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It is perfectly possible to power your VSat and/or your office with solar panels. You just design your setup depending on your consumption. It all depends on how long you are going to use your computers and VSat. It is sad to know that the offices are powered through generators and even more that desktops are used. Generators should only be used to supplement not to power offices.

What you have to do first is make sure that you eliminate wastage from your system. So absolutely no inverters if possible. Also don’t forget: on a 70W panel, you can power 4 laptops where you need up to 4 panels to power a desktop. You can have a laptop for the price of a desktop now. The main advantage is that they come with an integrated UPS (their battery) and you can power them without using an inverter (you have targus power supplies directly feeding from 12V batteries) and you don’t need regulators when they are on mains power (the supply can handle fluctuations of 110V up to 240V). You can bolt them into desk with special locks so theft is not an issue. To be short: by not using laptops you end up spending a lot more money than needed and doesn’t make sense form a technical point of view.

When you buy new computers, make sure you don’t buy the basic version of vista as it only has limited networking capacity.

When you mention the use of a server you probably mean that you want to share the internet system and printers. This can be achieved through one of the laptops and/or by a wireless router. So you don’t need a separate computer to achieve this.

I couldn’t find exact figures for the consumption on the VSat (I read somewhere 2 amps), but it works on 24V. This can be done directly from a 24V solar system setup, ideally separated from your computers. The advantage is that your VSat can then be treated as a priority. The size will then depend on how long you are going to run your system for/ day.

Regards,

Krystof