Energy
crisis in Pakistan is neither new nor it is going to end any time soon, we know
this for a fact.
While you
may agree that energy situation has just bettered (during Ramzan) but we aren’t
sure if it is going to remain the same in coming days or not. I personally
suppose that situation may remain uncertain for at least few years.
Considering
the situation, businesses and home users have long been working to find the
best alternate energy solutions to meet their energy requirements. UPS is a
solution for some, generators for others but both involve energy input in one
way or the other, leaving the whole equation somewhat unviable, especially when
16 out of 24 hours are spent without power.
Solar power
is one avenue where Pakistanis have found the ultimate solution. It requires no
external input – other than the sun shine – and can operate flawlessly for
years and years.
General
impression is that solar energy is expensive. It is. But probably not as much
as one might think. Also the cost that solar energy can save you in the
long-run brings you equally good ROI for well-structured investments made
today.
In this post
we will try to give you an idea of estimated cost that setting up solar energy
system may require. So let’s go straight away to the business.
Planning the
Solar Energy Plant
First thing
you would want to do is to plan the solar energy plant as per your load
requirement. That is, calculating the magnitude of electric load your solar
plant will be required to produce.
For the
purpose, the first thing you need to do is to make a list of things that you
would want to run on Solar energy. Naturally, more load will mean more
investment requirement and vice versa.
Power
Required for Home Appliances:
To help you
with calculating the energy load, we are listing below few things with the
respective energy load they consume to operate:
Energy
Saver: 10/20/40 Watts
Fan: 90-110
Watts
Some Older
fans consumer 120 Watts
Tube Lights:
Full tube:
40 Watts
Half tube:
20 Watts
LED Bulbs: 7
Watts
LED TV
(Almost all sizes): 30 to 40 Watts
LCD TV
(Almost all sizes): 90-100 Watts
Old TVs:
300-400 Watts
Iron: 1000 Watts
Refrigerator:
They consume 250 Watts to 700 Watts depending on make and type
Deep
Freezers: 600 Watts
Water Motor
half horse
power: 325 Watts
One Horse
Power: 750 Watts
Laptop:
15-20 Watts
Router/Modems/Chargers
(Combined): 10-15 Watts
ACs:
During first
half an hour or so when compressor runs at full throttle: 2800-3000 Watts
Rest of the
time when temperature settles down: 1500 Watts
Invertor
ACs:
During first
half an hour or so when compressor runs at full throttle: 1800 Watts
Rest of the
time when temperature settles down: 500-600 Watts
Items listed
above and their corresponding energy requirements may vary for different
situations, depending on conditions, make and their age. But we can take above
mentioned values to plan our solar energy plant.
Just to
mention, Invertor type ACs are comparatively a new thing, they cost little
extra. For example a 1.5 ton Invertor AC from Haier will cost you around Rs.
60,000 as compared to Rs. 40,000 for usual AC from the same company. But they
save energy and are usually recommended when your energy source is powered by a
solar system.
Things you
need for Solar Energy Plant
Below are
three things that you will need during the entire setup of
Solar Panels
Batteries
Invertors
Solar panels
are those black plates installed on roof tops. These panels are responsible for
converting the sun-shine into electric energy. These solar panels come on per
watts basis, that is, a solar panel can be of 100 watts. Putting two such
panels will get you 200 watts and so on.
Batteries
are required to store electricity for night-time load shedding. During day time
your system will power up the appliances, but you have to store energy to make
sure that appliances are powered smoothly during night time load-shedding when
solar-plant isn’t producing any electricity.
Inverters
are used to convert electricity into a form that is usable by our appliances.
Cost of a
Solar Plant
Above
mentioned three items will cost according to the electricity requirements we
may have depending on our needs.
As a
reference, let’s assume following situation:
We need to
run following items on solar energy:
2 Fans
2 Energy
Savers
1 laptop
and few
chargers
Here’s the
corresponding load we will need:
2 Fans: 110
x 2 = 220 Watts
2 Energy
Savers: 20 x 2 = 40 Watts
1 laptop =
20 Watts
and few
charges = 10 Watts
Total: 270
Watts
Ideally
speaking we will require 270 Watts of energy to be produced by solar system
that we are going to deploy in our example case.
Practically,
we will deploy 540 Watts panels, because when on Solar energy – during day time
– we need to power our appliances with 270 watts, plus we need to charge our
batteries too for usage during load-shedding in the night.
Here is the
corresponding cost for 540 Watts of Panels:
Solar Panel:
Rs. 100 per watt = Rs. 100 x 540 = Rs. 54,000
Invertor –
we will need 1KW invertor = Rs. 26,000
Batteries: 2
x 200 Amp batteries: Rs. 13,000 x 2 = Rs. 26,000
Total Cose:
Rs. 54,000 + Rs. 26,000 + Rs. 26,000 = Rs. 106,000
Note:
You can use
one battery instead of 2, but that will store lesser amount of electricity –
which will give shorter back-up time during nights. Same as we deal with UPS
batteries — more the battery power will mean more back-up time.
With two
batteries and the load requirements in our example case the back-up time will
be around 4-6 hours during night.
Please note
that during day time you won’t require batteries, so technically speaking – you
can run this solar plant for assumed load for whole day (as far as the sun is
up).
Since the
load is 540 Watts, 1KW inverter will do the job. If load was 2400 Watts then
you would have to use 3KW inverter.
Pricers of
bigger inverters are given below.
So you need
to spend Rs. 106,000 for the solar plant to power up 2 fans, 2 energy savers,
one laptop and few chargers for seamless up-time.
Here are Few
things to note:
Price of
solar plant may differ. Above mentioned price of Rs. 100 per watt solar plant
is market average rate for premium quality Chinese plants
You can get
European (German) solar panels for Rs. 150 per watt, but that’s just additional
cost as Chinese panels work fine.
If your load
exceeds 500 watts then you will have to use high-voltage inverters, that is 2
KW, 3kW or above. Here are estimated prices for bigger inverters:
1 KW
Inverter: Rs. 26,000
2 KW
Inverter: Rs. 35,000
3 KW
Inverter: Rs. 45,000
4 KW
Inverter: Rs. 60,000
5 KW
Inverter: Rs. 80,000
10 KW
Inverter: Rs. 200,000
P.S. Prices
of inverters also vary, depending on the quality and made. Prices mentioned
here are for good quality Chinese inverters
Number of
batteries will also depend on the load you may require to store. Here’s the
desi formula for calculating back-up timing of a battery:
Amperes of
battery x number of hours with sun-shine / load = Back-up time in hours
Example:
(200Amp + 200Amp) x 10 hours / 540 Watts =
around 7 Hours
Amount of
batteries required in your solar plant can be determined by using or
re-arranging above desi formula:
Back up
time = Amperes of Battery x Number of
Hours with Sun-shine / Load
Amperes of
Battery = Back up time required / Number of hours with Sun Shine x Load
Further
things to note:
Life of
solar panels is around 25 years, however, with time the efficiency or
electricity-production ability of panels lessens
Life time of
dry-battery is around 5-7 years
Life time of
liquid-battery is around 2 years
Solar panels
work fine below 45 degree Celsius
Solar panels
work well even in hilly areas, such as Murree
Disclaimer:
Anything mentioned above is produced after market survey with purpose to give
you an idea about solar plants and its pricings. These rates, however, may vary
to any extent. Special thanks to Waqas Khaleeq for helping us in preparing this
post.
If there’s
anything un-answered or not clear, please go ahead and ask in comments below
and I will do my best to address them.
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