If I take the roof off my house and put solar panels on, is that economically viable - I cant get a straight answer from companies who sell that product I want to know some details (facts) about the economic viability of it also how feasible is it that I could entirely rid the house of its dependence on the national grid?
its called simple math,, the cost to do the work needed an purchase the equipment divided by how much ya spend a year for electric an hot water.. how many years before ya see a net profit? an the other equation would be how much maintnence on the system an lifespan.. how long will you be in the house? now i could be yer accountant an researcher on all this for ya,, but it sounds like ya done been doin yer homework,,so yo do the math.. love n light
an yes man any home can be off the grid with solar panels if ya got enough hours of light a week an the cash for batteries..
my own feelings are that it is worth buying/creating some passive solar panels, ones that just use the heat of the sun to heat your hot water. a third of electrical energy is usually given over to heating water. one day in the future all hot water systems will be this way. pe cells are expensive passive solar cells are a cheaper option.
I agree with Guy in that solar hot water would be a very feasible idea. Establishing a PV and battery system to cover the needs of the average home is quite expensive typically ten of thousands of dollars. The key to this is to reduce you electrical needs and use. We as westerners use hideous amounts of KW hours with all of our appliances so reduction in the demand would be your first step in going to alternative energy. Like HHB says do the math and figure out what you need. www.homepower.com
Hot water solar panels and photo voltaic (PV) solar panels are two completly different types of technology. If you are handy with your hands it is not that difficult to make your own solar hot water system. PV solar panels on the other hand are only worth having if you are on a bush block that is not connected to the grid . You would never recover the initial outlay.
another system you could look into is the evacuated glass tube with a black copper tube running through the middle. the way i think it works is that infra red waves aren't able to escape the glass and there is no heat loss from conduction from heating air next to the black copper tube. its kind of like a thermos flask. theres an alternative energy centre in wales that i visited once, they had one of these things in the garden. now being wales it wasn't that warm that day, the united kingdom outside of the summertime isn't renowned for being warmth. this contraption had a tap connected to it, when i turned the tap a jet of steam and hot water exploded from it. no one can tell me that theres no power we can't reclaim from the sun after seeing this demo. heating water directly from the sun is probably the best way of reducing electrical/ heating costs. just imagine if all hot water was heated in this way? there would be an immediate and dramatic reduction in greenhouse gases.
haha, My shed is solar lighted, I bought a cracked PV pannel at an auctiona and it still very much worked. I got it cheap as the locals thought if its cracked it dont work. Well I put it on my sheds roof, ran the wires inside, hooked them to a battery, ran wires to the 12v light and wella, way too much panel for the light, lol Wind turbines are another good idea too. Solar water heating is the cheapest way to see savings. You can also use it to assist heating your home if you have a system that uses liquid to heat your home like the in floor radiant heat or even them old wall radiator heaters like old schools had. Going solar PV for small needs like yard lights, household lighting, shed lights, small fans for venting and light heating and cooling. Switch all lights to Florescent (spelling) bulbs first, that will totally make a difference on your bill and cheap. Insulate your hot water tank, if you have an electric, use 2 blankets and double wrap it, wrap the pipes too. Want to cool your house in the earlier hot months cheap, they make small cheap ($100) vent fans that are solar, they can be made to pull cool air from under the house and push it into the main house for a coll breeze. Same thing use the same solar vent to pull hot air out of the attic space outside and reverse it in the winter to push hot air from attic back into living space.
When my dad retired from the army, the house we moved into had a solar panel / hot water setup. It worked rather well, and we had a family of 7. Most of the houses in our neighborhood at that time also had solar panels. (This was out in Colorado.)
I think there are other things you could do first like heat your water using solar and maybe wood first . I have a rayburn cooker that I run on wood that heats all my water and can heat the house , if you get some woodland and replant the trees you cut for heating your not adding to global warming . if you were to buy some land and recreate some forest maybe as a permaculture forest garden growing nuts and fruits you would be able to run your heating from prunings and coppicing , that would be a possible alternative to pv panels as a thing to buy, if you kept bees you could make your own beeswax candles for lighting . Although it would depend on land prices and I see your in london , where I am in somerset it might be a more affordable idea . I know a lot of the guys on a british peak oil forum http://www.powerswitch.org.uk/ I post on have pv systems they might be able to advise you . Ive lived without electricity for years on end and apart from my computer wouldnt miss it that much , I dont use it for washing my clothes or cooking or heating my house and most of my gadgets are human powered , using human power for washing your clothes and cooking ect can cut down the size of the system you get and is a thing to look into . They had a great bike powered washing machine in the big green gathering in chedder last year ,which I thought was wonderful as my hand powered washing machines have mostly been antiques, and its nice to see that someone is still thinking about making things like that . http://www.cyclean.biz/mainmenu.html cycle powered washing machine
if they aren't answering, the ROI is beyond 15 years (the US avaerage) look at this article and then look up a map witrh the hours of sun in your area. THat should tell you if you can economically go PV or if the PV chargers for household appliances is more in line. http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/consumer/article.html?in_article_id=411281&in_page_id=5
freeinalaska gave some great advice. My plan is to use mostly a DC system with an inverter only for a modest TV, DVD, cell phone charger, clipper, (for hair) and laptop. LED or compact flourecent lights (CFL's) and an effeicient fridge can be DC. I'll have no microwave or dishwasher. I'll wash my clothes by hand, and air dry them outside, or inside depending on the weather. Passive solar can be used by having large windows on the southside of the dwelling. Also, I'm going to attemp to learn more about passive solar for heating water. Last, one must consider the energy source used to pump water. Gravity flow would be great, but if it's down in a well, a windmill or a solar panel with batteries will be needed. The simplest alternative for retreiving water is a bucket, followed closely by a steel hand pump.
Dude we are all going to die of global warming anyway as there isnt enough time to save the planet. Save your money and buy a tcket to mars. You will need it one day
Raw&Natural, You are describing how it's done at my house for the most part. I charge batteries with the solar (or with a small Honda generator in mid winter when the sun's never out) and run my minimal AC things off of a 750W inverter. I don't yet have a DC fridge, but an efficient propane powered one and my root cellar suffice. The pasive solar of all the windows I built into the house make all the difference in th world. For water I have a small RV 12VDC system. I have a holding tank inside that I fill from our spring. I pump the water into a barrel with a small 2 cycle pump and haul it to the house. Once the water is inside the RV system works fine. I had a passive solar hot water system when we lived in Northern California, but I've not gone there yet here in the winter.
freeinalaska, thanks for telling us about your setup. So, did the passive solar hot water system work in Northern California in the winter time. You weren't in Mendoceno or Humbolt counties were you? Haha, I just read something about hippies from the eighties giving solar panels a start by having the money to buy them, and the need for them.
Why yes Raw&Natural we had 40 acres in Southern Humboldt in the 80's and early 90's until we sold out and moved up here. And the hot water set up didn't work so well in the winter since it rained all winter there. It gave us not so cold water.
It requires a huge amount of resources (Silicon, Petroleum, etc.) to produce electrovoltaic solar panels (the ones that directly produce electricity). It is far more effective to generate electricity using solarhot water, and far easier to perform maintence on. That being said, consider a combination of solar hot water, and homemade wind power. If you'ld like to pm me, I'm more than happy to help you setting up either.
if you have the money to install solar hot water systems and photovoltaic systems i say go for it. if you don't have the money try and save up for just solar hot water this is probably the most effective way of saving the world. if you heat water using electricity, the chances are around 37 percent of your bill is created by heating water. solar hot water systems will break even and pay you back but will need around 5-10 years to do it. try not to leave appliances in standby don't leave lights on in rooms you are not using try using fans to cool you not air conditioning try and replace your house lights with fluorescents. the only real places where incandescents might be better is in places like a toilet where you don't spend much time (switching on and off all the time isn't so good for fluorescents) we moved recently into some shared accommodation with friends and since being there the electricity bill has DROPPED by 40 dollars per quarter because i apply these principles!!
