The Rainbow Hostel solar energy
| Keywords | Solar, solar energy, power, renewable energy, battery, charge controller, social sustainability, community, solar panels, watts, voltage, current, DC (direct current), AC (alternating current), backup generator |
|---|---|
| Uses | Providing renewable energy to the hostel |
| Authors | Liz Kimbrough |
| Status | Implemented |
| Made? | Yes |
| Date published | 2010/08/14 |
| Designed in | Costa Rica |
| Replicated in | Costa Rica |
| SDGs |
SDG04 Quality education SDG07 Affordable and clean energy SDG11 Sustainable cities and communities SDG12 Responsible consumption and production SDG13 Climate action SDG09 Industry innovation and infrastructure |
| Documentation data | |
| Language | English |
| Manifest data | |
| Language | English |
| Updated | 2020-07-17 |
| Author | Megan Moore |
| Author affiliation | Appropedia |
| Author email | info@appropedia.org |
The Rainbow Hostel is located close to Golfito, Costa Rica. This forming community intends to serve as a learning center for social sustainability. The Rainbow Hostel is run completely on solar energy, system described below.
There are six Sanyo 120 watt panels that generate 720 watts at peak generation.
The solar energy is collected and stored in the batteries as a DC current. The Xantrex inverter changes the DC (direct current) to AC (alternating current) for use in standard household appliances. The controller box manages the charging of the batteries from the solar panels to the batteries.
The Batteries are 6 volt Rolls brand. There are 2 rows of 4 batteries wired as a series in parallel. This gives us a 24 volt system. 4 batteries x 6 volts = 24 volt
There is also a 6,500m KW Honda backup generator just in case!
See Appropedia's Solar PV page to learn more about solar photo-voltaic systems.