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Solar Power/Panel?

B

budec

Gawd
Joined
Jul 10, 2002
Messages
748
Anyone familiar with Solar Panels/power?

I'm thinking about it for other reasons too; but I could bring a ton of PIII & P4s from the closet if I had cheap free solar power :)
 
Wow, you just hit on an unbelievably complex topic.

KillerMob and I have been looking into Solar, Wind and various other so called alternative power sources.

For an individual to do it properly is usually too expensive. The other side is, if done properly you over generate and by law the power company is forced to buy your excess power. Generate enough power and you can make a nice profit.

The trick seems to be a combination of wind and solar and of course enough land and money to build it. Your second big problem will probably be zoning laws. No matter how much you could generate and be “green” most towns won’t allow it.

Start Googeling, it's going to be your best source.

Go figure huh?;)


 
hrm.

I can get access to some cheap land
(40 to 50 arces).

What type of capital is need to start an investment on this?

10K?
50K
100K
more?

I'd love to generate a bunch of green energy and sale it back to the energy company!
 
budec said:
hrm.

I can get access to some cheap land
(40 to 50 arces).

What type of capital is need to start an investment on this?

10K?
50K
100K
more?

I'd love to generate a bunch of green energy and sale it back to the energy company!
Click to expand...

Again, not knowing your full needs or local conditions it’s hard to say.

I do know that for 50k you can get a 10500 KWH windmill, that’s installed with batteries and inverters and full safety shut down. 2 of those would give you 30000 KWH and allow you to sell about 10000 KWH back to the power company, or sell your excess to a neighbor. That’s of course assuming you have a typical home.

You would have to add up your total KWH usage per day etc for final calculations.

The windmills I am talking about are the commercial grade you often see in huge farms in commercials or along the road depending where you live. The 50’ tall tapered aluminum tower with a 3 blade prop on top.




 
Has anyone looked into Photovoltaic panels for the roof? Seems like the easiest way to generate electricity in an average house.



 
Connundrum1 said:
Has anyone looked into Photovoltaic panels for the roof? Seems like the easiest way to generate electricity in an average house.
Click to expand...

I used to have a small solar rig for Y2K, etc. Was VERY expensive per watt. If you just run a straight solar rig, no battery bank, you're looking at about $4-5 a watt. 12v DC watt that is. Divide by 11 to get AC watts (allowing for conversion inefficiency).

Here's some roof setups that will give you some idea as to the cost.

http://www.mrsolar.com/page/MSOS/CTGY/ce
 
^^^ What he said. Solar is very expensive right now, although that is likely to change in the next 5 years or so. The other issue with solar is that it's not a constant source of energy. If you're grid-connected and have enough capacity, you can sell excess to the grid during the day and pull power from the grid at night. Or you can use a battery bank, which would give you some amount of power at night during a power outage, but would add to the cost. $4-5/watt is pretty cheap--you'd have trouble finding it for less.

Bill, watts is watts. 1W at 12V DC is the same as 1W at 120VAC. It's the current that gets divided by 10.
 
Solar is the most popular in AZ. You can pretty put it on any house without issues from HOAs and such. Laws allow for people to put these in without getting prevented by them. Some power companies out here will help pay for up to 50 percent of the installation.
 
Check out http://www.otherpower.com

They have a lot of info regarding "off the grid" power. It's very much a DIY site, but it'll give you the basic knowledge should you decide to buy something commercial grade.
 
flroida will pay you $4/watt up to $20k if you install a PV array

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/energy/energyact/solar.htm

also there are florida (state) laws that prevent HOA's and LG from restricting the installation/use of alternitive energy sources...

im going to be installing a small PV array myself... home depot was clearing out some solar panels that were meant to run roof fans... got them for like $20/each... they are like 25w panels... but i have like 20 of them... so 500w

i plan to hook them to a battery bank and run lighting (CF, LED etc) off them... would be useful during hurricanes also...
 
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