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Question:

Amount of solar panels needed to run a/c and pool pump?

I am completely ignorant on this subject. I was just wondering out of curiosity of how many solar panels and equipment that it would take to run a central ac for a 2500 sq ft home and a pump for a medium sized pool. I'm talking running ac for like 8 hours a day to keep around 65-70 degrees and running the pump 24/7. Just looking for a general ballpark answer.

Answer:

Solar panels are not going to be able to run a pool pump 24/7. They will only produce their rated electricity for 4 to 8 hours a day. For the balance you will need a grid connection or a battery backup. Running the AC would require different power levels depending upon humidity, outside temperature levels, solar gain for the house, and insulation levels. An underground house in Maine will be much easier to AC than a Glass house in Arizona. First find the power requirements. If you had the existing equipment they will have a label with the power requirements or the minimum breaker required if nothing else. For example the pool pump may require a 0 amp 240 breaker while the AC may require a 30 amp 240 breaker. That would be 2400 watts for the pump and (30 x 240) 7200 watts for the AC or a total of 9.6kW each hour of operation. (max) You will next need to find the rated capacity of the solar panels. If each panel were rated at 300 watts then you would need 32 panels for the daytime use and perhaps more to fill in a battery backup. All the numbers are very rough estimates.

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