Or a means to store the excess when you have excess. That is where the Tesla Powerwall could be a game changer.
Your (or someone you know)solar energy experiences
- Thread starter corinth
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I stand by what I said, nothing in my post is a false statement (half truth). I specifically state small generation. Not solar. That generation can be anything. Solar, if oversized properly, will have battery storage to ride trough the night. I am not advocating solar, if fact quite the opposite, I want you to use large amounts of electricity and buy a new car every year. I work for a company that mines coal, drills for gas, and generates electricity. But, if every home and every building, and every factory had a small gen or fuel cell - the need for a large scale grid of high voltage power lines diminishes. The high voltage lines interconnect the large plants, if the large plants go away.......I am an EE with 35 years in industrial power and automation. If you want to discuss my half-truths we can do so on another forum.
How come on this entire thread no one has mentioned insulation? This is the way to get a pay back faster than installing solar panels. Think foam; closed cell in the roof and open cell in the walls. Stop the air movement and seal the house. Good, double pane windows complete the project. Much easier to do on new construction but very doable on an existing home. It may involve installing a whole house vent system but so what. While you are at it install an on demand gas water heater and get away from heating water no one is using.
terrymck, great point. Newer homes out here are built with lots of insulation throughout. Mine was built in 1953, a flat top that didn't even have an attic. I've since insulated the roof, replaced windows and have started insulating the walls. The effect is dramatic but we still use a lot of power keeping cool during the summer and fall.
Mike
Mike
You are spot on here, a tank style water heater is one of the largest wastes of energy we have. Europe is ahead of us in moving to the on-demand units. After the move to CFL and LED lighting, the electric water heaters will be the next target to shed load from the power systems. A well insulated home is priority one, and can yield savings even in a moderate climate. I have an outdoor wood burner for primary heat ( qualifies as renewable) with an on demand water heater, I never run out of hot water in the winter. We only recently got natural gas, so I will soon switch my summer use electric water heater to gas units, I am looking at smaller on demand units right now. I don't know why more in the south & south west do not utilize solar-heat water systems, or at the very least solar pre-heat for the water. I built a soar water heater for a pool from common items, old windows and black pvc pipe 37 yards ago that worked in WV.
On the topic of insulation....
Our utility company was running a special a few years ago, where an energy audit was $99 and you got rebates and tax incentives for work done by one of their list of contractors.
The energy auditor came to the house and checked everything out. He used an infrared camera to view the patterns of temperature around the house. He could see air leaks where they were happening throughout the house. He did a blower door test, where he hooked a powerful fan up to our front door blowing out, which pulled air through the house. It showed that we had air leaks at many of our interior walls (we have no attic and vaulted ceilings), at bathtubs, at outlets and switches, and at door and window frames.
He gave us that report, then we fixed a bunch of the issues, then he came back to recheck. Definitely helpful and certainly saving me money.
We were already planning to add insulation, so the timing was beneficial and we ended up getting rebates and tax credits for adding icynene spray insulation in our crawl spaces, sealing around windows and doors, and adding bat insulation to our basement walls.
Heather
Our utility company was running a special a few years ago, where an energy audit was $99 and you got rebates and tax incentives for work done by one of their list of contractors.
The energy auditor came to the house and checked everything out. He used an infrared camera to view the patterns of temperature around the house. He could see air leaks where they were happening throughout the house. He did a blower door test, where he hooked a powerful fan up to our front door blowing out, which pulled air through the house. It showed that we had air leaks at many of our interior walls (we have no attic and vaulted ceilings), at bathtubs, at outlets and switches, and at door and window frames.
He gave us that report, then we fixed a bunch of the issues, then he came back to recheck. Definitely helpful and certainly saving me money.
We were already planning to add insulation, so the timing was beneficial and we ended up getting rebates and tax credits for adding icynene spray insulation in our crawl spaces, sealing around windows and doors, and adding bat insulation to our basement walls.
Heather
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Ya, because NOBODY has! 
corinth
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solar energy panels
Somebody does or they would not be at every home center. I waiting to see them show up at Kohls!There are a lot of people who do or the solar panel industry to produce electricity to homes would have gone the way of cassette tapes( I still have some out of sentimentality).maybe someone will come forward with their experiences. I have copied down what I consider the pertinent information you have all given me and will continue to do so. I am also collecting info from other sites on what to ask so you don't get taken. Somewhere down the yellow brick road, I will come up with enough info but I thought I would throw it out here and hope or pray someone steps forward who has had panels installed.
Corinth
PS: thanks for all your feedback so far
Somebody does or they would not be at every home center. I waiting to see them show up at Kohls!There are a lot of people who do or the solar panel industry to produce electricity to homes would have gone the way of cassette tapes( I still have some out of sentimentality).maybe someone will come forward with their experiences. I have copied down what I consider the pertinent information you have all given me and will continue to do so. I am also collecting info from other sites on what to ask so you don't get taken. Somewhere down the yellow brick road, I will come up with enough info but I thought I would throw it out here and hope or pray someone steps forward who has had panels installed.
Corinth
PS: thanks for all your feedback so far
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Our County Utility has a nice web page on Solar Power. They pretty much have it all laid out in one spot including a nice Solar Guidance packet.
I live in an unusual place (to say the least LOL).
The highest number of PhD's per capita ------ Check!
The highest number of "millionaires" per capita ------ Check!
And yet with all that going as well as the amount of sunshine there are very few solar panels and none being installed currently that I know of anyways.
I live in an unusual place (to say the least LOL).
The highest number of PhD's per capita ------ Check!
The highest number of "millionaires" per capita ------ Check!
And yet with all that going as well as the amount of sunshine there are very few solar panels and none being installed currently that I know of anyways.
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