microwave by solar?

Denise · Senior Member

microwave by solar?

hammer · Senior Member

Hi Denis,

If you really want to use a microwave and run it off your house batteries, then you will need a largish size battery bank, and a 1500-1800W inverter, and if the microwave is digital then you should use a pure sine wave inverter, if you buy a non digital microwave with the dial type clock timer you can get away with a much cheaper modified square wave inverter.
Hope this helps you, Maybe someone else can come up with something better for you.
cheers

goinsoon · Guru

Sorry Denise, just cant be done that way, as the earlier the only thing you can do ios use at least a 2kva generator and I wouldnt use anything else but pure sine wave

Denise · Senior Member

Thanks guys, sounds complicated way beyond my needs!......cheers

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

You can run anything from an inverter if it is big enough and you have the power to feed it.
We bake bread regularly.
3 minutes @ 1200W (say) is only about 5Ahrs.

Cheers,
Peter

jimricho · Guru

Peter_n_Margaret wrote:

You can run anything from an inverter if it is big enough and you have the power to feed it.
We bake bread regularly.
3 minutes @ 1200W (say) is only about 5Ahrs.

Cheers,
Peter

Hi Peter,

What size Inverter are you using and are you using a breadmaker? I guesstimate a loaf of bread would make a serious "hole" in a 100 ah battery.

What model microwave do have? Have you found any problems using a "modified" sine wave inverter?

I've been thinking of setting one up so why do the arithmetic when you've done it for me wink

cheers,

Jim

Gary and Kerry · Guru

jimricho wrote:

Peter_n_Margaret wrote:

You can run anything from an inverter if it is big enough and you have the power to feed it.
We bake bread regularly.
3 minutes @ 1200W (say) is only about 5Ahrs.

Cheers,
Peter

Hi Peter,

What size Inverter are you using and are you using a breadmaker? I guesstimate a loaf of bread would make a serious "hole" in a 100 ah battery.

What model microwave do have? Have you found any problems using a "modified" sine wave inverter?

I've been thinking of setting one up so why do the arithmetic when you've done it for me

cheers,

Jim

We have a 2300W modified invertor and it runs our 900W(?) microwave OK.
Only use to heat things up.

Denise · Senior Member

So working back from that, what capacity storage do you have and then what size panels , and what did that cost? what else do you run.....thanks for light in the tunnel!

Just had a look at your outfit and my question should be.... what would I need as a minimal system to use a tiny microwave, a light and laptop? Cheers...Denise

-- Edited by Denise on Wednesday 17th of February 2010 03:57:54 PM

Gary and Kerry · Guru

we have 330AH in batteries and 280W of solar.

first up you need to know what wattage your microwave is to work out amps used;
example 900w microwave using 12V
Power (watts) = I (amps) x E (Volts)
900/12 = 75 amps per hour. so 1.25 amps per minute.

lights would be minimal, again will depend on what size bulbs you have, LED are the most economical and effecient followed by the new generation fluro's.

My laptop charger is 60W so again
60/12= 5amps per hour or 83mA per minute, again minimal

The link below will work it all for you, just insert appropiate figures in the boxes

www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-ohm.htm

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

We have a 1300W sine wave inverter, but our breadmaker only draws a maximum of 450W during the bake cycle (look at the compliance plate on the bottom, it will tell you there),
Baking a whole loaf takes about 3 hours and uses about 30Ahrs of 12V power.
Batteries should not be used down below about half, so a 100Ahr battery is really only useful for 50Ahrs.
We often bake while driving too. Plenty of power then?
Most breadmakers and microwave electronics will "let the smoke out" if used on MSW, so I strongly recomment PSW (pure sine wave) inverters only. While we could use a microwave on our inverter, we don't have one.

Just be careful.....a 900w microwave may draw a lot more than 900w. Again, check the wattage printed on the bottom or back of the appliance. Microwaves typically draw 50% or more HIGHER than their output. They are NOT efficient power users, from that point of view.

We also have a 750W Birko drink heater that we use for heating the coffee or washing up water if we have plenty of sunshine (and power). It just saves some gas.

Cheers,
Peter

Gary and Kerry · Guru

Peter_n_Margaret wrote:

We often bake while driving too. Plenty of power then?
What a great idea, never thought of doing that.

Most breadmakers and microwave electronics will "let the smoke out" if used on MSW,
What do you mean "let the smoke out?

Just be careful.....a 900w microwave may draw a lot more than 900w. Again, check the wattage printed on the bottom or back of the appliance. Microwaves typically draw 50% or more HIGHER than their output. They are NOT efficient power users, from that point of view.

Learnt something new, another good day

Cheers,
Peter

Denise · Senior Member

Thanks everyone, will do the calculations and see if its worth my while to do it.

jimricho · Guru

Thanks Peter and Margaret. I'm not surprised by your comments re the "modified" sine wave inverter. Looks like I'll continue to do my baking when I have "ground" power available.

Modified sine wave is a misnomer if ever there was one. There's very little resemblance to a sine wave there. Modified square wave would be slightly more accurate.

Peter_n_Margaret · Guru

What do you mean "let the smoke out?

Sorry Gary & Kerry.

All electrical equiptment runs on smoke. confuse smile smile furious wink

If you let the smoke out, they stop working..... hmm

Realistically Denise, you need quite a large expensive system to get worthwhile use from a microwave running from solar power. Gas is the choice of most for these applications.

Cheers,
Peter

Gary and Kerry · Guru

Peter_n_Margaret wrote:

What do you mean "let the smoke out?

Sorry Gary & Kerry.
All electrical equiptment runs on smoke.

If you let the smoke out, they stop working.....

Realistically Denise, you need quite a large expensive system to get worthwhile use from a microwave running from solar power. Gas is the choice of most for these applications.

Cheers,
Peter

Ok, we used to call it a brown smell.

Denise · Senior Member

I agree Peter, I'm happy I checked out the info but its way too complex and expensive for my needs...keep it simple is my preference in the end. Thanks for your help everyone
Denise