08-06-2008, 01:06 PM
passive solar is for hot water only... Passive means that you don't buy expensive Photoelectric solar panels you just run the water through a box of copper tubing and the sun heats it up and cycles the water back to the hot water heater.
Passive means There is No electrical conversion from sun to electric. No Wire, No Batteries, No inverter, No nothing. The sun does all the work ... And here is the statistics on hot water!
The average household in the USA spends 30% of it's electric bill on heating of water alone! So, if you did get rid of your Hot Water heater then you'd be saving a lot of electricity! The next biggest appliance that sucks up electricity? It's your refrigerator so.. If you eliminated both those items you'd probably save 40-50% off your power bill.
An Inverter changes 12Volts DC(direct current) from the battery to 120Volt AC(alternating current)Household current AC to run a 120Volt Refrigerator altho, you can buy ones that do run off of 12-24Volt then you don't need an inverter ... This is only required if you want to go solar. Inverters can be as cheap as a few hundred bucks.
Here read up on this... http://www.partsonsale.com/sundanzer.html
Just remember they are comparing this to a 600 Watt refer but you can buy a conventional one from sears in the low 350-400 Watt flavors.
These refrigerators are DC and don't need an inverter. They are stretching that you would need 10 85 panels as you'd would only need a 2 or 3 at the most for a 360 watt fridge. I'm just saying solar is an option. If you do it ... It's completely up to you.
Passive means There is No electrical conversion from sun to electric. No Wire, No Batteries, No inverter, No nothing. The sun does all the work ... And here is the statistics on hot water!
The average household in the USA spends 30% of it's electric bill on heating of water alone! So, if you did get rid of your Hot Water heater then you'd be saving a lot of electricity! The next biggest appliance that sucks up electricity? It's your refrigerator so.. If you eliminated both those items you'd probably save 40-50% off your power bill.
An Inverter changes 12Volts DC(direct current) from the battery to 120Volt AC(alternating current)Household current AC to run a 120Volt Refrigerator altho, you can buy ones that do run off of 12-24Volt then you don't need an inverter ... This is only required if you want to go solar. Inverters can be as cheap as a few hundred bucks.
Here read up on this... http://www.partsonsale.com/sundanzer.html
Just remember they are comparing this to a 600 Watt refer but you can buy a conventional one from sears in the low 350-400 Watt flavors.
These refrigerators are DC and don't need an inverter. They are stretching that you would need 10 85 panels as you'd would only need a 2 or 3 at the most for a 360 watt fridge. I'm just saying solar is an option. If you do it ... It's completely up to you.