Watt/Hours

One of the most commonly-asked questions people have for us is "How big a system will I need?" We can only answer once we have an estimate of your electrical needs. These basic guidelines will help you give us a figure, expressed in Watt-hours. With this number onhand, our technical staff can design a system appropriate to your application.

For each of your electrical appliance, calculate:
Hours per day used x wattage = Watt-hours per Day

How do you determine the wattage of a particular device? Sometimes it's printed right on the back of the appliance, as with our TV set above.

And sometimes, you have to estimate the figure by more roundabout means: In the case of the stereo pictured above, we see by it's safety fuse that it draws up to 2 amps of current at 110 volts, or 1 amp at 220 volts.

In either case, Volts x Amps = Watts, so here in North America, the figure would work out to 120V x 2A = 240 Watts.

E-mail us your technical related questions or comments to technical@thesustainablevillage.com