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Solar power?

W

Wolfie

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 2, 2006
Messages
501
I have been working at getting my computers powered from renewable power for a while, a friend and I are working on building some solar panels so that hopefully I can balance my power usage from the computers to near zero.

I was wondering if anyone else has worked on this or has a setup they want to post.
 
I know people have talked about it, but with power under $.08 here it just doesn't work for me.

Most people looked at a 10+ year payback on their projects.
 
Also, Kendrak's figure is probably average for a regular home that consumes ~1kW.

Since you're talking about powering folding gear that most likely sucks several kW, you'd be looking at a much bigger investment to fully power it all. There are many tax incentives (maybe your state has more) but probably not enough to avoid this being a huge financial sink hole.

Also, most solar cells don't reach more than around 40% efficiency. You would need several square meters worth of panel to generate enough power to operate your rigs, as well as some kind of battery or other mechanical system to maintain power at night.

Solar has come a long way but powering all your rigs with it would really be a feat...
 
I was looking at the whole "green folding" concept, but as already stated, the initial investment is so high (pushing 2kW in my case - that is a lot of wind generators and/or solar panels) and the ROI would be WAY out there. If you can figure out how to do it without plunking down $10,000, I am all ears...
 
It doesn't help that solar cells tend to be either expensive or inefficient (with respect to energy). Well I guess that's relative, but there's the tradeoff between more affordable cells and more efficient cells. Also it obviously depends on where you are. If you're in a place where it's overcast 75% of the time, you're not going to get a very good return as somewhere where it's completely clear 75% of the time.
 
warthorn said:
Also, Kendrak's figure is probably average for a regular home that consumes ~1kW.
Click to expand...
Ha!

I wish it was only 1kw.

I'm around 2kw 24/7 and that is just for the folding gear. Not to mention A/C durring summer to cool off all the heat generated.

Then I live in Ohio..... sure I see the sun... some of the time. Sure not today though.
 
If I were to attempt something like that I would build a few VAWTs (vertical axis wind turbine)

if you could achieve even a fraction of the efficiency these units are pumping out it might be worth doing.
http://www.hsck.com/vawt-b.htm

you probably wouldn't be able to match them but if you built one that was a couple meters in diameter out of stuff from a hardware store it'd be a good start.
 
a combo of solar & wind along with batteries &/or grid tying would likely work well. If you're really brave and have some time, do everything DYI. A solar panel can be made for pretty little with DYI and wind can be done the same. lots of testing and stuff, but it'd be worth it if you could get something decent. If you DYI and do want to grid tie, get to know an electrician & the electric company. The elec. co. may even be able to help you and work with you on things. There are lots of sites for doing both projects.
 
thought about the solar thing when i lived in California. would of worked perfectly since it was sunny 95% of the year. but up here in Washington power is only $.06 and the suns only up for 5 hours here during the winter.
 
Well here in Melbourne I am on 100% wind power from the regular power company for 5c extra, taking it from 19.5c to 24.5c per kwh.

Expensive power by US standards, but still way cheaper than anything solar. I presume a few more generations of solar will become efficient enough to be viable, but right now it is still a 5-10 year break even. A shame, as generally speaking here in oz we are not exactly short of sunshine.
 
Solar doesn't pay for itself. But, it is nice to have some solar panels for backup power in blackouts. While you're waiting for the blackouts, you can use the panels to lower your electric bills.
 
Stone Cold said:
Solar doesn't pay for itself. But, it is nice to have some solar panels for backup power in blackouts. While you're waiting for the blackouts, you can use the panels to lower your electric bills.
Click to expand...

I live less than 10 miles from 2 power plants....

What are blackouts?
 
I haven't had a blackout since a hurricane came through here 20 years ago.
 
Might be better off getting an in home energy audit to help reduce the overall bill of the house so that you can better pay for the rigs.
 
In Missouri wind energy is a somewhat viable option, but it's not optimal. I'm about 75 miles froma Nuc plant. winter power is 6 cents for the first tier, then 4 cents after the first 750 kwH. Summer is 8 cents.

If I ever a get a large-scale rig, I'd like to use water-cooling to dump heat into a hot water pre-heater along with my ground-source heat pump. Then use a tankless electric to bring it on up to usage temps.
 
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