Solar Electricity: Is There A Cheap Way To Use It?

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

I have been thinking of ways to save money recently (As I have little to spare) and was thinking about possibly using solar electricity to provide some of the power needs for my house. I figure I would use a grid-parallel system to run my needs as I could run the meter backwards during the day and forwards during the night-thus negating much of my energy use. I just wonder if there is an inexpensive way to do it by employing used panels and doing much of the work myself to save on labor. My current electric bill is around $50-120 a month and I am wondering if the benefits would outweigh the costs? I figure I will need to further cut my expenses and increase my capitol efficiency in the near future as I take on more classes and will be able to work less to pay the bills. I have also thought about using small wind generators, but can't seem to find anything efficient enough to offset the costs. I also can't find anything small enough to not piss off my neighbors!

I have also been looking into more fuel efficient cars as another way to cut my expenses (small diesel or gas engine in a subcompact that is reliable and under $1,000). Golf or Rabbit Diesel, Sentra or Civic 1.5 or 1.6 liter 5 speed car under 2400lbs, etc.

 

[srercrcr]

Instead of attacking the expense side, why not just work more and problem is solved.

 

[andrewmp6]

I have no clue on the solar cells but a geo metro will get close to 50mpg.

 

[v8power]

i just did a report on them in school. if you do not have at least 12,000 to spend on them, i would not bother, you need to go almost completely off grid to make your meter run backwards. plug you are going to need all the converters and mounting brackets.

 

[R/T kota]

i just did a report on them in school. if you do not have at least 12,000 to spend on them, i would not bother, you need to go almost completely off grid to make your meter run backwards. plug you are going to need all the converters and mounting brackets.

Ya its good in the long run but it will take quite a few years to pay for its self.
My uncle has about 20,000 invested in his.

 

[85_SS]

It isn't cost efficient enough at this time to bother. At work, there is a lady who just installed a 2.24kW (tiny) photovoltaic (solar) system at a cost of probably close to $30-35,000. The system will never last long enough to even come close to paying itself back, let alone make money. If you go ahead with it, you will have to get a net meter and discuss it with you local utility. Such a meter has two registers, one for delivered and one for received power. The final bill is calculated from these two values - you can offset your bill to a net of zero at best, you cannot make money from the utiltiy. Protection must also be incorporated to ensure that the system will not feed back into the grid in the event of a power outage. In Ontario, there is also the Standard Offer program, where the government actually pays you for producing power to the grid rather than offsetting your bill, but it is a whole other level of complexity. With wind generators - check your local bylaws first. I've seen a few in the area, and if one my neighbors had one, I would be doing my best to knock it down. They are extremely annoying...

If it makes you feel better that you are helping the environment, and you can afford it, by all means go ahead and all the power to you. But if you think you will make money, it's unrealistic with the costs involved at this point in time. JMHO.

As a quick calculation on the above, assuming the system was producing at max 50% of the time (impossible BTW):
2.24kW @ $0.06/kWh = $0.1344 per hour
$0.1344 x 1040hrs/yr = $139.78
$30,000/$139.78 = 214.62 years to pay back and begin "making money"

Same calculation with Ontario's SOP program would yeild better benefits since the gov't pays $0.42/kwh (solar has highest payback by far due to high implementation costs):
2.24kW @ $0.42/kWh = $0.941 per hour
$0.941 x 1040hrs/yr = $978.64
$30,000/$978.64 = 30.65 years to pay back and begin "making money"

This is best case scenario - system producing all the time, no maintenance costs, low estimated installation cost etc etc. Even at this rate - you will never see the system last 30 years without any additional costs for maintenance etc, and you can likely double those payback times since it will not produce at max anywhere near 50% of the time - I just used those numbers for ease of calculation, and it helps show how long it would take, even in the best possible conditions.


As for a car:
A little commuter is a great savings if you drive a good distance to work. I sold my daily driver 84 SS a few years back in favor of a Saturn SC1 - 40mpg is much nicer than 17mpg when you drive ~100km/day.

EDIT: Updated values to reflect more accurate/realisitc numbers

 

[shotgun]

If you are a DIY kind of guy,solar hot water offers good payback on investment.

You can make a roof mounted grid to supply or piggyback on your house system.

Think about how many gallons of hot water you use between clothes washer,dish washer and showers. If you save base board heat,even better.

I am looking into it myself. Some guys are using small photo cell to charge a 12v battery for the water pump.

Just google away, using DIY in the title.

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Well, the reason I do not just work more is that I am in school right now and taking difficult classes and I already work 35-40 hours a week. When I get past my Calculus, Physics and Chemistry courses, then I have the actual Engineering courses. All of this requires a lot of study time to do well in and I am not able to go without sleep. I am 34 and sick of working too damn much to make no money, so I am pursuing my dream of a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

As far as the environment is concerned, I could care less. Let the earth warm up ( I don't think it is a man made problem if it even exists) or cool down or whatever it is supposed to do. I really don't care. I am not looking at improving my own energy efficiency for the sake of the earth. For me, it is to save money. In that vein, if I can't find the panels at a deep discount, I won't do it. I was just hoping someone had heard of a way to find them cheap. I am going to keep looking at Craigslist and hope someone is getting rid of some that I may be able to use to run a window A/C unit and turn my central A/C up to 80 during the summer ( I can't sleep if the house is much hotter than 70 inside). Then again, this may all be just another idea I ponder for a while and give up on or put away for another time. There are supposedly some inexpensive new technologies that are coming online for solar in the next 2 years that make it equal to or less expensive than local utilities.

As for a car, I drive 2 miles to work every day, but 70 miles a day at work ( I deliver Pizza for a living). USF, the university I will transfer to in 2 years, is about 20-25 miles one way from where I live. So, I will need something that is not only fuel efficient, but dead reliable to operate and cheap on parts when it breaks. It has to be common enough to be in the U pull it in large numbers too.

 

[v8power]

Well, the reason I do not just work more is that I am in school right now and taking difficult classes and I already work 35-40 hours a week. When I get past my Calculus, Physics and Chemistry courses, then I have the actual Engineering courses. All of this requires a lot of study time to do well in and I am not able to go without sleep. I am 34 and sick of working too damn much to make no money, so I am pursuing my dream of a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

i am a senior in hight school now and i want to go to school for mechanical engineer too. do you have any advice for me? i am already taking calc. and physics. what else should i do to further prepare myself?

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

Well, I am doing it as a part time student for now and have yet to get to any of my actual engineering course work. I am starting out at a local college, St Petersburg College, and then will do the actual engineering courses at The University of South Florida which is in Tampa. If I were you, I would look into seeing how many courses you can take at a local community college as the credit hours are usually cheaper than the University. I can't get any scholarships and do not qualify for grants either since I made too much money last year ($32,000 is not a lot once you take out taxes and expenses, but the gov't says it is...). I am also an adult who owns a house, not a high school student. Had I actually bothered to care about school at your age, I would have finished this a long time ago.

So, my advice is what everyone else has probably told you: Study hard, get good grades and neglect social activities and hobbies (if necessary) in order to do well in school. I put my car projects before school and they never got finished because I never made enough money. That was a mistake and I would not do that again. Keep your license clean and deliver pizza if you need a part time job. If you can do it well, you can make much more money than you would with other jobs that require little or no experience. Waiting tables in a decent restaurant is also a good choice. I know someone who left pizza to work at 'The Olive Garden" and he makes $700 a week on 40 hours. However, these are NOT jobs to do long term. They burn you out then throw you away and there is no real advancement. Plus, you are usually working with people of low intelligence which becomes frustrating when you are smart enough to think.

If you have not done so already, take chemistry. You will need it for your major and if you take it in high school you can avoid the introductory course that you will have to take and does not count towards your major. Be sure you can write well, take Physics II, etc. If you really like this major, look at cars in the junkyard you don't need parts off of or are not familiar with and take a mental note on what unique ideas they employ or that you have never seen before, and try to figure out why it was done that way. This helps you think in more complex terms than a simple "bolt on" Hot Rodder does. Anyhow, I hope at least a little of this helps. Good Luck!