solar power

[houstonscott]

This site is my favorite solar site. You can become an expert in few hours here. I'll save you some time. If your electric company will credit you or pay you for your power then connect to grid. Sell back during the day, buy power at night, come out even. Go micro-inverters and keep it simple. Micro inverters is what you need to investigate and come up to speed on. Good luck.

Solar Panels from Wholesale Solar Renewable Energy

HS

 

[tommu56]

Backwoodssolar?

That is were I got my stuff from.

 

[catfishdaddyengineering]

The asking price for installed PV systems in my area is $8-10 a watt so roughly $20,000 installed for your 2,000 watt system. I do not think that $8-10 per watt cost included a system with batteries.

Later,
Dan

That is high around here if it does not include batteries. The $8-$10 a watt includes batteries, while grid-tie with no batteries is ~$4-$7 per watt. There was a local news story about a customer of Alabama Power in Montgomery signing up for the grid-tie program, and their system is 8,000 watts for $30,000. Maybe theirs is chinese crap and your quote is gold-plated connectors. Who knows!

 

[dmccarty]

That is high around here if it does not include batteries. The $8-$10 a watt includes batteries, while grid-tie with no batteries is ~$4-$7 per watt. There was a local news story about a customer of Alabama Power in Montgomery signing up for the grid-tie program, and their system is 8,000 watts for $30,000. Maybe theirs is chinese crap and your quote is gold-plated connectors. Who knows!

The cost of living in AL is much less than my area of NC.

When I first joined TBN, there were TBNers down in TX with a certain type of septic system that they could get installed for under $5,000. Here that same system was over $25,000. It was pure profit best I could tell. I looked at the materials and the cost should have been under $5k. But good percs and open land with location, location, location can be hard to find so some people would spend $25K on a poo field.

One of the links people are posting has grid tied system for $3-4 per watt not including roof mounts. If the contractor doubles/triples the material cost to cover the expenses that gets to $10ish per watt.

Later,
Dan

 

[dynasim]

Does anybody have feedback on the actual vs rated performance of the solar systems are. In essence, how much power do they actually produce on average in kwhr per day?

I know the depends on a number of factors, primarily:

Tracking or not,
Location Latitude,
Location Cloud cover.

I am looking at several different systems for a remote site, and would like some feedback from actual installations(not factory reps).

Thanks
Chris

 

[tommu56]

Does anybody have feedback on the actual vs rated performance of the solar systems are. In essence, how much power do they actually produce on average in kwhr per day?

I know the depends on a number of factors, primarily:

Tracking or not,
Location Latitude,
Location Cloud cover.

I am looking at several different systems for a remote site, and would like some feedback from actual installations(not factory reps).

Thanks
Chris

what type of system are you looking at?

mine is small at my cabin off grid in the boonies

600watts panels
2500 watt invertor
40 amp charge controller
8 6v L16 serried / parallel at 12v ~1800 amp hour
well pump on it 450ft deep
pump from cistern to cabin at 12v
lights, tv, ect.
crude rain water collection to flush toilet

 

[dynasim]

I am thinking of buying land where I grew up, and building a cabin on a remote corner. The best place to build doesn't have electricity close(2 miles), and I really don't want the recurring cost associated with hooking into the grid.

I may just use a generator, but the prices for the solar cells have come way down. It has a windmill for water, so electricity would be limited to cell phone/computer/internet/lighting, and woman maintenance(edit for clairity:hair driers, etc.).

So my question really is: if I install a 1000 watt solar cell, how much power will it produce daily out the inverter, with a fixed installation optimally directed(time of year, and latitude corrected)?

My initial estimate would be about 5 hours worth(5 kw-h/day). Is that high or low?

The people I know who have an unconnected solar system, and spend a lot of time at their place, also utilize their generator a bit. If that is the case, I would likely skip the solar part. I am not sold on the environmental efficiency of solar cells, and couldn't use that to justify their purchase.

Chris

 

[mmurphy]

Does anybody have feedback on the actual vs rated performance of the solar systems are. In essence, how much power do they actually produce on average in kwhr per day?

I know the depends on a number of factors, primarily:

Tracking or not,
Location Latitude,
Location Cloud cover.

I am looking at several different systems for a remote site, and would like some feedback from actual installations(not factory reps).

Thanks
Chris

BuildItSolar: Solar energy projects for Do It Yourselfers to save money and reduce pollution has some good info. He is a member here also.
(gary gary I believe is what he goes by)

 

[tommu56]

I am thinking of buying land where I grew up, and building a cabin on a remote corner. The best place to build doesn't have electricity close(2 miles), and I really don't want the recurring cost associated with hooking into the grid.

I may just use a generator, but the prices for the solar cells have come way down. It has a windmill for water, so electricity would be limited to cell phone/computer/internet/lighting, and woman maintenance(edit for clairity:hair driers, etc.).

So my question really is: if I install a 1000 watt solar cell, how much power will it produce daily out the inverter, with a fixed installation optimally directed(time of year, and latitude corrected)?

My initial estimate would be about 5 hours worth(5 kw-h/day). Is that high or low?

The people I know who have an unconnected solar system, and spend a lot of time at their place, also utilize their generator a bit. If that is the case, I would likely skip the solar part. I am not sold on the environmental efficiency of solar cells, and couldn't use that to justify their purchase.

Chris

All that is possible with a little self control
we use gas for cooking and frig and water heater and wood for heat
microwave gets used with out a problem
toaster too
blow dryer occasionally

I have a bogart meter in the living room and we use like a speedometer and fuel guage

We can only use one of the heavy drawers at one time and police that our selves.

We have a generator for the high loads or when battery's are low that takes us about 3-4 days of low or no sun with us there

That is good you have a water source my well only puts out 20 gallons per day so we pump it while we aren't there to the cistern and live off that while are there.


tom

 

[dynasim]

Thanks for the link!!


Chris