Has anybody done any solar work to their house at all whether it be for the whole house or just the pool. What has your experience been? Who did it and how does it work?
Has anybody done any solar work to their house at all whether it be for the whole house or just the pool. What has your experience been? Who did it and how does it work?
you mean just water or electricity?
I did two PV electricity sets myself. I put up a grid tie in at my home and a stand alone on my river place. It is not very hard. The grid tie was high voltage though, so it was dangerous I guess -- that's what they all kept telling me when they found out I wanted to do it myself. The stand alone was even easier as I did it without a permit and so didn't have to do all the calculations and crap.
It was worth it. It is cool to see the meter spinning backwards. Payback is still a ways away, but I just like the idea of making electricity from the sun.
Oh yeah, the stand alone system was so nice someone stole the whole thing. They also stole the panels I was going to use to buiild a water heating system so I was never able to do that.
I like the kind that rotates with the sun. A company in Covina (I think) has one on display.
Do you have any electric bill? A credit? I'm interested.
All that depends on the size of your system and how much sun it gets ( even a small amount of shade destorys the effentcy of solar panels.)
A average home will need 3-4k KW system to run... and remember your not producing power if the sun is not shining...
The smaller systems tend to cut your bill in half and run about 15k. The larger systems tend to cut it down to very little and cost about 25k. if you start adding things like preheating water for your water heater, add on another 5k, but you will save alot on heating water( can also be set up to heat water for heating as well)
I use solar at my ranch house, 2,880 watts and I will be adding another 1,440 watts in the near future. This system works ok at the present time, will run two swamp coolers, plasma tv, washer dryer and I will be able to operate the ac. when I am finished.
I did two PV electricity sets myself. I put up a grid tie in at my home and a stand alone on my river place.
From now on, I'm going to call you Stephen Hawking.
I use solar at my ranch house, 2,880 watts and I will be adding another 1,440 watts in the near future. This system works ok at the present time, will run two swamp coolers, plasma tv, washer dryer and I will be able to operate the ac. when I am finished.
Keep in mind those damned plasmas suck up juice! I changed from a plasma 50" to 50" LCD, 680 watts vs. 180 watts.
Keep in mind those damned plasmas suck up juice! I changed from a plasma 50" to 50" LCD, 680 watts vs. 180 watts.
Thanks for the info..
Good thing I left the LCD at the river house, since I have to pay for electricity there.
When I remodel or rebuild the river house, I will go solar, about a 5kw system.
Here is a company that installs solar and you pay them a contract rate based on the average rate for your utility during the prior year. You can lock that rate in for 25 years. No upfront costs. I thought it was an interesting concept. If energy increases 20% 30%, that would be money in your pocket.
http://renu.citizenre.com/
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