Would it be possible to run portable microwave oven on solar panels?
Posted by admin | Under 12v Solar Panels Monday Sep 12, 2011Recently I saw these portable microwave ovens that can run on 12v car batteries, could we use 12v or other type of solar cells to power these units? I was told that the magnetron (which generates microwaves) needs direct current anyways so it would make sense to me to power these babies by solar cells which also generates direct current? What else would I need to do that? Maybe some transformers and capacitors would do the trick or is it completely unachievable?
A microwave oven uses over 1000 watts. This would take a huge solar array, and you would use it for only minutes a day.
You could use a large battery and a smaller array, and a charge controller. But you are talking about thousands of dollars, and as it is, it costs you perhaps 10ยข a month from the power company.
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Yes, however the cost would be based on the time in use, frequency of use, and the Wattage of the Oven! The cost could be in the Thousands of dollars and assembling a mass of batteries and solar panels with the related wiring!
The micro wave demands a peak value of current for the short period that it is on. Batteries can easily supply a large amount of current to allow the operation of a micro wave. So if you wanted to power your micro wave directly using solar cells you would need a very large array that could supply the current demand. This is not very efficient as a micro wave is only operated briefly.
Instead you would use a smaller solar cell array that would charge up a 12 VDC battery for hours during the day. You then use the charged battery to power the microwave for the minutes it will ocassionally be used.
Since you would be using 12VDC devices (Micro wave & battery) you would not need much in the way of electronics to control the charging of the battery or the usage of power from it. (An inverter isn’t necessary to make 110VAC)
All you would need at a minimum is a diode between the Solar Panel and battery to prevent battery discharge when the Solar panel isn’t putting out enough power. The Solar Panel / Diode is connected directly to the battery to charge it.
The 12V micro wave would also connect directly to the battery and it will only draw power when turned on. Unless it has a clock built into it that requires a small amount of power. In this case you would connect and disconnect the micro wave as required to conserve power in the battery and use the micro wave only to heat food.
Eh, cheaper (dollars and pure wattage) to set up elliptical mirrors and dump the heat energy of sunlight into your food directly, without going through electricity at all.
you’d need:
- a lot of solar panels,
- a 2000 watt inverters
- a Modified Sine Wave Inverter, althouhg a Pure would be better
and you’ll need a lot of money