Your AC needs 1900 watts per hour and say it runs 24 hours per day, that means it needs 45,600 watt hours or 45.6 kw-hours. You would need 45.6/.5 91.2 of them panels to make it work. In the summer you might need 70 and in the winter 110 of them. Plus you’d need batteries, lots of batteries so that the panels would make energy when the sun shines and return it when the sun goes down you’d need to store 45.6 kw-hr of energy. Thats about 4000 amp hours at 12 volts Large batteries are about 100 amp hours, so you’d need 40 batteries.

plus the panels run on a different voltage than the A/C so you need an inverter and a battery and and and……..

ain’t goin’ to happen

a short, non-technical and riddled with errors because apples do not equal oranges is:

The A/C is like draining a swimming pool at 1900 gallons a minute.

the solar panel is a hose putting 100 gallons a minute back in.

1919 / 100 watts per panel would seem to require about 19 solar panels of this size. However your solar panels are going to be working all day long to charge batteries. It is the power stored in the batteries that would be used (through an inverter) to run your air conditioner. (Another 5% loss so now we need about 1930 watts) It would be possible to have more batteries and limit the hours of usage of your AC and make the system work.

Now we have to switch from issues of power to issues of energy. The amount of energy uses KWH (kilowatt hours) as a measure. One KWH is 1000 watts for 1 hour. So in one hour your air conditioner (and inverter) will use 1.919 KWH of electrical energy. In order to store 1.930 KWH of electricity your 100 watt solar panel will have to operate for 19.3 hours. As you might get only 5 good hours of sunlight a day this would be almost 4 days of a cloudless sky to run your air conditioner for 1 hour.

A more efficient way to power air conditioning from the sun is to use an absorption system that runs off of heat and use solar thermal panels that are from 60 to 80% efficient (compared to the 8 to 24% efficiency of photovoltaic panels) see absorption based refrigeration systems: http://www.energylatest.com/SOLAR-PANELS/Solar-Air-Conditioning.html

Are you measuring the amperage across the resistor? That’s why you’re getting zero. You need to hook the meter in series with the resistor. (Panel to meter, meter to resistor, resistor to panel.)

Keep reducing the resistance until the voltage drops below about 5 volts. That’s when you’re trying to draw more than the maximum amps.

Be careful. Unless this is a tiny panel, you’re going to be creating an extreme amount of heat in that resistor. Your resistor probably won’t be able to handle it, and you’ll have a scalding hot component even if it can.

1 ohm at 7 volts is 7 amps. (V=IR)
7 amps at 7 volts is 49 watts. (P=IV).

You can start putting 1 ohm resistors in parallel, effectively lowering the resistance of the load until the voltage drops, but don’t be surprised if one of them fractures from the heat.

First, I am assuming you are off the grid, in other words the cabin has no connection to the power grid. A grid connected system is going to require the technical assistance of this company and you will be prey to any costs that they want to charge.

The good news is that you can tell Atrum Solar that you only want 100 watts of solar power on the roof and federal regulations allow you to expand its capacity at your own pace. Make sure you tell them that you want the system to have the ability to handle at least 2000 watts of solar power in the future so you can expand as much as you want without buying more equipment.

Second, I encourage you to build your own solar system in the interim. Total cost will be less than $1,000 and you can power a television along with some lights with no problem at all. The solar panels you buy can be connected to the system that you eventually purchase.

The biggest gain from building your own solar system or DIY is that you will understand the costs of the technology and can fight back against over priced estimates. Here are some of my articles on this subject:
Increasing Inverter Capacity with the Black & Decker PI750AB: Solar Project Part 4
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5547078/increasing_inverter_capacity_with_the.html?cat=6

What Do Polycrystalline Solar Panels Have to Offer Over Monocrystalline Solar Panels? Solar Project Part 5
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5566608/what_do_polycrystalline_solar_panels.html?cat=57

I am not paid by any solar company or electric utility for my advice. I am doing this to advance the knowledge of solar power.

Generator generates electricity—– generator powers the motor —– motor turns generator!!!! Profit!!!!

But the pesky laws of Thermodynamics get in the way. A few percent of the energy gets lost on each loop through due to friction, magnetic losses, electrical losses…… Within a few seconds things come to a stop.

Even if the motor and generator were 100% efficient, at best you’d have perpetual motion. With nothing left over to use to move a vehicle or whatever.

However, to turn a generator with an electric motor, you have to have a source of electricity, and guess what, when you run an electric motor, some energy is lost as heat, and some energy is lost to friction. when you turn a generator, some rotational energy is lost to friction, and some generated energy is lost overcoming the inherent resistance in the windings.

believe me. if it was practical to turn generators with electric motors, do you think the power companies would be wasting their money on coal, oil, natural gas, and hydroelectric dams?

bottom line, there is no such thing as free energy. there are occasions when the cost of energy is hidden, such as putting solar panels on a house that you are trying to shade from the sun, anyway, or putting up a windmill in an area that has no shortage of wind. however, you are still binding natural (or synthetic) resources in order to manfacture those systems.

you want to reduce your energy usage, don’t waste energy. THAT information is free to all.