In this article you’ll learn how to use a solar panel to run a chicken coop.
Before you start spending money you should understand your requirements so you can pick a solar panel kit best suited to your needs. There’s no one size fits all option to this as you need to take into account the size of your coop and the appliances your plan to power.
In fact, there’s a surprisingly wide range of solar powered chicken coop products on the market. Below we’ll look at what size solar panel you’ll need, what you can expect to run, the best solar panel chicken coops, and how to install the equipment.
What Size Solar Panel For a Chicken Coop?
You can use anything from 10 watt to 500+ watts of solar panels for a chicken coop.
To be honest, I’ve seen all different shapes and sizes of setups. It all comes down to what you are providing power too. For example, a small automated door can run from just a 10W solar panel. On the other hand, if you want to run heaters completely off-grid you’ll need a more significant system providing hundreds of watts.
It is easy to run smaller low draw electronics with solar power. Common items to run include LED lighting, fans, and a door opener. With these low wattage electronics, you could easily use a single solar panel to charge a battery. Then these items can draw power from the battery when they need it.
To work out how much power you need to generate, total up the amount of energy your electronics will use over a day in watt-hours. Then divide this number by 4 to get your minimum required solar panel wattage. (You divide by 4 as this is the average ‘peak sun hours’ per day your panels will work efficiently.)
Can I run a heat lamp on solar panels?
You might be thinking of running your whole chicken coop with solar panels. This becomes more tricky if you have energy demanding appliances like heat lamps and radiator heaters. Anything with a heating or cooling element will draw a lot of power meaning you need a huge amount of solar panels and battery capacity.
Remember, solar panels only work well in direct sunlight during the middle of the day. This means you’ll need to generate most of your electricity in 4 or 5 hours each day and store it in a battery.
A single heat lamp uses a minimum of 250 watts. If you run the heat lamp overnight for 8 hours that’s 2000Watt-hours of energy!
You would need over 500 watts of solar panels to charge a battery to provide this energy overnight. Plus you’ll need at least a 300Ah deep cycle battery to store the energy generated by the panels. And that’s for just one heat lamp.
So yes it is possible, but you’ll need a large solar system and guaranteed sunshine.
What You’ll Need to Run a Chicken Coop from Solar Power
You will need a number of components in your solar panel system in order to get it working correctly. You can’t run electronics directly from a solar panel as the power level will be erratic, plus they don’t work at night!
- Solar panel (obviously)
- Solar Charge Controller – To regulate battery charging
- Deep Cycle Battery – To store energy and deliver a reliable power draw
- Power Inverter – (Optional, you don’t need this if you only run DC electronics)
Installing a Solar Panel Kit on a Chicken Coop
If you are looking to set up a solar panel for your chicken coop things can get confusing when you don’t understand all the components.
In reality, it’s a pretty straightforward job that you can do yourself. All systems will have three main components – solar panel, charge controller, and battery.
Step 1 – Mount Solar Panel
You need to find a nice sunny spot to mount your solar panel. This is on a south-facing roof of the chicken coop. Alternatively, you can use a tilt mount or wall bracket. For best results mount the solar panel at a tilted angle between 30 – 45 degrees. This will help absorb sunlight more efficiently.
Step 2 – Secure the Battery
Before we start connecting anything you need to ensure your battery is kept in a dry secure place. And away from the chickens! You can use a plastic box or container for this or use a dedicated battery box with holes/connections for your cables.
Step 3 – Connect the Charge Controller to Battery
A charge controller is essential as it regulates the charging of the battery from the solar panel. It helps to increase efficiency while protecting against overcharging and reverse current. It’s a safety protection as overcharging can lead to dangerous explosions!
Always connect the charge controller to the battery first before the solar panel. Do this by connecting the red/positive battery terminal to the +/positive battery output on the controller. Then repeat this with the black/negative terminals.
Step 4 – Connect the Solar Panel to Charge Controller
Now you are ready to finish your circuit by hooking up the solar panel.
Connect the red/positive solar panel cable to the +/positive input on the solar charge controller. Then repeat this with the black/negative side.
Your solar panel should now be charging your battery! You can now run DC appliances directly from the output on the charge controller or the battery.
Step 5 (Optional) – Add a Power Inverter
If you want to run AC appliances then you’ll need a power inverter. This is a device that converts the DC electricity stored in your battery into AC power needed to run home appliances.
Simply hook up your power inverter to the battery terminal in a positive to positive and negative to negative fashion. Just like connecting the controller to the battery.
That’s it. You should now have solar power running to your chicken coop. Of course, all systems differ slightly but this gives you an overview of how everything works and connects. It will help you understand what all the components do in the system.
Is a Solar Panel Worth It for A Chicken Coop?
It’s rare to see a chicken coop running completely off-grid, especially if you need to run demanding heaters. Many people like to run the lower powered devices from solar power to help reduce the reliance and cost of mains power. Plus it keeps you covered in the event of a power outage.
If you want to run your lighting, doors, and fans, a solar panel will work really nicely. For anything more than this then it’s going to require a substantial investment and space to mount the equipment. Even then you can’t guarantee power as you’re at the mercy of the weather. You might consider off-setting your chicken coop as a part of a larger home system that uses Net Energy Metering.
