All electric house and a generator

[dickfoster]

The OP lives in about the poorest location in the country for a solar installation.
http://www.nrel.gov/gis/images/map_pv_us_annual10km_dec2008.jpg

And that's the annual picture. Don't look at the winter pictures, its way worse. Its not a good option for his location at all.

Remove all the subsidy BS and most solar systems will never produce a return the investment. Even the panels age and stop producing given enough time but if it's an off grid battery system you'll never reach break even compared to power from the grid. Solar and wind are largely idiot inspired fairy tales and right up there with perpetual motion.

 

[houstonscott]

The OP lives in about the poorest location in the country for a solar installation. http://www.nrel.gov/gis/images/map_pv_us_annual10km_dec2008.jpg And that's the annual picture. Don't look at the winter pictures, its way worse. Its not a good option for his location at all.

Unless his south facing views are blocked, there are no bad locations. HS

 

[houstonscott]

Remove all the subsidy BS and most solar systems will never produce a return the investment. Even the panels age and stop producing given enough time but if it's an off grid battery system you'll never reach break even compared to power from the grid. Solar and wind are largely idiot inspired fairy tales and right up there with perpetual motion.

Well, do some math for me, my system cost $16,000, and returned $1400 tax free this year. What is the rate of return, I'm guessing 11.4% on my money, tax free. System life spans is 25+ years at 80% of rated power. You let me know a better investment. While I agree it can't replace commercial power it really does work, and will permanently reduce your bill, and produce power no matter what the commercial power company does or the price of fuel, as long as the sun comes up. Net metering is key to making finical sense and your long term plan to remain in the location. HS

 

[Redneck in training]

Our utility doesn't offer net metering so our break even point is about 13 years provided cost of electric energy stay constant. When cost of energy goes up break even even point gets proportionally shorter. If you have 100% electric car and your system generate enough energy to charge it my estimate is that the break even point will be about 6-7 years.
If you size the system that you export very little to the grid your break even point will be short even when net metering is not offered. At this point our BEP is 13 years because we export a lot. I plan to add AC to my shop. That will shorten the BEP significantly. We will add electric car possibly next year when 200 miles per charge cars hit the market.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

Unless his south facing views are blocked, there are no bad locations. HS

Hmm. Don't know much about solar, do you?

 

[MossRoad]

Unless his south facing views are blocked, there are no bad locations. HS

Just go ahead and keep poking him... I'm sure he'll come around to your way of thinking.

 

[houstonscott]

Hmm. Don't know much about solar, do you?

My 6.405 KW array. Enough to help you make a decision. I'm all electric, and this helps. HS

 

[Code54]

Ended up meeting with several different companies this week and got a LOT of information and ideas.
Seems all agree I can get by with a 20KW unit. The people we are going to go with are going to do the install, and have load sensing switches on my hot water tank and the heat strips in the furnace to control when they come on. Looks like that is going to help solve my problems.
They also use direct burial wire that has the control cable in it. I am going to put the trench in and thinking of putting down 4" PVC (SCH40) to run the wires through for some extra protection. They mentioned the trench needs to be 24" deep but I may run a bit deeper for some extra safety. Where the wire emerges from the trench to the back of the generator what is the best way to come up with the pipe so that water can go down in the pipe?

 

[Code54]

Around us that panel wouldn't really get a lot of sun. Trees shade the house a decent amount and I would be concerned with it taking damage from falling branches and such. Can see where it works well for southern/sunny and more open areas however.

 

[houstonscott]

Around us that panel wouldn't really get a lot of sun. Trees shade the house a decent amount and I would be concerned with it taking damage from falling branches and such. Can see where it works well for southern/sunny and more open areas however.

This could go just about anywhere on a large property. HS