Today more and more people are installing air conditioners as weather conditions worsen with rising global warming and increasing levels of air pollution.
As a result, air conditioners have become more common at residences, schools as well as offices and other commercial establishments. Not only these, ACs are being used 24*7 at hospitals, theatres etc. Our last blog focused on installing a Solar System at Medical institutes to get a 20% ROI and reduce your electricity bills. Increased use of air conditioners have led to high power bills as this appliance is a high wattage appliance and people are looking at ways to reduce their power cost.
In order to cut down on electricity bills, people are thinking of installing solar panels to run their ACs. But is this achievable? Can ACs really run on solar panels? The answer is YES.
Generally, there are two types of solar system - off-grid and on-grid solar systems.
An off-grid solar system comprises of solar panels, inverters as well as batteries. This system is capable of running independently without grid support.
Whereas, on-grid solar system consists of solar panels and inverter, and appliances will not run when there is no electricity. Just make sure to install high kVA inverters to handle high loads. Also, install more kW of solar panels if usage of AC is high.
ACs can run on both of these systems. However, off-grid solar system will support the running of ACs even without electricity (as batteries store the excess power generated by the sun, which helps in running the appliance even when there is no supply from the grid). ACs can easily run on on-grid solar systems with capacities ranging between 3 kW to 10kW. An on-grid solar system can support the running of ACs in the large commercial office spaces (with electricity bills as high as Rs. 1 lakh) to residences (with bills of Rs.5-10k per month). In addition, people can enjoy the benefit of net metering policies to avail a credit in their electricity bills.
Here are few prerequisites for installing an on-grid solar system -
- Approvals by government - An entity installing an on-grid rooftop solar system enjoys several incentives and subsidies from the government. As such it needs to have proper government approvals and documentation such as valid identity proof and papers of his property, to avail the same. A 20% subsidy is available on on-grid solar system for residential only and one can get a capital subsidy of upto INR 20,000 per kilowatt. The eligible party should have a grid-connected, battery-less system and should be a domestic consumer to claim the benefit.
- Rooftop space - Installation of an on-grid system is easy and can be done by oneself on the rooftop. Other than residential rooftops, rooftops of commercial complex, housing societies, community centers, government organizations, private institutions etc. can also be utilized for such installation. It can be installed ground floor space as well as rooftop space with flexible structure design.
- Area required - A minimum of 100 square feet is required for every Kilowatt of installation.
- Maintenance - An on-grid solar system involves less maintenance and generally has a longer life when compared to an off-grid system.
The benchmark cost of grid-connected rooftop solar in India is Rs. 60 per watt as per MNRE.
The concept of using solar energy to power air conditioners in India, though a niche area is expected to grow strongly in the future. In countries like India, where there is sufficient sunlight to generate huge amounts of solar energy and appliances like air conditioning are consuming large amounts of energy, using solar power seems like an affordable and economical way to cut down electricity cost.
You can contact today and request a FREE VISIT for more information to Loom Solar for any such solar system installation needs. It is among Top 10 solar companies in India as per Eletimes that has installed solar projects in varying capacities ranging from 3 kW to 50 kW and 50 kW to 100 kW.
Source: Loom Solar
No comments:
Post a Comment