Anyone Use Solar Power?

[BlueZero]

Just wondering if any of you use solar panels of any type on your homes, or any other renewable source of energy for that matter. Solar powered calculators don't count.

I just had another meeting with a local company that provides grants and benefits for building "green". My best friend is probably going to be building a "green" house this year. If you are going to build or remodel there are some really good programs out there.

[Mort Corey]

Re: Anyone Use Solar Power?

They have sun in Wisconsin?

Looked into fitting by abode with PV panels earlier this year and (to make it beneficial anyway) with federal, state and power company incentives the cost was pretty close to $20K. My power company offers net metering, but at todays rates the payback would have been close to fourteen years. Just not enough for me to take the plunge. Granted, rates are more likely to increase, but I have no way to calculate the additional possible savings. On the other hand, there was no guarantee that net metering would be available in the future.

Mort

[94BMW325CIS]

Re: Anyone Use Solar Power?

We are thinking about solar panels as well. In California we calculated that we can get a 50k system for about 20k which would provide about 60% of our energy. The electricity company also buys back power from you at the full rate if you use less energy than the panels create if you don't store them in battaries. My parents just bought a new house and it is already pretty green with double-pained windows(fairly uncommon in SoCal), double insulation on the roof and all walls, and this weird metal film under the roof tiles on the plywood. We also have automatic off lights that can be controlled by the internet so we can turn them on and off while on vacation or even from a cell phone if we forgot to turn on off after going out, and a water pump that somehow recirculates the warm water so the water heater doesnt have to work all the time. All our lights are those flourescent ones so they just use a trickle of energy too. Our new house is alot bigger than our old house, we have one more server running 24/7, and another refrigerater in the garage ans we still get cheaper electricity bills than our old house. Overall, we only need to use the AC a week a year or so. Yesterday it got up to 95 and the house maxed out at 78 so it was still pretty comfortable. At the current rates for electricity my dad calculated it to take about 15 years to pay off the cost of the panels, but with oil prices and everything, electricity is only going to go up. The company we looked at had a 25 year warrenty and seeing my parents are planning on staying here a while it would pay off pretty well. If you're planning on staying in your hose longer than tthe break even point and the panels are under warrenty, it is deffinatly worth getting them. Alot of our neighbors have gotten them and they save around 200-300 off their bills monthly. They are very low profile and are suprisingly not that ugly. I think it is a good investment with all the people that are now environmentally concious even if you sell your house because they will raise its value. I don't know how much sun you get but if it's as much as we get, they will deffinatly be a good investment.

-Simon

[BlueZero]

Re: Anyone Use Solar Power?

They have sun in Wisconsin?

That's the bright thing that comes out between blizzards right? Not very often.

It doesn't seem like the PV panels would pay for me since we don't get as much sun or as direct sun like you southern folks. My friends house is going to use PV, solar domestic hot water and solar hot water for heat. I'm interested to see how all of his work out and what ones have the better payback.

I will have had my house for a year at the end of this month. It's a 70 year old 1,000 s.f. two bedroom. When I called the power company before I bought the house they said the average bill for electricity and gas was about $130. I installed about 80% CFL light bulbs, did some weather striping and caulking, insulated the attic to R-45 and added a programmable thermostat. My lowest bill was about $45 per month and the highest was $150. I will be figuring out my average when I get my next bill. It's hard to make a direct comparison since I'm sure myself and the previous owner had different lifestyles but I can see there was a decrease in my utilities.

Thanks for chiming in Mort and Simon!

[Forever New]

Re: Anyone Use Solar Power?

When I buy/build a house later this year I plan on adding in a lot of green elements. Of course I'm also in FL so I will definately be taking advantage of the sun as much as I can.

[Jeepster04]

Re: Anyone Use Solar Power?

Only green thing we have is the florescent bulbs. I try to put them where I know the light will be used alot since #1, when cold, they take a few seconds to become 100% bright and #2 you wouldnt save much by putting them where a light isnt used alot given the price of them.

Few places we have them are in all the outside lights, hall lights, and in certain rooms that are used alot(dining room, family room, etc). I figured it up and you only use 1/4 the power of a regular light bulb. They are worth every penny IMHO.

Geo-Thermal will be something I will have in my house if I ever build one.

[94BMW325CIS]

Re: Anyone Use Solar Power?

The only downside to fluorescent bulbs is that I have heard that they contain mercury gas or some other gas that you are supposed to get a has-mat crew to clean up if one breaks. I've cleaned one up before and no one thinks I am THAT crazy so it doesn't seem so bad to me.