Designing a solar system Step 1 of 2 How to convert 120V to 12V

    LEAF has decided to finally go solar.  For obvious reasons this move is necessary for us and the earth.  Now here's how we do it.  A solar system has three basic components.  Now some systems can get VERY complicated, so I like to keep to the KISS philosophy here.  (keep it simple stupid) And yes leaf might have to cover a KISS tune now... :)  

    Three components:

                  1)Solar Panel(s)-which generate(s) power from the sunlight

                  2)Battery(s)-which store the power generated by the panels

                  3) Inverter -which converts the power from 12Volt DC to 120Volt AC (house power)

    To figure out your system requirements you have to fist find out what your system requires now.  Our stripped down sound system including the P.A. the two guitar amps and all the pedals has a total draw of around 600 watts.  I find that figure out by looking at the back of my gear and there are labels which state the draw in watts.  Now watts are good, but we need to know amps.  This is easy. 

    Divide your total watts, in our case 600 watts, by the voltage, 120.  ALL HOUSE CIRCUITS DRAW 120 volts.*  You can use this figure always without fail.  

    So we have 600 divided by 120 which comes out to....  drumroll....  5.

    We will be burning 5 amps at 120 volts.  This is the information we need to go to the next stage.  Just divide watts by volts to get amps.  

                              watts/volts=amps

     So now we have 5 amps at 120 volts... But we are running 12 volt batteries which is pretty common and the most economical way of storing power considering one can be bought reconditioned or new for fairly cheap.  And when maintained they last beyond their service life.  At least that has been my experience.  

     If you notice 120 is exactly 10 times more than 12 then you are ready for the next step.  Simply multiply the 120 amps by 10 to figure out how many 12 volt amps will be needed.

    If you imagine a 12 volt system being ten times weaker (voltage wise) than a 120 volt system and therefore a 12 volt system will have to work ten times harder to match 120 volts.  Thats the theory here.  So... 10 times 5 equals 50.

                             5 x 10 = 50 amps at 12 volts

    That means every hour we have to create 50 amps to push our system without spikes or interruptions.  Ok so we know how many amps in a 12 volt system are needed to keep up with electric draw, next we need to figure out how many batteries will be needed to supply this miracle music!!!  

    Next post will be about batteries and solar panel requirements.  One love!

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