Michigander hopeing to find an affordable way to power my home

sofasurfer

We're starting to learn about survival methods, with all the talk about economic collapse, etc.
Been reading a lot on solar electricity. Turns out it may be more affordable than I thought. I really don't have time to build a system from scratch. Would like to find a ready made kit that I can install. Looking for a local dealer that can talk to me. Found plenty of intereting stuff on line. Found wholesalesolar and wonder if anyone can recommend them and their systems or if you have your own recommendations where to buy a system. From the looks of this forum I have plenty to read in the next few days.

stephendv

Re: Michigander hopeing to find an affordable way to power my home

Ready made kits are generally not a great idea 'cause they never exactly meet everyone's needs. So you either end up spending too much on a system you won't use to full capacity, or too little on one that doesn't provide enough energy. For components and experts who can advise you on what to buy you could try the hosts of this forum: http://www.solar-electric.com/

I prefer a statistical approach to survival: First identify the leading causes of death and then avoid each one of those causes: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lcod.htm

niel

Re: Michigander hopeing to find an affordable way to power my home

you need to figure out what it is you need to run, what the power draw is, and for how long it is to run over the course of a normal day. the nameplate ratings of appliances can be used as a high estimate of the power it will consume, but using a killawatt meter can give you more accurate draws and even tally up the kilowatt hours of the appliance.
http://www.solar-electric.com/kiacpomome.html
once you know that we can discuss some options on putting together something to suite your needs.

sofasurfer

Re: Michigander hopeing to find an affordable way to power my home

According to my bill:
max usage 1474 kwh june
min usage 873 kwh october
yearly total 15102 kwh
ave month 1250 kwh/month
ave day 41.9 kwh/day

This does not include heat or hot water, which currently are gas.
Does this info get us anywahere

I also am interested in finding a reputable dealer in the area of Flint or Davison or Lapeer, Michigan. Are there any people who have an installed system in this area who would be willing to show me around?

Thanks.

BB.

Re: Michigander hopeing to find an affordable way to power my home

Quickly, using PV Watts for Flint, 1 kW (1,000 watts) fixed array tilted to latitude:

"Station Identification"
"City:","Flint"
"State:","Michigan"
"Lat (deg N):", 42.97
"Long (deg W):", 83.73
"Elev (m): ", 233
"PV System Specifications"
"DC Rating:"," 1.0 kW"
"DC to AC Derate Factor:"," 0.770"
"AC Rating:"," 0.8 kW"
"Array Type: Fixed Tilt"
"Array Tilt:"," 43.0"
"Array Azimuth:","180.0"

"Energy Specifications"
"Cost of Electricity:"," 8.3 cents/kWh"

"Results"
"Month", "Solar Radiation (kWh/m^2/day)", "AC Energy (kWh)", "Energy Value ($)"
1, 2.69, 67, 5.56
2, 3.79, 85, 7.06
3, 4.30, 103, 8.55
4, 4.99, 112, 9.30
5, 5.42, 122, 10.13
6, 5.56, 117, 9.71
7, 5.43, 115, 9.55
8, 5.34, 115, 9.55
9, 4.77, 102, 8.47
10, 3.83, 86, 7.14
11, 2.41, 54, 4.48
12, 1.79, 42, 3.49
"Year", 4.19, 1122, 93.13

15,102 kWH per year / 1,122 kWH per 1kW panel per year = 13,5 kW of solar panels to off set 1 year of average power use/solar energy...

The cost to install the system is around $5-$8 per Watt ($5,000 - $8,000 per kW of panels) for a "typical" roof mounted system. You can get ~30% federal tax credit (you must "use it up by ~2016 under current law).

The panels must have full sun--they will not produce very much if there is substantial shade. Ideally, the panels should face south and have at least 9am-3pm sun, but some applications that point south east or south west do pretty well too.

If you find a lease to own company in your area, you might pay $2,000 per kW (or even less). You get the solar system and the Leasing company gets the tax breaks/subsidies. At this point, even though I believe in purchase--Lease to own is so subsidized by government, it is difficult to ignore.

In our area, the leasing companies appear to have driven out many of the "normal" installers (you pay "full price" and own system outright).

In some regions, over 10kW systems may have certain issues with local planning and state PUC rules/billing plans.

And, as a start, I always suggest extreme conservation as a starting point. It is almost always cheaper to conserve power than to generate it.

While you are using a "fair" amount of energy--If you have A/C or other needs--it is not bad. ~10-12,000 kWH per year is the North American average power usage. Excluding heating/cooking/air conditioning/computer servers, it is not impossible to reduce power usage by upwards of 50% with some work/money. However--power usage is a highly personal choice and we are just here to help supply information--Not judge anyone's power needs.

-Bill

icarus

Re: Michigander hopeing to find an affordable way to power my home

Because it has to be said,,, if you are worried of out end the world scenarios, you would be looking at a battery based system. Such a system would come at about twice the cost per KW with have the efficiency. (And batteries have a fairly limited life span, nd since the represent ~ 1/2 the cost of the system, things get expensive real quick, ergo conservation is even more important.

Quite frankly, I would spend my money on conservtion firwt' then a grid tie system to reduce my out of pocket costs, and not worry about end of the world scenarios.

Icarus