Are you off the Grid?

[Anonymous Poster]

I just wish you were near my place...give me $30K and I will put you on my grid for life. Costs me $4 a day to be on the evil grid, never worry about how or why it works, just write a check. Is it cheaper to own a cow, or buy a gallon of milk every couple days?

 

[ejb]

>>Is it cheaper to own a cow, or buy a gallon of milk every couple days?


In many cases it is cheaper to hire someone with a tractor than to buy one yourself too... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Egon]

Just curious on what officialdom has to say about useing public water such as streams?

Egon

 

[dmccarty]

HazMat,

The latest issue of Car and Driver had a review of a hydrogen
powered car.

What was interesting was the side bar talking about the use
of hydrogen as a fuel. If one compared H to the gas/diesel
then H really was a good performer. But if on compared the
true cost of H to diesel, H was only about 10% more effiecient
than the Big D. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif At least that is the way I read their
poorly written blurb. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Given the problems with using H as
a fuel source 10% just don't get it done...

For people to really use solar cells their price has to drop
dramatically. This can happen pretty easily if the Feds would
require the power companies to buy back power from
individuals on a 1 for 1 basis. In other words, if it cost me $1
to buy X amount of power and I produce power via solar then
the power company should buy back the power from me
at $1 for every X. What one could end up doing is using the
grid to store your power. The Grid is the battery. Course if
the grid goes away you have a problem but using the Grid for
storage would lower the price of solar power.

Some states already have this buying setup in place but most
do not.

If this was in place plus some tax breaks for the individuals
many new power plants might not have to be built since
they would be on millions of roof tops.... NIMBY would go
away to some extent....

Another 2 cents....
Dan

 

[wasabi]

I built a passive solar house in the sixties that actually looked like a normal house....cedar siding, cedar shakes and such. Lots of south facing glazing, thermal curtains, super insulation, thermal mass and a water source heat pump. Got it good and efficient, then promptly sold it and moved south. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

I too am researching and here is my .02. Dan put his finger on the essentials....unless you are out to make a social or political statement, it boils down to payback timeframe.

Most efficient of all is hydro...a couple hundred GPM with a hundred or so foot of fall can generate all the juice needed. I figure by doing most work myself, using the grid as a virtual battery, I should get in for under 12K with a ten to twelve year payback...after that with exception of maint costs, the power is free. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif ...but, as with all of life, easier to talk about than do it....I'll let you know when I flip the switch. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

IMHO, if we wait about three years, stationary fuel cell systems will be availaible...the lead mfgr as far as I know is a company called Plug Power....in an exclusive marketing agreement with GE. These things are already being sold commercially here in the states and for residential use in Japan. (Maybe their emergence is why the power companies were so anxious to sell the California power grid infrastructure to taxpayers /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif)

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Check this one out, www.capstoneturbine.com
Perfect if you have a gas well on your property.

 

[Cacinok]

Dan, I agree with you 100% on the buy back. I like the way you described the grid as a battery, I had not looked at it from that angle. I believe the Maine house that I referenced in one of my previous posts functions that way. I read that they come out about 500-1000 kwh ahead at the end of the year, Maine has an annualized buy back program.

Egon, re: changing/daming (sp?) streams -- each state can set it's own regulations (in general) -- w/i each state (for the most part) the counties/cities can add on additional restrictions -- so in short there are too many variables to say what you can and can't do.

Where I'm at you can change the stream as long as it doesn't fall under a handful of exceptions.

Wasabi, do you have any details about your future hydro setup? I'd be interest to hear details if you thought it out that far.

Clint.

 

[dmccarty]

Clint,

I have been perusing through the class materials from the
Solar course I took last year. I'm going to throw out some
pieces of info that are in the materials.

Cost of PV over time. Its a chart but in 1975 PVs cost over
$88/watt. In 1990 the cost was $10/watt and in 2000 the
price per watt was $4.5.

Standard PV are now $4.25 per watt with a 25 year warranty.

Thin film PV are $16.5/watt.

PV laminate for metal roofing is $4.5/watt.

PV shingles are $4.5/watt.

A new two story 1,700 square foot house in my area uses
6,000 KWh of power per year.

It would take 517 square feet of roof area on a southern
exposure to produce 2,740 watts with a PV metal roof. The
array would produce 3,000 KWh/year.

This system would cost $25,000. I'm going to check my next
power bill to see how much we are using.

FYI.

Later,
Dan McCarty

 

[hayden]

Wow, another good website. Keep them coming. The book you recommended arrived while I was travelling this past week and I strarted reading it last night.

Don't hold your breath on my project - I expect it's a 2-3 year undertaking.

 

[hayden]

I don't disagree with the prices at all - my system cost in that range - actually a bit less. The thing I want to be sure you know, and I think you do, is that the $25k solar system will not produce anywhere near the power that the same $$ would buy in comercial power. You are correct that the first step to converting to solar is reducing consumption, and that's a good thing to do regardless of whether you convert or not.