25 kW Solar power project in Iowa.

[terraformer]

We put in a 90 watt PV system at our farm house about 3 years ago. They powered a deep cell battery and use an a 800 watt inverter. It gave us some power for lights and an electric blanket. We have a lap top computer that would cause the system to discharge after a day. During winter our power was very limited and our usage twice what it is during the summer.

We had ice damage two of the 6 cells. Our system is still working although we moved it to our barn after we got electricity put in last summer.

I can't imagine that a PV system would be less expensive on a month to month basis. After a few years the efficiency will go down. Batteries loose their potency.

[Alien]

terraformer. Could well be the case in an 'off grid' scenario, but batteries aren't required for 'on grid' so costs are nowhere as much.

[Redneck in training]

Small panels with chargers are way overpriced.

[Redneck in training]

We secured a loan to finance our project last week. We also received several bids on the panels, inverters and associated hardware such as mounting rails, panel clamps etc that can't be sourced locally. Since the panels were cheaper than originally budgeted we are going to buy 96 instead of 80 as in initial project. That increased the peak DC capacity by 4kW while still fitting our budget. We will place the order sometime next week.

[Alien]

Sounds like... WOW! Redneck. You should get great benefit from that one. My system (4 KWh) is performing well, and while you shouldn't have any probs with the size you are installing, I have found with a smaller system that you should maximize it for full benefit in the winter sun. The summer looks after itself but when the days are short you need to maximise your system to cope for that. Even though I get shading in the afternoon, I got 24.2 KWh yesterday and we are only in spring here. Keep us informed of your progress.

[Redneck in training]

I am hoping it will make about the same amount of power we consume per year. Heating is about 65% of our consumption. I wanted originally 25 kW then I had to downsize it to 20 kW but eventually found better deal on panels and inverters so I upped that to 24 again. I got Canadian Solar panels for $1.06/W and good discount on everything else that comes with it like inverters, cables, rails, clamps etc. The economic downturn is good for something I suppose.

[MotorSeven]

$1.06 per watt....NICE!

[nctacoma]

Great to see you are going ahead with the project. It is such a nice feeling to watch the energy readouts on your solar readouts. The ones I had at my last house showed me kwh's saved, co2 saved in lbs, and current rate of input. I would go look at the charge controllers each night when I got home from work to see how they did each day.
Having a $2.43 a month energy bill each month(service charge) and getting a rebate at the end of each year from the power company was nice as well.

Good for you, I look forward to reading more as you build the system.

[Redneck in training]

Great to see you are going ahead with the project. It is such a nice feeling to watch the energy readouts on your solar readouts. The ones I had at my last house showed me kwh's saved, co2 saved in lbs, and current rate of input. I would go look at the charge controllers each night when I got home from work to see how they did each day.
Having a $2.43 a month energy bill each month(service charge) and getting a rebate at the end of each year from the power company was nice as well.

Good for you, I look forward to reading more as you build the system.

How big was your system?

[crbr]

Thanks for the pictures