Solar panels?? I need help!?
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Solar Power sounds so good and as stated before in another answer I had been looking at this solution myself, not so much for green living but to save on the cost for electricity.
I usually have made fun about any of these project that people think up, but here I would like to give an honest answer.
Look at your electric bill, find out what your daily average consumption in KW/h is. You would have to double these numbers, because at night there is no sunlight.
Once you know the amount of power you have to produce, you can start calculating how many solar panels you need.
As seen in an ad, a 12 Volt 7 Ampere (84 watts) let's round this up to 100 Watts, because the Voltage of a 12 Volt panel is actually higher and would go up to 16 Volts depending on the intensity of the solar radiation. These (1) sell for about $700.
So for one Kilowatt you would need 10 of these, that is already $7000.
Multiply your doubled daily average Kilowatts by $7000.
Then you would have to buy a large battery bank, I didn't even look up the cost for this, neither did I look up the cost for a
TRUE SINE WAVE inverter, the modified sine wave types that sell for cheap would cause problems and destroy one or the other appliance in a short while.
So what I'm trying to say, it is just too much money that is involved, sure you could sell excess power that is not needed to the power company, but at a lesser price as you would buy it.
The whole solar panel idea is not an economically feasible solution because of the fact that the return of investment takes way too long.
In some cases where in an isolated location the connection to the national power grid is not given, it might be the only answer and would work very well, but again at what price.
The only way solar energy could be used efficiently in price versus output is in capturing solar heat to heat a house, this would work very well and could save a lot of money in heating costs, which you aren't looking for in Texas.
Sorry, I have no better answer for this question and probably many experts in this field may agree with me, and of course the green living people will hate me for the rest of my life, because I just shattered their dreams about solar electricity.
It is the inconvenient truth that comes to light here.
Sorry again.
FOR NELLETAP:
Yes Tricia, if you live in England then Solar Electricity makes much more sense because electricity is much more expensive than in Texas and you don't have to power any air conditioners which for a small house would add 4 to 5 Kilowatts per hour, day and night, because it gets as hot as 40 -50 degrees C down there. I've been to England twice, very nice there and nowhere near as hot in summer as here.
http://www.mrsolar.com/page/msos/ctgy/wa...
http://solar.sharpusa.com/solar/home/0,2...
http://www.survivalunlimited.com/shellso...
Solar panels are a great way to cut back on your energy bill. Once you are hooked up to solar energy, the home owner does absolutly nothing different than if you buy electricity from the power-company.
Sinse you live in texas, it is more than likely you will not be able to use purely solar power to meet your energy needs unless you purchase a large system ($30,000+). However with enough of an investment, you can 'Sell' your energy back to the power company and greatly reduce your electric bill.
I would call a licensed Solar Power company for more information if you do not know much about solar. While the system is relativally simple, it should only be designed and installed by trained licensed professionals.
Really it is not as hard to get started with solar electric as everyone trys to make it. Very simple math if you are planing to go grid tie without battery backup. You pretty much just buy the system and hire an electric contractor to hook it up and get approved after the install by the electric co.
Total the kWhs used from your last 12 months electric bill and divide it by 365 to get your daily usage avg. Go to this link and find the peak sunhours for your area and divide the daily usage by the number of sun hours. This will give you a great idea of what size of a system you will require.
http://www.oynot.com/solar-insolation-ma...
Then search the internet for the best prices on a GTS grid tie system.
I live near a community in Mexico where hey have no power. It is in the desert and is perfect for solar because they only have 3-4 in. rain a year. It is on the beach so many wealthy have homes there that are on solar systems. I have helped my friends set up and work on many of them.
Solar systems WILL NOT normally support air conditioning unless you install a gas powered ammonia or lithium Bromide system. In these systems the refrigeration cycle heat is supplied by the gas instead of a compressor, so the only electrical power is a small circulation pump which will not drain batteries fast. These are a problem in some areas because not many people know how to maintain and repair this type of system.
Some of my friends claim they can run a very small one room AC on their solar systems just to at least have a place to sleep that is cool. Others say it is questionable.
Please understand these systems are not cheap. Most of them paid $20,000 - $35,000 and even more if you use the ammonia cycle AC. The systems usually have 10-12 panels, a 10-15 KW gas generator, and large bank of large batteries like ones you use in a golf cart or bigger.
I also must apologize to all the "environmentalists" for the inconvenient truth.
We are in the UK, but we now have two systems, one which heats the water and the other generates electricity via PV panels. You need to have a roof area facing in the correct direction and at a suitable pitch. If the sun is hitting the roof at an oblique angle the loss of benefit is high. The system that heats the water has the fastest pay back time. Our water has been hot since we had the system installed despite a poor summer here. Over here we can export surplus electricity created by the PV panels back to the national grid, and they buy that surplus. We often have surpluses during the day, but obviously when it is dark and we use electricity, we sort of buy it back. In the 6 months since it was installed, we have generated about 85% of our needs. Our best day was when we generated 146% of our needs. As you may know, we have had rain and floods over here, but to-day we still generated 122% of our needs and we put on several loads of washing. we have kept a spreadsheet of all teh figures. We are very pleased with ours, and we got a grant, but it was very expensive for the PV system. i'd recommend it, though. i have grandchildren and I feel we have to do something to preserve resources for them and to help combat climate problems. Make sure you have done other things - such as made sure your insulation etc is as good as it can be.
Look into heat pumps too. They probably would reduce your power bill for a smaller outlay of cash. I'm not against solar, but right now I'd leave it to the rich or those with state rebates. Remember how expensive VCR's were in the '80's? The price will come down soon just as they did for VCR's.
My electric bill is 6 dollars a month and I have ac, two computers, dryer, washer, and a 1,200sq foot trailer.
You dont need solar to conserve or bring down the electric bill.
btw, solar pannels will cost you a minimum of 10,000 for the pannels not including setup and most will only run your water heater or ac unit and thats if you live in a really sunny area.
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