out smaller coop closer?

I’ll give you my husbands number. See if you can talk him into it. Lol. I’ll be lucky if he makes me poop boards. Lol

 

[slordaz]

easie

I’ll give you my husbands number. See if you can talk him into it. Lol. I’ll be lucky if he makes me poop boards. Lol

the way to do that is, tell him grow out coop closer , your running power out to the main coop or they stay in the house with us, that usually makes em more agreeable lol