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Old 03-20-2013, 10:07 PM   #5 (permalink)
mort
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sven7 View Post
That would be really cool since I now park outside all day every day. But the power is confusing... when they list XX watts, what time span is that in? It will put out XX watts in one hour (watt hour)? One day?
Watts is power, in the case of solar cells that's amps X volts. 746 watts is 1 hp. Time doesn't come into it.
If you have a 100 watt light bulb it needs 100 watts for as long as you have it turned on.
The watts listed for solar cells is generally the power available in full sun (noon in the summer). So if you imagine that around lunch time you have about an hour of full sun you can have XX watt-hours. Watt-hours is work or energy. Of course during the day the amount of sunlight varies, so over a full day (24 hours) you could get the equivalent of 4 to 6 hours of full sun, if the solar cells always face the sun. If you stored the electrical energy from solar cells (rated at 100 watts) sitting in the sun all day, then at night you'd have enough to light a 100 watt bulb for 4 to 6 hours.
-mort
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