Anyone here using solor energy in your home?

i am looking into it and would like some info from those who have already done it...thanks.

maybe the first step is for me to learn how to spell it..ha

we used solar panels and two wood stoves and a 900 square foot tile floor in the center of the house with ceiling fans throughout

in the summer, the cool water was pumped thru the floor and cooled the house, in the winter the water pumped thru the stove and then under the tile and warmed the house. we had a 300 gallon hot water tank in the garage and never owned a hot water heater, we bought a ac/heat pump for the house but never hooked it up cuz we didn't need it...

on edit, we did have small basebaord heaters in the furthest flung bedroom, but a small wood stove would have worked better. Since we lived in the central valley, there were always farmers who needed old orchards cleaned out to renew the trees, so we had an unlimited supply of wood(and a nice side income selling off the excess cords) for a month's labor each fall

do u live there now? what a wonderful feeling that must have been to have set up your life in such a simple and self sufficient way!

and moved to Colorado

on the down side, it was 7 miles from a nuclear power plant

if you are serious about a house like this, it's almost impossible to retro fit. We had to study how exactly to lay it out to take advantage of the sun, how many and where to place windows etc.

since it was a temperate climate in the winter, our main problem was diffusing heat in the summers where 100+ degree days were the norm, but unlike where I live now (Phoenix) it would cool down at night and an open window brought breezes off the delta that were heaven

I'm guessing.

I am looking for just picking up enough elec. to run my house using solar panels on the roof...and i have limited knowlege on the workings of it all, but do use air condit for one room in the summer and that is presently very expensive. my house is small and typical mexican flat roof and cement construction..only two rooms and a kitchen....and lots of sun here..every day...and thanks for your response and follow up. i appreciate it.

I plan on making my home entirely off-grid when it's built out in the country. Should the oil demand/supply curve worsen, I'll be better-off when prices rise as humans seek to compensate with other energy sources.

You might want to look-into wind as well. And solar-powered water heating. FWIW..

that's about it.

on this subject. PM me and I can put you in touch with at least three families I know who live off grid.

I mostly worked in the research end and building production lines for making solar electric panels. I did some installations mostly in AZ on the Navajo Reservation.

What do you need to know?

I live in mexico...constant sun..and high elec costs. It seems ideal for here..and i have a very small house, but enough roof space, I think, to install solar panals. There is a company that advertises for it in Cancun..so, i will check with them, but i mainly wanted to hear how it worked out for others who have tried it. i have done some site research, but mostly it comes from the usa..with it excess feeding back into the meter for night use, etc. i dont know if that is feasable here..so would most likely use batteries for storage.

and you'll need an inverter to contol battery charging and to kick it the output up to usable voltage.

http://homepower.com/

They are a good source of info and hands on articles.

Also lookup NREL national renewable energy lab.

but that's about it :shrug:

hang them on the roof...faster than a dryer...and so much nicer.

solar research around here lol. The initial investment is expensive (in our income bracket at least), so we're starting small. After the new year we're getting batteries and inverter, and then in April (when some money is due to us) we're buying panels. The system my husband is looking at can be added to as we have money to put into it. It won't be running our a/c, fridge, or stove for a long time.

We live about 20 miles north of the Fl panhandle. It's hot 9 months of the year. My husband has always been into alternative energy and I was never interested. Then this summer my electric bill doubled. x( I am completely on board now lol. We've done several things to reduce our bill since then, and I'll be happy to list those if you're interested. Now the bill is less than this time last year, and that's with a rate increase. I want this sucker as low as possible. The more I can decrease the amount of my money they get, the happier I will be.

Lori

Our utility company won't buy back excess, btw.

:)

the water for our waterheater and also to heat our pool. It helps that is sunny all the time, however when we have a few cloudy days, (which doesn't happen too often) there's no hot water and we have to switch to electric. It's a big savings though!

I just sold it last month, but lived aboard for two years.

I put 700 watts of solar panels on the roof, and used 10 Marine DieHard automotive batteries for storage. I recommend the biggest inverter you can afford. I eventually upgraded to a 3000 Watt inverter.

Approximate pricing:

New Panels.........bargain at $3.85/watt
Used Panels.....if you can find them $3.25/watt

Storage.....depends. I paid about $70/12 Volt Battery. Can be done as good for 1/2 the price.

Inverter........ $60 for cheap 700Watt, $500 for a good 3000Watts.
NOTE: You PROBABLY won't need to buy the "Pure Sine Wave Inverter". They are VERY costly. I used a "Modified Square Wave" Inverter.
All my computer, printers and video gear worked w/o problems. The ONLY thing that wouldn't work was the controller for an electric blanket.
BEWARE: Someone will try to sell you a "Pure Sine Wave Inverter". Unless you have some very special equipment, you won't need it.

You will need an auxiliary generator for those stretches when the sun doesn't shine for days, or adapt to periods of low electricity consumption. If you have access to local utility power, you can hook up an automotive battery charger to the battery bank when the Sun don't Shine.


Charge Controller:....60Amp/ $200
This device turns off the panels when the batteries are full. Also prevents flowback to the panels after dark. Lets you determine how much power is in the batteries. I know several people who don't use a controller. They simply let their batteries boil on overcharge, and then add distilled water after dark. They maintain that boiling is good for the batteries, and they have been doing it for a while. Didn't seem like a good idea to me, so I bought a controller.


I absolutely LOVE living with solar panels. The only maintenance was sweeping off the snow during the winter. No moving parts. No Pollution.

Do you have any specific questions?

i have had lots of friends who have lived on house boats and i always thought it was too cool....

congrats

It's more reliable as a heating/cooling source than solar. In fact, I think the two could work very well in conjuction with each other. Whether peak oil is a reality or not, what really need to be doing is worrying about spaceship earth and so every little bit helps.

but we used to use it in our trailer. Combined with a generator it enabled us to have power even out in the middle of nowhere. The best way is to combine it with a reverse meter if you still want to be wired into the grid.

When you do this, the electric company only charges you for electricity that you use over what the solar provides. If you provide more solar than you use, then you can sell that to the electric company. They are very expensive, but people who have installed them claim they pay for themselves in a few years.

In some areas, the electric company will give you a fixed amount of money to install solar like in Los Angeles to encourage people to switch over.