Solar panels

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edicehouse

edicehouse

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Suffolk, VA
I have been thinking of getting a couple solar panels, inverter, batteries, ect and doing some green power. Has anyone else done this? I am thinking about starting with one items, maybe just the water pump, or maybe even half the outlets/lights in the shop.
 
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If you don't mind paying 3x for your electricity, this is the way to go.

Bare in mind that the panels only put out 50% of their rated power after a few years, and after 10 years, they are down to 10%. This coming from an engineer who worked at a solar panel company a few years ago.

If you do decide to still go solar, you'll want to convert lighting, etc. over to 12v. That way you don't lose another 25% efficiency up converting to 120v AC.

When I looked at it last year, even with government rebates, it would never pay for itself. Never mind the hassle of it all.

Now, if you go and check out solar pop can heaters on YouTube, that looks like something worth investigating.
 
I did a house (partial) about 15 yrs ago and that was 40k and could still not come of the grid. I understand now that the panels are more efficient but still not great.

Lin.
 
I did some serious research into a solar/wind combination to take our business off the grid. Considering the initial outlay I was never going to recoup my costs. Sad to say but it is just not feasible right now to do it.

If we lived out of town and were building a house I would install it on the house but to retrofit a house/business it is cost prohibitive with little chance of pay back.

Too bad too. I am all for alternative energy but I have to do what is best for my bottom line.
 
:rolleyes::rolleyes: Are you open to any sorce of wind ?? If the answer is yes, you might want to look into a vertical wind turbin. It stands upright and takes very little wind from any direction to operate. No big windmill sitting in your yard. I had seen them on a program where Jay Leno was installing them on the building that housed his auto shop. He's always on the forefront of Geen alternative energy. Jim S
 
That was a while ago. I've had my original system, that paid for itself in 3.25 years, for about 8 years, guaranteed (for whatever that's worth) to be 90% effective after 25 years. Currently, it does better now than when I got it 7 years ago. Now, the guarantee in my new system is 30 years. Now, in the Pacific NW, where power is cheap, It'd take forever top pay for one of these systems. (CA also has rebates and annual true up, which makes our systems a sensible option.)
 
There is a thing called "Economy of Scale". The bigger you go, the better it gets, or words to that effect.
I saw a local show on PBS recently about chicken farmers on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
One guy had a massive solar array installed that tracked the Sun all day.

Anyway, his bill went from $6000 a month to $12 a month but that did not include the payback cost of the panels original cost & installation.
He estimated a 20 year payback to recoup his investment.

If you have several acres of land & a place to store a warehouse full of huge, heavy forklift batteries, I say go for it. :rolleyes:
 
I am amazed at some of the cree leds and 1. how long they work on battery power and 2. how bright they are.

I went with the CFL bulbs in 2004 in our house in Japan and 2005 in our house in the USA (Daughter was living in our house here). IN both cases, from May through Sept, our electricity went down $100.00 a month on average. Part of the cost was the AC cooling of the incandescent heat.

Both in Japan and in the US I think I spent about $300 on bulbs at each place - to replace all incandescent bulbs through out the houses. Saved more than that in the first summer. We moved back to the US in Dec of 2010. This past spring I replaced all CFL bulbs with LEDs. We got very little change in utility bills but the difference in CFL to LEDs were noticeable, especially when immediately turned on.

That said, as mentioned above, I would start with replacing 120V lights to 12V. The 12V lights are bright. There are appliances being made that will work on 12V including refrigerators, and other small appliances. If I were rebuilding or young enough to rewire my house, I would go with a combo wind turbine and solar panels and convert what I could to 12V. BY the way, I had an American friend in Japan that was a fanatic about electrical safety and he worked at a couple of nuclear plants here in the USA. Over there, he wired his house for dual voltage and it passed their codes, and they are stricter on wiring than the USA in certain areas. They do not allow unsheathed neutral wire as we do.
 
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I replaced all the lights in my little motorhome with LEDs. It made an appreciable difference in coach battery life. I also use a little solar panel that plugs into the cigarette lighter when my coach is in storage to keep the battery maintained. I have a solar flag light but the solar panel fails in about a year and has to be replaced. (The solar panel doesn't last as long as the rechargeable batteries do.)
 
sbwertz said:
I replaced all the lights in my little motorhome with LEDs. It made an appreciable difference in coach battery life. I also use a little solar panel that plugs into the cigarette lighter when my coach is in storage to keep the battery maintained. I have a solar flag light but the solar panel fails in about a year and has to be replaced. (The solar panel doesn't last as long as the rechargeable batteries do.)
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Sharon,

I do the same. I have an HF solar charger and I put it on my lawn tractor over the winter. I started doing this in 2004 and I finally had to replace the battery in 2014.

Because I lived in Japan and came home (USA) once a year for a month, I kept a Ford Ranger for immediate transportation while here. I bought the truck in 2000. In 2002 when I came back to the USA for a month, the battery was dead. I replaced it, used the truck for a month and went back to Japan. 2003, Battery dead again (from lack of use.) Replaced with a warranty battery. 2004, Again. Battery dead. Replaced under warranty. Added the HF solar charger. That 2004 battery on the truck lasted until 2015.

These little solar trickle chargers work.

I have my house surrounded by solar charged LED motion lights. For a little over a year, they have done a great job.
 
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