# Help with Solar Panel fishroom and pond



## LaurenManzano (Aug 3, 2008)

Hi Everyone,
I'd like to solar panel my fishroom and koi pond these electronic run all the time and I'd like to talk to someone who has done this. It isn't a new idea becaue I've looked online and have seen many blogs about doing this but no one by what I've searched has this idea fully installed. If anyone is doing this please contact me as I'm thinking on doing this to save some money with the electric bill.
Lauren


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## Floridagirl (Jan 10, 2008)

You might want to do a generic search on solar panels. They tie into your electical box or battery back up, and you can wire further from that point.


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Any article on solar panels will be ok for your situation, work out how much power your fish room and pond are using, that will tell you the size of the solar system you need.

If you only want to use it on the fish room and pond, you would need to put just those on a separate circuit, if you want it to run 24 hrs you will need a battery bank.

The prices have come down in the last few years but its still expensive to set up, work out how long it would take to break even and assess it from there.


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## 13razorbackfan (Sep 28, 2011)

Floridagirl said:


> You might want to do a generic search on solar panels. They tie into your electical box or battery back up, and you can wire further from that point.


Yep and the newer ones with the control box will actually send power back to the grid thus turning your meter backwards.


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## ragtagsoldier (May 22, 2012)

might i suggest, if your handy with soldering, looking on ebay for shipments of broken solar panels, they still work and can be arranged on a board and wired together, but because they are "broken" they are much much much cheaper than intact one, there are many many DIY walkthroughs on intructables.com that use broken solar cells. just my .2


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## JimHall (Nov 6, 2013)

LaurenManzano said:


> Hi Everyone,
> I'd like to solar panel my fishroom and koi pond these electronic run all the time and I'd like to talk to someone who has done this. It isn't a new idea becaue I've looked online and have seen many blogs about doing this but no one by what I've searched has this idea fully installed. If anyone is doing this please contact me as I'm thinking on doing this to save some money with the electric bill.
> Lauren


Hello sorry for old thread reply but have you got solar panel for your fishroom? I would love to add similar set up in my fishroom but please share your experience..Waiting for reply thanks in advance


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## rgr4475 (Mar 19, 2008)

JimHall said:


> LaurenManzano said:
> 
> 
> > Hi Everyone,
> ...


The OP's last activity on the site was Oct 10th. Perhaps if you send them a PM they will get an email notification and respond more quickly.


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## AndreHale (Jan 1, 2014)

LaurenManzano said:


> Hi Everyone,
> I'd like to solar panel my fishroom and koi pond these electronic run all the time and I'd like to talk to someone who has done this. It isn't a new idea becaue I've looked online and have seen many blogs about doing this but no one by what I've searched has this idea fully installed. If anyone is doing this please contact me as I'm thinking on doing this to save some money with the electric bill.
> Lauren


Were you able to do that? I know thread is bit old but it seems like very exciting thought to add sola panel in fishroom. I would love to do it if it is worth..


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## atreis (Jan 15, 2013)

First step: Add up the wattage of all of the devices, multiply by 24 (hours). For devices that aren't on all the time (heaters) take the wattage and estimate how long they run within a given 24 hour period and multiply their wattage by this estimate or use a Kill-A-Watt meter to get the average. The result of this is the total kWH (kilowatt hours) you need.

Second step: Look at solar panels and figure out how much space you have (or budget). Take the total wattage that fits within your limiting factor and multiply by 5. This is the kWH you'll get from those panels (roughly). Why 5? That's a good conservative estimate for the number of hours you'll get of full output during a given day (you won't get full output at any time, for instance, because the incidence angle of the sun won't be perfectly over the panels except for a short period of time at mid-day - also clouds, etc...).

If Step 1 yields a higher number than step 2, you're supplementing with solar - you won't get enough to replace all of your electrical consumption. If step 2 yields a higher number than step 1, you can sell the excess to the power company or go with a smaller system.

Third step: If you decide to go ahead there are three basic ways that a solar power system can be setup:

1. Grid-tie - Solar panels power an inverter that is synchronized to the local power grid input and supplements/replaces that input. (If the panels produce more than you're consuming, this can result in your meter "running backwards" (they actually used to physically run backwards when they were mechanical) and the power company paying you for the power you're adding to the grid. Most of the time though, you'd likely be supplementing the power from the grid unless you have a big array.)
Advantages: Least expensive and simplest approach. No wasted energy generation unless the power goes out. There are companies that will do this for you, and then you "rent" the panels from them, which saves the up-front capital of the installation.
Disadvantages: When the power goes out, having solar panels on your roof doesn't matter at all - the power is still out.

2. Off-grid - Solar panels directly charge a bank of appropriately sized storage batteries (usually the total amp-hour (AH) rating of the batteries is recommended to be 4x the amps produced by the panels). The batteries then power an inverter which can provide power to specific dedicated circuits.
Advantages: If the power goes out the solar-powered circuits still have power.
Disadvantages: Significantly more expensive - the storage batteries cost several thousands typically (or tens of thousands for a big array). You'd need transfer switches for the circuits so that if the batteries go dead the circuits will be switched over to the grid. Maintenance costs are much higher and system complexity is higher, and local code can make installation very expensive - the batteries last 5-6 years and have to be replaced, require direct venting to the outside, and there's more electrical work to have done. Generation capacity can be "wasted" if the batteries are fully charged but the sun is still shining.

3. Hybrid - Solar panels are grid-tied, as in #1, but you also have a bank of backup batteries (smaller bank than #2 - how big? big enough for a power outage ...) that are charged from the panel output, and connected to an inverter. Critical circuits are hooked through a transfer switch so that they normally are powered from the grid, but will automatically switch to the backup inverter and batteries if the power goes out.
Advantages: All of the benefits of a grid-tie installation but with the advantage of having power for critical circuits if the power goes out. Less expensive than off-grid.
Disadvantages: More expensive than grid-tied. The battery bank is typically pretty small - only big enough to provide power for a couple hours or so. A small amount of power is wasted to energy conversion (battery charging), and the batteries last 5-6 years before needing replaced.


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## AndreHale (Jan 1, 2014)

AndreHale said:


> LaurenManzano said:
> 
> 
> > Hi Everyone,
> ...


Are you asking a question or were you just linking to a website? Link removed.


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## atreis (Jan 15, 2013)

:roll: Didn't notice it was old. Oh well.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

You offered some good info, atreis so don't worry that the OP is no longer contributing to the post.


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