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| davidstebbins |
 Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 6:19 pm Post subject: Will this solar grid power a regular-sized house? |
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| William McCormick |
| Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 9:04 pm Post subject: Re: Will this solar grid power a regular-sized house? |
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| davidstebbins wrote: |
http://www.altersystems.com/catalog/32-kw-gridtie-system-with-sanyo-200-watt-solar-panels-and-fronius-ig-4000-p-1484.html
I'm wanting to look into solarizing my home to cut back on my energy costs, but will the above solar grid provide enough electricity on any given day to power a regular sized house (by regular, I mean about 2000 sq ft) without any additional electricity? |
If 3200 watts will do it for you. I doubt that you could get by on that though. It is really not a lot of electricity. A common electric hair dryer amongst young girls and unfortunately guys is the a 1500 watt hair dryer.
However if you were older and retired had no hobbies or tools. Did not do a lot of washing and drying. Had no air-conditioning system. Had no electric heat.
If you were dead or wishing for death I bet it would be great.
Sincerely,
William McCormick
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| medlakeguy |
| Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 9:29 pm Post subject: |
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| uhh... i think 32 kw is 32000 watts not 3200, still dont know how far that'd get ya but theres a big difference there |
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| Euclidean-Paradox |
| Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 9:50 pm Post subject: |
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The URL has it wrong, the solar panel described in the link can only generate 3.2 kW.
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To answer your question davidstebbins, whether or not it will cut costs or take you off the grid depends on how much electricity you use daily, and how many solar panels you plan to use. One solar panel will definitely not be enough to power a whole house; In the U.S. a typical house will consume about 900-1000 kWh per month (of course this varies from state to state).
On the side note, one thing that is popular to do with solar panels is to stay on the grid and, when ever you have excess electricity generated from solar panels, to sell it back into the grid, so financially it is worth it.
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| Harold14370 |
| Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 10:29 pm Post subject: |
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That system is designed to tie into the grid, and does not have any battery storage system. It won't be generating anything at night, nor will it generate 3200 watts on a cloudy day, so you will not be relying on it for your electricity.
What you need to do is figure out how many kilowatt-hours per day you will be generating on average in your area, then how much money that will save you, then how long it will take to recover the money on your investment. Whether it is enough to power your house is kind of a moot point. |
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| Pong |
| Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 10:41 pm Post subject: |
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Yup, it's an economic question.
If the addition is government subsidized,
and the poco will (read: by law, must) buy your surplus at same rate you pay,
and power is expensive in your area,
and your region's good for solar,
then it's competitive with, say, running a Honda generator and selling that to the grid.
Economy sucks. |
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| William McCormick |
| Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 4:17 pm Post subject: |
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| medlakeguy wrote: |
| uhh... i think 32 kw is 32000 watts not 3200, still dont know how far that'd get ya but theres a big difference there |
When I looked at it, I thought the same thing. I was hopeful that someone finally got a good team together that could build a 32 kw solar generator. But it was 3.2 kilowatts.
A ninety foot dinner cruse boat uses a 40 kw generator, to power it. And probably has or should have a backup 40 kw generator on board.
Sincerely,
William McCormick
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| Cold Fusion |
| Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 4:34 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, batteries cost allot. You would have to add another $2,000 likely for good batteries, and a thousand or more for professional installation.
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| William McCormick |
| Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 6:22 pm Post subject: |
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| Cold Fusion wrote: |
| Yeah, batteries cost allot. You would have to add another $2,000 likely for good batteries, and a thousand or more for professional installation. |
I just put one of these in, a about six months ago. Wow it works well. During winter it ate about 100 gallons a month. Hot water, for washing machine, dishwasher, showers at least once a day, for four people. And all the heat.
In the summer it does the hot water, with thirty gallons or less. I put the unit in and then went and got my training at the plant. On the system. Spent the day with the president.
I wish I would have went first for training. I had to switch the four zone valves. Most other systems we setup the return to the zone valve. These systems work in reverse.
I did this in one weekend. We had to get the heavy cast iron boiler out of there. And then set this up. I have done a few boilers in my day. And I service them. But never one of these. I love this thing. It makes no noise. You almost cannot hear it run.
And it has the government energy star approval rating. Until we get perpetual motion these are pretty cool. When you go down to learn how to service these, they give you a bypass card so if any of my EMP experiments go awry I can pop that in and still take a shower.
But so far with all the high frequency and crazy magnetic experiments, it is holding well. Roger promises that we will not need to use the bypass card. It is only for a servicemen that might run into a damaged system.
http://www.Rockwelder.com/Interesting/System2000/System2000-P1.jpg
http://www.Rockwelder.com/Interesting/System2000/System2000-4.jpg
Roger the president is really a hard working fellow. He keeps the plant running at perfection. He really loves heating. And this thing is unbelievable. Next to perpetual motion.
http://www.energykinetics.com/
The brain is cool. The system fires and starts making heat in 90 seconds. When it is done firing, it sends the rest of the heat to the last call. And removes all the heat from the boiler. So the outside stays ice cold. Remarkable.
Sincerely,
William McCormick
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