Voltage Converter - Electric Heater Project

[Wictorian]

Now, running electric heaters is expensive. I have a mobile solar panel. So I was wondering if I could power a heater with those. I wanna make the heater myself since it should be pretty simple. I am planning to store the energy in a battery and convert the voltage to more powerful levels to heat the material. So how would you suggest I go about converting the voltage. Can I increase the wattage?

 

[bertus]

Hello,

An inverter will never give more power out that you put in.
There will even be a conversion loss, depending on the efficiency of the inverter.

Bertus

 

[kellys_eye]

Using an inverter, at best you will get around 70-80% of the solar panel output (instantaneously) when all the inefficiencies are taken into account. If you have a 400W panel you might get 300-350W of instantaneous heating.

If you store the energy in 'accumulators' (batteries) the maximum you will get will depend on the size of the battery bank (you don't state what this is) and the rate at which you charge/discharge it.... LESS the system losses.

If you have 'lots' of solar energy you'd be better off using a solar water heating panel and storing the hot water for circulation through a radiator and keep the solar 'electric' for just that.

In larger solar PV systems it is quite common the divert surplus energy (when the battery banks are fully charged and you aren't drawing any other load from the panels) into water heaters anyway - but that's usually a system/method for those that have 100's or 1,000's of watts of solar panels.

 

[HarryA]

Why not use the 'cold' water heater tank as the primary energy store itself? There are two heating elements in the tank. The top one ,for quick recovery, creates a bubble of hot water at the top of the tank. When that is hot the lower element heats the lower part of the tank. The two are never on at the same time; to much current draw. Perhaps you could use the bottom element always. Shut of the current when the tank is hot?

 

[Bluejets]

Simply run the heaters direct from the solar panel.(via the standard inbuilt thermostat/overload unit naturally)
Elements are purely resistive and don't care what voltage is applied (up to max)
Seen it done here many times.

 

[Wictorian]

the solar panel is very small (as big as an a4 paper) and I was thinking of using a powerbank or a similarly sized accumulator.

 

[kellys_eye]

the solar panel is very small (as big as an a4 paper)

Theoretically you can get heat from 'anything' that generates power. Whether that heat is actually usable or not is the question. In your case I very much doubt you'll get more than 10W - probably a lot less. You'd get more heat by rubbing your hands together........

 

[danadak]

Go to youtube and search "diy dc heater" and look for something suitable.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=diy+dc+heater

Regards, Dana.