Anybody here got Solar ? If you do, Do you like it ?

[69hurstolds]

They're not stylish, and it appears to me there's so much re-engineering to your existing home wiring to get emergency systems to work, etc. It would make sense if I had a cabin out by the lake and wanted power. But just to try and minimize electrical bills and having to wait until I die to break even doesn't make me WANT this kind of a system. The tree huggers will love you, but to only save a few bucks a month and have to be tethered to minimum fees? I'd buy more panels/batteries, and toss the electric company altogether. The lithium batteries should last you 10 years.

 

[Bonnewagon]

Don't get me wrong- I am totally pro Solar, wind, water, whatever makes power and doesn't pollute. I use small dash mounted Solar chargers on all my seldom used vehicles just to keep the batteries topped off. I even used a small Solar charger on my skiff while it was docked because there was no dockside power. It worked great and I never had a dead battery from the bilge pump running. The small chargers are very cheap and reliable now. But before I even consider plastering my roof with panels the cost has got to come way down as well as maintenance ease. Why aren't we investing in the industry and becoming the world leader in economical Solar? Look at what the Desert Nations are doing. Using Solar while selling us thier dirty old oil. We have deserts too. And I would never lease anything, not panels, not a car, nothing. That's a sucker deal. And why can't they combine the electric panels with hot water producing panels? A small circulator pump, water travels the entire grid area, and comes out almost steam. Then it goes into an insulated storage tank for use later. Or that makes too much sense?

 

[69hurstolds]

Don't get me wrong- I am totally pro Solar, wind, water, whatever makes power and doesn't pollute. I use small dash mounted Solar chargers on all my seldom used vehicles just to keep the batteries topped off. I even used a small Solar charger on my skiff while it was docked because there was no dockside power. It worked great and I never had a dead battery from the bilge pump running. The small chargers are very cheap and reliable now. But before I even consider plastering my roof with panels the cost has got to come way down as well as maintenance ease. Why aren't we investing in the industry and becoming the world leader in economical Solar? Look at what the Desert Nations are doing. Using Solar while selling us thier dirty old oil. We have deserts too. And I would never lease anything, not panels, not a car, nothing. That's a sucker deal. And why can't they combine the electric panels with hot water producing panels? A small circulator pump, water travels the entire grid area, and comes out almost steam. Then it goes into an insulated storage tank for use later. Or that makes too much sense?

As far as the heater, I think it would be easier and less chance of a leak to just power a water heater with the panels instead of the increased leak risk. It's already in an insulated tank. You could just do one of those natural circulation deep wells and have a natural water heater as well. But the good thing about oil is you can burn that crap at night. Also, you can pollute crap around you so bad, that the solar crowd gets clouded out and then burn up their batteries trying to keep up. 🙂

Renewable energy is a great place to go, but I think there are some places it's being touted as advanced, but it still isn't very economical yet. If it were, there'd be no "incentives". Once the prices get to a point where they start invoking a "solar tax" or some sort of crap like that, THEN you will know you've arrived at the sweet spot of economy of scale. If they won't tax it, then it's not economical. Take that to the bank. 🙂

 

[pagrunt]

Another thing, isn't there like a hazmat issue when getting rid of replaced componets besides the batteries?

 

[Canon_Mutant]

Yeah, I’m thinking about joining tree huggers anonymous . . .

Meanwhile, my system is over half paid for already (a little ahead of schedule - expected Sept), my nighttime LV property lighting is daytime powered, and our new water heater is a very high efficiency inverse heat pump. Love it BTW if anyone is shopping? Too soon to comment on reliability since it is a fairly new tech and just over a year online. Only thing still on fossil is the backup furnace just because it was a new Rheem installed by the previous owner when we bought the place 5 yrs ago.

Roof mounted solar panels look like poop? 🤔

Well, that’s one I have never heard before. First time for everything . . .
Most peeps out have just said, “cool!”
Must be code for ?

For anyone that cares?

Though ground mount is more serviceable you have more line loss (more I^2*R at DC), my shop orientation was better suited for the panels than the house was, there’s plenty of room left for the extra 3kW of capacity if I choose more solar over a small wind turbine, the panels drop straight down to dual combiners to dual charger/inverters which still supply 120VAC (redundancy) if an inverter fails and 240VAC when both are up while trickle charging the batts. You can do a 2+1 and set it up for auto-failover if you want to spring for an extra inverter? Most grid tie installs are just string inverted to AC though right at the panels which is a tad cheaper but I intended to eventually be grid free before I got sick anyway. The shop service backfeeds to the netmeter which then feeds the house. Negligible line loss @ AC. All the LV lighting plugs into the shop and the backup generator currently just rolls out the door and plugs into a 240V plug there. Hope I live long enough to see the fuel cell sitting there full time, trickle electrolysis my own hydrogen, and the grid and get lost.

Then I can join the Green Lesbians(hey I’m 60, willing to try new things 👍 )

 

[fleming442]

Garth, are you trying to offset you Oldsmobile carbon footprint?

 

[Streetbu]

Actually your best bet for batteries is if you might know someone in the cell tower field. Towers have a big lithium battery bank to keep the tower going when there is a power failure. They change the battery pack out every couple of years no matter what. They are extremely expensive new, and last a long time. Often you can get a pack for $500 used and will last you ten years or more and you have enough reserve to last several days with no sun at all.

 

[Canon_Mutant]

Ha, what Olds C footprint? That would require me getting either of them actually running . . . (details)!

Nice thought though 👍

Garth, are you trying to offset you Oldsmobile carbon footprint?

 

[TURNA]

I just bought this sign while I was in FL

Stop driving your GBody if you want to save the earth

Hypocrites!!!!!!

 

[454GrandPrix]

Gee, I'm kinda surprised by all the anti-solar sentiment here. Or maybe I shouldn't be, what with our love of these dinosaur V8 engines. 😉

Myself, I am seriously thinking about installing a small solar system on my roof for the first time. Why am I thinking about it now? Because two weeks ago I bought myself a (used) electric car to replace my Geo Metro for general driving/commuting duty. When I did the math on a cost-per-mile-driven basis, I was surprised to see the electric car would cost me only 25-35% to drive compared to gasoline costs for the 1.0L/5-speed Metro. Paying only 30 cents to drive a distance that used to cost me a dollar in the Metro (and would cost me $4+ in the Grand Prix) sure feels great.

Naturally, this got me thinking about solar power. What's even better than paying only 30 cents to drive that given distance? Paying nothing, of course. My electricity is pretty cheap, so that would stretch out a solar system's ROI time... but if I was also powering my car, the ROI would shrink dramatically. I'm still kicking it around, though.

To those of you who have solar systems installed, thanks for sharing your experiences.