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Solar Power

wpagewpage Member Posts: 10,201 ✭✭✭
edited January 2012 in General Discussion
I remember a place right off my home afb that was self reliant, no power lines.
Not that I am a green freak, but electricity bills are hurting. I want to get solar power and solar water heater up, try to save money. Anyone know of a few good book to get me headed in the right direction?
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Comments

  • wpagewpage Member Posts: 10,201 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Looking into solar power for electric generation in my home.

    Anyone have a solar power system in and working. Is it what you expected or just marginal?

    Thanks for your feed back in advance!
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  • grumpygygrumpygy Member Posts: 48,464 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Don't go with the one Obama Backed.
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  • 1fisher1fisher Member Posts: 1,012 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Do you already have electric service to the house, or is it going to be strictly off the grid?

    Solar power will cost you more per KW than almost any existing electric service. The only way it can even compete is if you take advantage of all the possible tax rebates or government subsidy programs.
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  • toolmaniamtoolmaniam Member Posts: 3,213
    edited November -1
    Solar and wind until it becomes cheaper takes too long to pay for itself. Unless you want to get off the grid or are wanting to do a "green" thing its not practical. I researched it at one time a received sticker shock.
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  • danielgagedanielgage Member Posts: 10,583 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    saw a website talking about it

    home made energy I think here it is http://www.homemadeenergy.org/special/index.php?hop=taa200

    always was curious but never followed up with it
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  • HandLoadHandLoad Member Posts: 15,998 ✭
    edited November -1
    AWFUL Expensive, and most folks can't live on the amount of power that they can afford to have installed.

    Most folks can't maintain the systems they put in.

    Many Fires are started by folks working on their systems.

    Best for very small systems used only for Emergency Lighting.
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  • LesWVaLesWVa Member Posts: 10,490 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I passed when I had a company do an estimate for my house. Thousands of dollars for the equipment and very little power would have been produced. It was something like $17,000.00 to get just 3500 watts on a great day. A bank of batteries, GM alternator connected to a gas engine and an inverter would have been a better setup.


    quote:Originally posted by grumpygy
    Don't go with the one Obama Backed.


    They took millions in bail out money and then turned around and filed for bankruptcy.
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  • bpostbpost Member Posts: 32,669 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    It is too expensive in 80% of America to ever get a payback. In Arizona it works keeping a lots of houses off the grid. Wait 10 years until battery technology gets a lot better than the lead acid storage now available.
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  • FrancFFrancF Member Posts: 35,279 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Not to mention the life of a solar panel is not all that long. and I have always asked the question. What if you have to replace your roof? Take it all down and put it back up?
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  • LesWVaLesWVa Member Posts: 10,490 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by FrancF
    Not to mention the life of a solar panel is not all that long. and I have always asked the question. What if you have to replace your roof? Take it all down and put it back up?


    The panels that the estimator who came to my house told me that the ones they would install carried a 25 year warranty. You can still find that Sun Force still has a 25 year warranty on their panels.

    The battery bank would have cost right at $4500.00.
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  • FrancFFrancF Member Posts: 35,279 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by LesWVa
    quote:Originally posted by FrancF
    Not to mention the life of a solar panel is not all that long. and I have always asked the question. What if you have to replace your roof? Take it all down and put it back up?


    The panels that the estimator who came to my house told me that the ones they would install carried a 25 year warranty. You can still find that Sun Force still has a 25 year warranty on their panels.

    The battery bank would have cost right at $4500.00.


    That's great! Been hearing the panels produced in China are running a 8-12 year life span. As the panel ages, the actual power output drops from 100% new to about 45% after about 10 years.
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  • JnRockwallJnRockwall Member Posts: 16,350 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I would love to do this, but my last quote was $22k and figured 12.6 years to break even assuming their was no failures of any sort.
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  • torosapotorosapo Member Posts: 4,946
    edited November -1
    The biggest thing about solar and wind power is the life style change. You need to learn to use less. It can be done.
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  • NeoBlackdogNeoBlackdog Member Posts: 17,271 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Solar works great for heating water but using it to power electrical systems is way too expensive. Is this going to be new construction or are you remodeling an existing structure? If you're building new, a lot can be done with the building design so that it uses passive solar to help heat and light the building.
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  • skicatskicat Member Posts: 14,431 ✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by NeoBlackdog
    Solar works great for heating water but using it to power electrical systems is way too expensive. Is this going to be new construction or are you remodeling an existing structure? If you're building new, a lot can be done with the building design so that it uses passive solar to help heat and light the building.


    +1 Solar thermal is the best bang for the buck in "green energy systems".
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  • buckstarbuckstar Member Posts: 1,163 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I want to do this also but I will wait until my mortgage is payed off and I save up enough to cover it. By then the price will likely have dropped from higher factory output and/or better technology. To get the panels for replacing my consumption it would take a pallet of the good ones and that's $25,000... I'd want to go with microinverters too and those are around $200 each and you need one for each panel. I've yet to see a microinverter rated for the output of the panels I want anyway. For me that's a good sign to wait for the technology to mature into something that works at a price that works.
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  • nmyersnmyers Member Posts: 16,892 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    My neighbor installed a system in 2010, the only year that it made sense financially. Because of the huge federal, state, local, & utility tax credits/rebates, he got a $24,000 system for an out-of-pocket cost of $6,000. This is in Maryland, which is not always the sunniest state. The neighbor has been generating more electricity than he needs, & sells the excess back to the utility company.

    He was advised to replace his roof before installation, as the panels need to be removed to re-roof. His house was partially shaded by trees on the street, & the county chopped them down for him at no charge.

    I don't really understand the engineering, but he says his panels are wired in parallel, rather than series, so that a bad panel won't take him out of service. The installer put in an interface so that he can monitor performance on his computer.

    Neat setup, & he should make money, even if the thing doesn't last 10 years. We can all be proud that we contributed to his savings.

    Neal
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  • 11b6r11b6r Member Posts: 16,584 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Not all PV systems use batteries. If you are on the grid, the panels make power. Not enough, you buy makeup from the grid. Making more than you use? It goes back into the grid, and you get paid for it.
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  • nutfinnnutfinn Member Posts: 12,808 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Not worth it yet, unless you just want to pay to be green [:)]
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  • fishkiller41fishkiller41 Member Posts: 50,608
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Barzillia
    quote:Originally posted by wpage
    Looking into solar power for electric generation in my home.

    Anyone have a solar power system in and working. Is it what you expected or just marginal?

    Thanks for your feed back in advance!


    Do you live at 35 degrees South, or further ?

    First step that pays now and will have to be done if you are going PV anyway is to get a watts dog or similar device, and figure out where your power is being spent now. Reduce that number through new appliances/devices and engineering practices, like planting a shade tree.

    Switch to natural gas wherever you can.

    Do you live on a spot large enough to be able to rotate the PV panels through the day ?

    Solar heating of hot water is doable most places now.

    Battery technology is rapidly developing right now, hold off if you can until the next generation of storage is available if you want totally off the grid.



    I live at Lat.26.8 or close to it.
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  • cmancman Member Posts: 276 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    green energy is produced by burning money
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  • TooBigTooBig Member Posts: 28,559 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Wind power will always have a problem competing against Natural Gas and Most new Power plants are NG fired. Save your money
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  • dlrjjdlrjj Member Posts: 5,529 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Barring a major technological discovery, it's unlikely that any of them are going to beat carbon based energy anytime soon. The energy is already stored in the carbon product, and can be released through simple burning - no need to capture the energy first.
    Tax evasion is illegal, tax avoidance is an art form.
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