Battery and Solar Planning Tool Based on Representative Weather Data B70.0 Revised

NREL recently changed the file format of the hourly solar data that they provide for your choice of location. Rather than re-write the whole spreadsheet, I added a sheet that moves the new data into the format required by my original spreadsheet. This sheet is called Kludge.

Also, because Google Sheets does not like Excel's cell protection, I've left the cell protection off of some pages that you will be using. Be very careful to not change any cells other than the ones you need to enter data into.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Denver that makes PVWatts available has changed the hourly solar data file format making it unusable in this spreadsheet. I will work on fixing this and update when this is done.

See title

This is a significant update from the original spreadsheet ("workbook"). It has more sophisticated propane heater motor energy use calculations (including morning warm-up following heat night set-back). 12V fridge duty cycle is a function of ambient temperature (outside if no space heating, indoor thermostat setting if space heating is in use). Can be used for 120V fridge, just add inverter losses. Two mini split A/C units are independently modeled.

The documentation focuses on RV battery/solar system sizing, but stationary off-grid systems are easily studied and require PVWatts results only for the location of the system.

A warning is provided if the battery capacity you are looking at is not large enough to supply overnight (non-solar hour) loads year-round without violating your set minimum SOC.

A format change was made to make appearance nicer in Google Sheets.

Documentation and explanation of energy use issues has been expanded.

The workbook contains PVWatts data for Quartzsite. Change this to your location or locations where you will camp.