How much would it cost to install solar heating for a 1700 sq ft cabin?
Question:
Answer:
You are making a wise move... Manitobe is the province that receives more days of sun per year than any other province in Canada! I wonder if you'd do well with wind power? I know the wind is stronger in the coastal provinces, but Manitoba has flat areas that might maximize what wind there is.
The cost of converting your cabin to solar will depend on the state it is in at present. My 3400 square foot home is a solar home. The house is very toasty during the day in the middle of our Canadian winter. I'll explain my setup and it may help you out.
Our house is built on a thermal slab, which is a series of duct work inside concrete. This is poured directly on the ground with no basement. From the slab, the house is built like a bathtub... a concrete wall 3 feet high forms the perimeter of the house, and ground level is just below the top of the wall. The concrete wall at the back of the house extends to roof because the house is what is known as "earth-bermed", meaning it is dug into the side of a hill. The ground encasing our home keeps it cool in summer and warm in winter.
The roof has 11 skylights which make up for the lack of windows at the back of the house. The front of the house is a series of 15-foot windows, side by side, while the adjacent main wall is a series of 9 glass patio doors. These are positioned for exposure to maximum sunlight for warmth.
The duct work in the floor extends upwards into the house filling the walls. The main chamber is a tower forming the wall of the stairwell. Vents near the main series of windows and main skylights draw heat from the sun and circulate it through the duct work in the walls, floor and through other vents which warms the air. The open concept design allows for easy flow or air throughout. A switch on the air system converts circulation of heat in winter, to ventilation of heat in summer.
Another aspect of our solar home, is an all-glass triangular greenhouse enveloped on two sides by our dining room and living room. This creates another pocket of warmth which helps to heat the home. Air is taken from this source and circulated as well.
Solar panels on the roof are used to heat our hot water.
I live in Nova Scotia where winters are very cold and damp, but our home is completely heated during winter days only using warmth collected from the sun (the house gets so warm, I sometimes have to switch to ventilation or open windows in the middle of winter!) We do need to supplement our heat at NIGHT in the coldest months (we choose from a wood stove or electric furnace).
That's the basic setup.
I understand you want to use solar panels to somehow power heaters in your home, but as you can see, there are many ways to create a solar home and an energy efficient home.
Good luck.
About 600 Bucks
Costs and performance in UK
Typically, Active Solar Heating systems installed into existing households are priced in the range of £2,500 to £4,000 (depending on the size of house, type of collector, etc.).
For DIY or new build system installations, costs can be reduced - particularly in the case of large scale new building projects.
How can a cabin be 1700 sq. ft?
I live in a house thats not as big as that
depends where you live and who you get it done from
The correct answer depends on many variables.
For example:
What is the location of this home? The State that your in might have a very pro-solar program. Location also determines hours of direct sun and periods of lower level sunlight.
Do you have a south facing roof or area for installation?
How much of your energy usage do you wish to displace in your home ...all of it?
For budgetary reasons you should use an $ 7.00 a watt for total system, as a high number to start before Federal and certain State buy downs, incentives, and credits.
You could easily spend $15,000.00 before any incentives for complete system. Even at these numbers depending on your electrical costs your payoff could be good or not so good.
Please note that there are very important distinctions between solar technologies, silicon, poly-silicon, amorphous silicon and thin film technologies. All have unique properties and uses. Please note that panel efficiency is not the critical number, as low rated panels can deliver more usable power over than high rated panels because they work in low light conditions and have less heat loss on hot days.
I hope I helped.
It depends where you live. Find a local contractor who does this kind of work and ask them.
more than you have.
whua! How many dollars will u spent.... it depends in what it will cost
The cost will be cheaper than a normal price if you contact floor company at <into@radiantcomany.com> then pay later for the future reference.
God knows better
it is impossible for you to get solar heat
Stan is talking crap. He's talking about Solar PV which generates electricity. You would never heat a home with a system like this. PV or a Photovoltaic system generates electricty for low voltage lighting and energy efficient home appliances, you can't use it for heating, it will cost toooooo much money and you would NEVER buy it.
You can use a Solar Thermal system for heating, it uses the suns energy to generate heat not electricity.
You have to decide what type of solar heating you want installed.
Do you want underfloor heating or warm air heating or just solar heating for hot water for washing and bathing?
Either way you will never cover your whole heating needs with a solar system and it won't heat your radiators, just underfloor heating and/or water for washing only.
With solar assisted underfloor heating you will get max 30% of coverage per annum in typical home.
With a eco-home with very good insulation values you can get higher %, I've seen 100% solar heated eco homes but these are designed from the outset with solar thermal heating in mind and built 'around' the system.
With solar water heating (washing etc) you will still need another heat source for winter but will get most of your hot water from May to October supplied by solar if you get a good system. In the UK a system like this will cost around £3,500-£4,000.
You will need to decide what system you want and how many people it needs to supply hot water for.
If I was you I would use a log/pellet burning boiler (biomass) with will burn CO2 neutral for your heating, this is renewable energy. And a solar thermal system for hot water heating only, not space (room) heating.
Depending on your latitude you would be able to capture some rays during only the warmest months of the year. You are looking for a degree day calculator. For your location - so far north you would probably only be able to use this system 2 - 3 months out of the year.
quite costly, i think about over 1000 or so. but it really depends how big your solar heater is not to mention the time and labor it takes to install it.
abot 6000 dollers for goodsolar panles that will last in snow like that
ask someone who does that kinds of work for a living
Don't know that my experience will really help you all that much since I'm quite a ways south from you but...
I'm an 'off-gridder' so I have to generate all my power, heating, cooling, water etc. and my place is around 1100 sq. ft. I (with copious help) built my own solar water heater, nothing too fancy just Pex water tubing run through sheet metal boxes, Krylon'd everything flat black and covered with Plexiglas sheets covering a surface area of roughly 30x10 ft. A 12 volt pump connected to a solar panel sends water to the panels from a 3,000 gallon in ground tank (a separate system sends hot water to the living area); I used an RV water pump and solar panel (no batteries) since there's no need to circulate water when there's no sun<g>. Pex tubing means there's no worries about pipes breaking when water in them freezes. All this materiel cost me under $3000 (most of the labor was free). This provides all my hot water and most of my heating. Currently my indoor temperature is 68, outdoors is 33 and the tank temp is 174, the 'worst' the system has done this season was the week before Xmas.The panels were buried under snow for that week and i was away, the indoor temp dropped to 54.2 while outdoors was 14 and the tank temp dropped to 117 (the whole system data-logs<g>). At your latitude snow should be less of a problem since you'd need a steeper angle on the panels.
For backup heat I've got a couple of electric oil-filled radiators as they're about the most energy efficient powered heaters you can get. I've tested them on their low power setting (600 watts) with their thermostat set at 68 and while the outdoor temperature dropped to 11 degrees their highest rate of hourly power consumption was only 400 watts apiece.
Does any of that information help you??
Edit:
Random thoughts about the answers being posted...
A lot of the folks responding to this question seem to be assuming that you need massive amounts of electricity to provide solar heating and that is most certainly *not* the case. All you need to do is collect the suns heat and store it (like I do with my system). I do generate my own electricity with solar and wind power since there is *no* 'standard' source of power available here but that has NO effect on this question we are supposed to be answering!
In Canada snow should actually be less of a problem for you than me since your panels should be mounted at a steeper angle thus shedding snow more effectively (I'm south of Colorado).
Insulation certainly helps but since you're up north I tend to assume you've already covered that topic and almost certainly have much more than me<g>. I also tend to assume that you already heat with boiler/radiators (that are already at maximum efficiency) which would make solar heat easier to accomplish.
Since I assume you are on the grid you might want to pay more attention to the electric heaters I referenced. Three of them would cost about $150US and are *very* efficient if you run them in the manner I suggested. When I lived on the Texas gulf coast one of them kept my 1500 sq.ft. house warm at much lower cost than my gas central heat! If I had grid power here they'd be all I use.
Elliot picked on Stan, now I'll pick on Elliot... About half of 110vac is from PV! It's not just for "low voltage lighting and energy efficient home appliances", I'm sure you'll be horrified to learn they power my Frigidaire washer/dryer, GE electric stove, dish washer and refrigerator (none are energy star either<g>). My solar hot water IS running through good old fashioned b*tt ugly radiators. One small commercial panel might not handle 'em but mine were cheap to build and I'm storing a *lot* of hot water! Brute force counts for a lot<VBG>.
alot of money..
Unfortunately, you can see by the different answers you have received above, that the answer is not easy to come by. It does depend on location of the house, the weekly overcast average, and the facing of the solar panels, if they are passive.
It should be obvious that the efficiency of any heating system depends on the insulation of the building itself; the more energy efficient the building,the better the solar power will heat, and the most cost-efficient it will be.
TO start with, here are couple of websites that will give you some ideas of the questions to ask your contractor. Good luck.
John B.
http://www.backwoodshome.com/advice/askj...
http://www.erie.gov/environment/pdfs/ene...
$25K
Heres a little tidbit few people realize. A home, especially one in a northern climate, can in actuality be heated using the paltry output of the electric appliances (fridge, water heater, ect), tv/stereo, computers, and the BTU output of a few human bodies., IF it is properly insulated. If you want the most cost effective solution (especially on the long term scope) put your cash into insulation. 12" walls and a few feet in the ceiling will make it cheap and easy to heat, especially in the eventuality of some kind of "winter disaster". Solar power won't keep you alive if your array is covered in 2'+ of snow and the lines are down if you have low R-value insulation. To answer your question more scientifically, you'd have to determine the total radiant loss rate for the home at a given temperature delta maximum and ensure you have enough BTU output for the minimum anticipated outside ambient temperature. That can only be figured if you know the total R-value of all surfaces and the surface area exposed to the outside. Theres complicated math involved to reach the answer you're seeking. Best bet is to insulate it to the extreme. Then very little actual heat will be required to maintain internal temperatures.
$1, only one dollar!
A system for Six people (Installed your self) will be around $5000 US. If you have been building on yourself, you probably have the ability to install these systems yourself.
Installation costs hired would be around $4000 in this area. (Midwest USA, about 1500km south of y'all)
10000
Here are some contact numbers for more information:
Manitoba Energy and Mines
Petroleum and Energy Branch
1395 Ellice Avenue, Suite 360
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3G 3P2
Telephone: (204) 945-3760
Long distance Toll-Free: 1-800-282-8069
(ext. 3760).
Solar Heating Systems in Manitoba
http://www.gov.mb.ca/est/climatechange/p...
Canadian Tire in Ontario has started offering solar & wind power items. Their alternative energy website has a calculator function for you to figure out how many watts of generation you need, how much backup you want, and the cost for that. I figured out a plan for my 1400 sq ft home, both sources & a 3 day battery bank at around $7000 CAD.
There are also solar cell shingles now available, each producing 15-17 watts, but I haven't found a canadian retailer yet.
Basically it depends on two things:
#1, what your daily usage is..
#2, how much sun light you get every day.
You'll want more solar power than your daily usage. You'll have to keep in mind that you'll have to store up power for cloudy days. Also, you'll need to keep in mind that winter time usually has less sun light hours than summer.
DIY had some pretty good shows last summer. A guy in CO put a light and outlet in his garage for about $800. They basically bought him about 6Hrs of usage per day. A guy built a solar house in VA. It cost him about 30K above the cost of the house. Ofcouse, he had meter back up in the event the solar power did not provide enough power. I am sure that made the price go a little higher.
More Questions & Answers...