Caveat: I broke my math bone in the fifth grade and it never worked right again. Martian year is longer than Earth year and Mars is further away, right? Can someone tell me how much sunshine a square meter of ground on each planet would get per year? (Or per day if that's quicker.) Assume the ground is on the equator with axial tilt to be factored in later. Disregard weather, dust storms, etc., I need "ideal" numbers. Counting the number of planet-wide dust storms and their duration is a separate project. Thanks. (And I hope that all makes sense-ish.)
You need to define the unit of "sunshine". In any case the ratio of the amounts is based on the inverse square law (of the distances from the sun of the two planets).
Really? I was thinking of total energy from the sun, and probably failed to make that even slightly clear.
That's going to be fun to wade through. "Above the Earth’s atmosphere the solar irradiance is slightly more than 1300 W/m2 (1300 watts per square metre). " Per minute, hour, second?
Watts are already in joules per second, so it doesn't make sense to talk about watts per time unit unless you are dealing with a variation over time.
No need to complicate it. Earth is 1AU from the Sun. Mars is about 1.5AU from the Sun. Light drops off as the square, so Mars receives 1/(1.5^2) = 1/2.25 as much light as Earth.
At the Earth's surface it is more like 1000 Watts per square metre. And on Mars, the irradiance is a bit less than 600 Watts per square metre.
On a slight tangent How much energy required to build a square metre solar panel and match with a suitable battery? And using it 10 hours of sunlight per 24 hours expected life span of the unit? Of course cost of shipping such units to Mars increases their value and extends the break even period Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Here on Earth energy payback times range from 1 to 4 years for solar panels, depending on type of construction. (i.e. within 1 year the panel generates more energy than it took to produce.) Modern panels have a ~25 year lifetime.
Thanks I have a fair number of mini devices with solar panels built in Small items like a torch or a power bank for recharging phones Still weighing up the cost of solar panels against the benifits As a old fart the government provides a discount for power cost Since my use is so low, the most heavy use items I have is fridge along with washing machine, and that is used very infrequently, the discount covered all my cost = power bill $0 Solar panels advantage might be just be to run tv if grid goes down Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Did a check on my LED TV and seems to be power equivalent between 50 and 60 watts Then checked 12 volt storage battery and moving on to a 12 volt DC converter to 240 volt AC Seems can do if careful not to stuff up the TV electronics with poor sine waves I have no intention of solar panels and battery converter system for TV. More just using the concept as a rough guage for possible future usage post cyclone Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Passing along a "thank you" from a twelve year old who is doing a speculative piece on "Farmers' Markets On Mars." Quite a clever young lady.
OK. For 'real' solar (i.e. solar that saves you money) you need panels and a grid tie inverter. Most will not give you power when the grid goes out. The SMA inverters are the exception there; they will give you ~2000 watts AC as long as the sun is strong enough (and you have enough panels.) For backup solar you'll need solar PV panels, a charge controller, a battery and an off grid inverter. There are a lot of decent sine wave inverters out there now.
No, but someday... The stories had to be plausible, no trips to Mars on a brown dragon. (Kudos to the one that knows that reference.)