Solar power?

[Duckiller]

Had a young man come visit to sell me solar power. I invited him but he was a total idiot who only lightly understood what he was selling. I sent him away. My question is "Is domestic solar power a good or bad thing?" My electric bill averages about $200.00 per month. Comments on solar power in an urban enviroment are welcome. I am not going off the grid.

[geargnasher]

If your average bill is $200/month in SoCal, I'd say you're doing a lot of things right already.

I'm assuming you're considering a grid-tie system that supplements your regular power, with no battery backup? That would be the least expensive and most effective route. With such a system you have little maintenance to worry about and will get the most "bang for your buck". There are also tax incentives. But you're still not going to see returns on the investment for a lot of years, speaking strictly from a financial standpoint. However, if the southern states had more solar supplements it would seriously reduce the grid loads during the day in the summer months.

Gear

[AlaskanGuy]

Cant hurt a thing, but there are many components you will need to integrate a system into your home.... I would suggest checking out home power magazine http://www.homepower.com

I have tons of resources on alternative energy... All the systems are very similar with the exception of whatever you actually use to generate the electricity, weather it is solar, hydro, or wind generated...

A good person to talk to is a member here named Grumpa... He lives off solar completely....

AG

[Crawdaddy]

It can be a good thing. The short answer is it depends.

In my area you enter into a contract with the power company and they pay you a certain amount per kwh. In my area it is15 cents. You can get a 4 year pay back more or less. There are many variables, how much energy you consume, how much energy your system produces, grid tie only or back up batteries and inverter, installation costs.

If nothing breaks down, it is profit after that.

With a grid tie system only, if your power goes out in the area you live in, so does yours. So there is no back power without batteries and a transfer switch and inverter.

[hicard]

I just bought into solar and have just completed my first month on solar. So far, I am very happy with it. I had to do something as my electric bill was over $400 a month and has been up to $640 in the summer. This first electric bill I just paid, $4.29. I realize that it will probably take me 9-10 years to break even, if I live that long but, after that, it is all free. I am finding out that rain/clouds really cut down on my electric production but when the sun is out, look out.

[MtGun44]

I designed and built a solar powered house in the mountains in Colorado in 1995, have
been using it since. One charge controller failure cost me a set of batteries, other than
that almost 20 yrs of free power. Spent last week there.

Only makes economic sense in certain situations. In my case, it would have cost
$28,000 to connect to the grid back then. Cheap and easy now, haven't bothered,
no need. You have to realize the limitations of solar power, which are substantial,
but it can be useful in certain situations. Biggest question is: Is it economically
a good idea. Tech is fine, costs are rarely worth doing without substantial
tax credits or similar phony accounting. Straight up economics ONLY work in
remote areas where there are no or extremely expensive alternatives.

Bill

[JeffinNZ]

My laundry drier is wind and solar powered.

[GRUMPA]

Solar?...Ole Gear has it pretty well said. CA has I think the best energy buy back program there is. Where I live I think is 1 of the worse, but there isn't any power lines close to me, unless you call 7 miles away close. To have lines brought in the cost would have been somewhere around 1.6mil about 9yrs ago and I don't think it's any cheaper now so I wont even look into it.

We live entirely off grid, batteries the whole thing. I just last week hooked up another inverter and 8 smaller solar panels. It will give us another 700wts when the sun hits them. I wired the new/used inverter to run the shop and the well pump and the original inverter runs the house. These were used at a good price and got all that stuff primarily as a back up in case something went out.

[Petrol & Powder]

I think there are some very good applications of the technology and I'm not opposed to the concept but economics must rule the decision making process. I like some of the aspects of solar power such as: independence, free source of power (not FREE power itself, you have to amortize the initial cost of the system over the life of the system!), reliability, etc. When you look at the overall costs, it generally becomes a little less attractive.
Some applications make very good sense; such as remote power for water pumping, powering remote radio repeaters, electric fences/gates, remote cabins, etc. Until the cost of solar comes down or the cost of grid supplied power goes up........I see it as a supplemental power system at best.

[reloader28]

I've been playing around with a couple of cheap Harbor Freight panels the last year and so far am liking it. It started as back up because the power goes out in the winter and it gets cold without the woodstove fans and 12 volt lights put off nice light.

I put up a 600 watt wind turbine from Missouri Wind a couple weeks ago and 5 more batteries and am planning on a couple more solar panels now from that same company. Also a bigger inverter.

Its nice when the power goes out and we hardly notice.

[10x]

At 56 degrees north and living in a 1000 foot deep valley, the sun rises at 10 am in the winter and coasts along the southern horizon. A 12 watt solar panel will show current at 12:00 noon on December 20th. About 1.5 volts and maybe 500 milliamps. Summer time there is the full 12 watts....

[Frank46]

Don't know how true this is but have heard that the power companies don't like the idea of solar power as less usage for their product costs them more money. But here in Louisiana my bills during the summer run $400 a month. What worries me is putting in a system and having the panels get damaged due to hurricanes and bad storms. Have not heard about how strong the panels are regarding storm damage. Anyway setting up a battery bank with inverter can run big bucks. Frank

[uscra112]

I'm a tech wonk from way back, but as far as solar electricity is concerned, IMHO a full solar house is nothing more than a toy for the smug greenie types who don't have to do the cost-benefit analysis. Deterioration of the panels themselves, the batteries and the electronics will eat you alive eventually, unless you can get the equipment for far, far less $$ than the companies with the slick sales brochures want you to pay.

Best thing I've done to keep my electric bills down is not use so much of it. As few electric appliances as I can get away with, no A/C, wood furnace that's non-electric, propane kitchen stove, etc. Only electric I literally cannot do without would be my well pump. Summer my bill is $60-$80. Winter a little higher, since I have an electric cove radiant in the bathroom.

BTW power companies aren't worried about the lost revenue, (it's microscopic to them) but they ARE getting antsy about all this solar/wind stuff when it feeds back to the grid, because the highly variable input disrupts their generation-plant control algorithms. Power Engineering had an article not six months ago which suggested that as the grid input from solar and wind passes 3%, the probability of blackouts due to solar/wind-induced grid instability in any 30 day period approaches 100%.

[MaryB]

Decent brand name panels have a 20 or 25 year 80% power warranty so deterioration is not a big issue. I currently have 1200 watts of panels feeding a 464 amp hour battery bank. It is my backup power for the very unreliable grid I put up with. This winter we had 9 power outages with the longest over half a day. At -20 the batteries will keep the corn/pellet stove cranking out heat for 20+ hours easy along with power for my ham radio gear and some lighting. Will I ever see payback for it? Probably not but it beats trying to start a generator at -20.

Doubling it to 2400 watts of panels and 924 amp hours of battery to run more of the house. Extra is going to fridge(converted chest freezer) and freezer with an automatic switch from battery to grid at my set voltage. If I am without power for 3+ days like I was after the tornado in 2011 it will keep the freezer frozen and the fridge cold!

[TreeKiller]

Quote;BTW power companies aren't worried about the lost revenue, (it's microscopic to them) but they ARE getting antsy about all this solar/wind stuff when it feeds back to the grid, because the highly variable input disrupts their generation-plant control algorithms.;Quote

Daughter in law works for CAL-ISO and hates wind and solar for this reason. Every thing is fine then the wind stops or you get cloud cover and you have to scramble to find the power.

[Ajax]

I think a nice solar set up is easy to make. I think most people get turned off on the idea due to the price of pre-manufactured panels. If you do some research and are proficient with some hand tools it can be done rather reasonably. I am by far no expert, but i have been reading up and planning on doing a solar set up for when i get home to Texas. So, do some research and find out the info for yourself not what some company says you need.


Andy

[barrabruce]

Yeah I got solar.
End spending my money on a 5 kw system that can only put out 3.5kw max.
Had to get 3 phase installed and spread over 3 controllers.
The panels are arranged so I get more peak out put hrs.

Cost me a bit but in the first year I'm $500 dollars up on my electric bill.(they owe me)
Be interesting to see how long it will take to break even ...cost versus....power used.
We figure about 8 years.
But basically I just paid my power bill for 15 years...I hope.
Since our power has increased 30% in the last few years it may be sooner.
I live in the wet tropics.

Some thing I always wanted to do.
WE are on the grid and basically get 1.5x the suplus power we feed into it.
No good when it rains but.
And no powder when the cyclones wrecks power gid.

Such is live.

No I'm not a been farting greenie either.

One has to figure out all costs involved.

Hopefully over the life of the system We may get our money back...or gain a bit.

Its the only bill that I don't owe nothing on ....and I'm eager to receive in the mail.

Barra

[WRideout]

A few years ago I spent two weeks at a house on an island in the Bahamas that was off the grid. It had a complete solar system; don't know much about the engineering, and can't remember if the appliances ran off it. Still, it was pretty sizable, and fed a battery bank. It worked for them, but then they get almost continuous sunshine, and it's not feasible to connect to commercial power anyway. They did have to tinker with it now and then to keep things running.

I think solar could work for you, if you limit the applications it has to feed. I wouldn't try to run an entire house with the same load you have now, but it could run a dedicated appliance, or a particular room. Just my two cents.

Wayne

[aspangler]

I have two panels I built myself with battery bank and it works to keep lights and fridge going when the power goes out. Squirrels Love to roast themselves on the power lines around here. Won't run the whole house but is pretty convenient for outages of 3 to four hours or so. I have a light system an a separate receptacle for the fridge from the battery bank and inverter.

[lancem]

I have been living off grid for going on two years now. I was in a no choice area as the closest grid is over 5 miles away. I like it, I have enough power to do anything I want during the day and everything I usually do during the night. My only advice is to buy quality equipment. There are many in this area off grid and I see it over and over again where there are those that buy the cheap equipment, then end up doing it over and over and end up with a lot of expense and still have the cheap stuff that is going to fail. I use all Outback equipment and can say that their warranty and customer service are top drawer.