Does anyone know how I would go about hooking up the air conditioners in my house to solar panels? I would want just the air conditioners to be powered by solar energy. How could I hook it up where the panels can absorb energy from the sun during the day, and save and store the energy so I can run the air conditioners at night? I really feel that in the long run, this would save a lot of money with the energy bill. It's the use of the air conditioners that drive up the bill. Is this idea feasible? Is it also possible to have some sort of hybrid system where I can switch from solar to my regular local energy source when I want to?
There are solar air conditioners. They don't use electricity. Most anyway. The number of photovoltaic panels you would need to run a standard electric air conditioner would cover most of the homes on the block. Read about heat pumps, Thermal storage, swamp coolers, solar heating to get an idea of what is practical. Most solar systems are hybrid because of clouds and nightfall. The best solar homes are designed from the ground up. With plenty of insulation, the right size and orientation of windows and collectors. Putting solar on an existing structure is going to be a misfit half donkey job unless you are very lucky.
There's no need to connect only the A/C to solar, nor is there a need to use batteries. Both of those problems are solved with grid-tied solar. The solar electricity system works alongside your regular, and the A/C just plugs in normally. You never need to worry about switching. During the day, if the A/C is drawing power, the solar goes into that, reducing your draw from the electric company. If the solar generates more than the A/C needs, the meter is driven backwards. At night, the meter runs forward again. For example, the meter may read 5000 in the morning. By evening, maybe it reads 4975. At night, it creeps back up to 5005. When the meter reader comes, you would be billed for only 5 kWh. That's the general idea. Also, consider whether you can insulate your home more, and whether you might want to change out your air conditioners for new, DC inverter mini-split units. Those can use a fraction of the electricity per BTU of regular air conditioners.
Why pay thousands of dollars for solar energy ($27,000 average cost) when you can build your own solar panel system for just a fraction of the retail cost. You can build a single solar panel or you can build an entire array of panels to power your whole house. Some people are saving 50% on their power bill, some people are reducing their bill to nothing. But what’s most impressive is that just by following these instructions some are even making the power company pay them!
