Help a girl with her electricity please?

[Timelord]

Just a note - a refrigerator will use approx three times its nominal rated wattage when it is on its start up cycle - so a 1000w inverter will not supply enough power to start one up. Also, many items take an initial surge to some degree when they first start up (motors a very big one), so switch on consumer appliances independently and not all at once by having them all already in circuit when you start up the inverter. Regards, TL.

(if using a battery bank, you will need to calculate and install a charging array capable of replenishing the electricity load you are likely to use. This means matching the input + a small surplus if possible to the output over time.)

[Skvez]

Voltage (unit capital V) is a measurement of the desire for current to flow
Current (measured in Amps, unit capital A) is a measurement of current.
Watts (unit capital W) is a measurement of Power or Work done.

Watts = Volts * Amps (assuming a unity power factor, lets not confuse the OP with a discussion of power factor)

Your 1000W inverter might power a fridge (see previous comments about problems starting the compressor), for a little while but it's unlikely you'll be able to keep the battery charged up enough to do so.
You'd need a fairly expensive solar panel array to keep your batteries topped up enough to keep a fridge going.

Before we can properly offer ideas we need to understand what you'd like to be able to do and how much money you have to spend on a solar system.

Things that you can easily do with a fairly small Battery back-up system
Lights
Radio

Things that require a moderately big (Expensive) system
Computer
Fridge

Things that are not realistic for most of us to consider with a Battery back-up system because it would be just too expensive (and there are cheaper ways of doing it)
Heating
Cooking
Hot Shower

[uks]

You could think of converting to 12 v white goods I know you can buy full size fridge freezers that run on 12v, add a 12 volt lighting system.

[Highlander]

(6 June 2013, 07:27)uks Wrote: You could think of converting to 12 v white goods I know you can buy full size fridge freezers that run on 12v, add a 12 volt lighting system.

This is something that I am toying with, I caravaned for years and know that you can get most thing in 12volt, and all good stuff two,.. there is no reason you cant run the two systems side by side,... take a trip around a good caravan store to see

[NorthernRaider]

I'm no electrical guy but i think the same initial start up load applies also to microwaves as well as fridges thats why when you buy a portable gennie it has to be rated much higher than the device it uses ? yes / no ???

[uks]

Yes you are right N.R., a electric kettle when its turned will trip our 2.2 Kw genny.

[NorthernRaider]

I just remember a guy in a camping shop saying if you have a 1000watt microwave you need a 1500 watt gennie to give it the initial kick.

[River Song]

re 12v goods.

I'm also toying with this idea as an investment. How would you propose wiring up the home?
With one of those cable thin gs that run through cars?

[NorthernRaider]

You could fairly easily run a completely seperate 12VDC system through your house, I've seen it done, chap ran thin flat black n red cables around his house on the surface of his walls, usually just atop of the skirting boards, he covered the cables with 3 inch masking tape and emulsioned it to match the walls. He fasten 12VDC fag lighter sockets in the places he wanted back to his Pv charged battery bank.

Remember i know nowt about lectric but I do remember him saying he put losts of inline fuses on each line to ensure nothing overheated or went bang.

all his goods came from E bay and the 12 volt shop
http://www.the12voltshop.co.uk/Shop/

[Highlander]

Thats basically how its done,... a simple wiring loop, from the battery positive around the location and back to the negative,.. where ever you want an appliance [ light bulb etc], you join a `spur`, a wire running off the red wire [ the live wire ],.. and add a fuse between the start of the spur and the socket,.... you can either use a cigaret socket or wire up the lamp as you normally would and add a switch,.. still retaining the fuse though for safety sake