[encantotom]

a neighbor of mine is just finishing building his high end bunny barn. forest and i helped to put the roof trusses up and sidewalls at the barn raising a while back. now it is insulated, metal roof, drywalled and i spent the last two mornings helping him paint the inside. looks nicer than most new homes. we did an epoxy on the inside today after primering yesterday.

he has a window swamp cooler in it and vents the air out through the duct you see on the outside over to his chicken coup.

they are going to raise exotic rabbits mostly for the fur, but for meat as well. (i aint gonna eat them)

he is going to get two 125 watt solar panels, a 3000 watt inverter, 2 6v golf cart batteries and a charge controller. he is having a hard time sizing the system. there will only be lights that are only rarely used and the 1/2 swamp cooler. draws about 6amps.

but....the swamp cooler will be running 23x7 in the summer. like now.

so...for you solar experts, any advice on the sizing of the panels and how many golf cart batteries he will need?

oh yea, thats my golf cart with the skull on the front and dog in the seat.

thanks

tom

[folivier]

Is he planning to run electricity back there? If not then the batteries will have to run the lights and cooler whenever the light isn't shining on the panels. I've heard to figure about 8-10 hours of sunlight per/day. On my '93 coach I had 240 watts total, about the same as he's planning and they put out about 15 amps total. So that's about 120-150 amps of charging. More in summer, less in winter. But remember he should only deplete his batteries to 50%. So he should need 300 amp hours of batteries and he will use 50% about 150 amps for 24 hours. That is 6 amps dc right?
So that setup should work but will be minimal. If he has problems then he might want to add another solar panel, and more batteries if he is drawing below 50%
There should be some calculators online.

[Fulltiming]

Forest, I think the swamp cooler is drawing 6 amps at 120 volts.

[Richard]

Tom,

if the swamp cooler is AC then a conversion to DC motor might be worth the money considering the power loss in going through the inverter

[Ozarkguy]

Calculator. http://www.altenergydesign.com/offgrid.html

[LynnJeff]

Tom

Is that dog your driver or is he a passenger

[encantotom]

he thinks he is the driver.

tom

[[email protected]]

We install Samplex Solar up here in South Dakota and have had great luck .If you would like ,I can send you information .They have SRV kit that has the brackets and the controller ,wiring and panels all included.The info I will send you will also show you how to size correctly .
Hope this will help if you want them .
Bob