Off Grid Home Forums Technical Discussion One system or two/////////Overflow power//////Air conditioning Re: One system or two/////////Overflow power//////Air conditioning

#66375
gordo
Participant

well lots of variables here. let just eliminate a couple.

refridgeration: i’m in favor of the sun electric 12 or 24 volt fridge supper efficient very popular in southern hemisphere.

chowan who post’s here is very pro 12v because the availability of various products and keeping your system up. if you get all fancy with inverters and 24v or 48v systems if something goes down your trapped without back-up until the one piece is replaced. in costa rica i would go with the 12v option. and avoid propane. cost, hauling, and fixing are all expensive.

your fans, light, computer/router act will be a minimal load if you have 500 watts or more of pv.

for your ac you will need specs first. i would find out whats available there and plan on using that. but designing the syterm will require the particular units specs first. another route could be to use the water source you mention thats there(future hydo souce) as a geo thermal cooling. again i would build the system with locally available products. items needed would be tubing, heat exchanger,pump, and fan. (you could also build this system to create a fridge.

as for your idea of sepeate systems with energy dumps? keep it simple go with one system. except your ac choice if you choose not to go with the geo thermal method will require either 120v or 220v and will require an inverter set up.

so…. since the geo themal can potential be a cooling souce for habitable space and fridge maybe consider the water souce as a primary and the pv and wind as supplemental to that….

there is a product called ISolar. which is a differential controller for heating and can be programed for many different applications. i.e domestic hot water/hydronic heating and heat dumps. as this controller is set up for heating temps it would not work but there should be a similar product for cooling. search for differential cooling controller.

also for habitable space have you considered a swamp cooler? see ac is not efficient if you have open venting cause all the conditioned air will escape and constantly need to be replaced. however, swamp coolers use very little power and should be capable of reducing air temp by 10 degree’s more if it is located in the shade and more if the water supply can be kept cold.

my 2 cents

gordo