Solar energy
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Gold Member Username: CenusHicksville, Ohio Post Number: 3192 Registered: Jan-05 | hey im doing a report for science about solar energy, and im having trouble finding how much it costs would any1 happen to know of a website that would tell me something. |
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Gold Member Username: WingmanaliveA pic is worth 1000 posts!! Post Number: 6749 Registered: Jun-06 | http://www.solar-electric.com/ This is a subject I'm quite interested in myself. I have a small setup I built just for the education. ^^^That is a good site for the basics.  |
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Gold Member Username: CenusHicksville, Ohio Post Number: 3193 Registered: Jan-05 | wow paul, that website is great if only me and maria, my science partner, knew about it monday lol this project would've been a lot easier. |
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Gold Member Username: WingmanaliveA pic is worth 1000 posts!! Post Number: 6750 Registered: Jun-06 | Small 240ahr battery bank charged by small 45w panels. The cheap inverter was replaced by a Xantrex model of only 1000w. I bought a $240 xantrex meter to keep track of voltage and % of bank remaining. On a full charge I can run my big screen for hours and even a small dorm type fridge. Mostly used to recharge my cordless tools but can be used for lighting in a power outage. Serious home based setups use pure sine wave inverters and 1000's of panel watts stored in very large battery banks. It's free energy, and also somewhere we all will be looking to.  |
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Gold Member Username: CenusHicksville, Ohio Post Number: 3194 Registered: Jan-05 | nice paul, ya the only bad thing about solar energy is the initial cost, i mean a sanyo 200 watt hit solar panal costs $1500 thats a lot then you got to buy batterys, cables, and inverters. for small systems like yours it would work good but for big systems i don't think it would be pratical for home useage. |
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Gold Member Username: WingmanaliveA pic is worth 1000 posts!! Post Number: 6753 Registered: Jun-06 | Yes but so are the rebates. Depending on your state, you can get as much as 80% back from your investment. In ten years (or less) it has paid for itself. After that, easy street. Especially when the panels carry a 25 year life expectancy. I'm just waiting on the cost of the panels to drop. |
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Gold Member Username: WingmanaliveA pic is worth 1000 posts!! Post Number: 6754 Registered: Jun-06 | Say you drop $15,000 on a grid-tie system, after say even a modest 50% state rebate=$7000. If your monthly electric bill is $200....X 12 = $2400/year....= system is paid for in 3 years. If you have an off-grid system you're on batts. Add another $5000. Even so you can see the bottom line. |
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Gold Member Username: CenusHicksville, Ohio Post Number: 3195 Registered: Jan-05 | ya i see your point but the intial cost is whats going to turn most people away, but in the long run solar energy is the way to go. well that is untill the sun blows up, but hopefully i'll be dead by then. |
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Gold Member Username: WingmanaliveA pic is worth 1000 posts!! Post Number: 6756 Registered: Jun-06 | Yes the cost of the equipment/installation does drive ppl away, also the fact that the rebates aren't instant. Not too many ppl with 20 g's lying around. Lol. I foresee solar as a "builder option" in the many choices a home buyer has with the construction of a new home very soon. That way the cost is built right into the mortgage. |
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Gold Member Username: CenusHicksville, Ohio Post Number: 3196 Registered: Jan-05 | " I foresee solar as a "builder option" in the many choices a home buyer has with the construction of a new home very soon. That way the cost is built right into the mortgage." wow never thought of that before but thats a great idea, that would bring more people around to soalr energy, maybe not so much on the cheaper, starter homes but the bigger ones where couples are settling down it could catch on quick. |
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Gold Member Username: WingmanaliveA pic is worth 1000 posts!! Post Number: 6757 Registered: Jun-06 | Yup yup. I design trusses for new home construction and see purchase orders with the option selection sheets daily. It's right around the corner. Not to steal a line from a good movie but the field of photovoltaics is amazing. To imagine that plants have been storing and using the sun's energy for millions of years and we have just begun exploring that source for maybe, what, 30 years??? Mother nature is onto something. I say let's stop drilling for energy and start looking up. Just my $.02. |
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Gold Member Username: CenusHicksville, Ohio Post Number: 3202 Registered: Jan-05 | TRUE very true paul, we need to stop digging and use whats around us, water wind solar power all are renewable. i was watching a show a long time ago where scientists did an experiment, they took a wire and ran it from the ground into space well as the wire passed earths atomosphere an electric field was generated well this produced tremendous amounts of power it only lasted for a few minutes cause the wire got so hot it melted but the energy created could run a small town for a day i think and thats only a couple of minutes imagine if we could devolope a way to keep wire up there all the time. |
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Gold Member Username: WingmanaliveA pic is worth 1000 posts!! Post Number: 6763 Registered: Jun-06 | You're on the right track son, you really are. Renewable energy IS our future. Think 20 years from now. Hmmmmmmmm. |
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Silver Member Username: Mrskullz1Brooklyn, New York Post Number: 461 Registered: Feb-07 | hey paul...where in jersey u from? (dnt want to go ot..jus a quickie) |
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Gold Member Username: WingmanaliveA pic is worth 1000 posts!! Post Number: 6785 Registered: Jun-06 | South. Around Berlin if you know where that is. |
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Silver Member Username: Mrskullz1Brooklyn, New York Post Number: 463 Registered: Feb-07 | how far from elizabeth? or would that be the complete other side? elizabeth is like exit 13 off the 95... |
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Silver Member Username: StefanomVienna, VA United States Post Number: 608 Registered: Apr-06 | How do the solar panels weather things like hail, thunderstorms with high gusts, etc? |
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Gold Member Username: WingmanaliveA pic is worth 1000 posts!! Post Number: 6787 Registered: Jun-06 | The solar "cells" are encased in high impact glass and are typically anchored to the roof or securely to a ground mount. Some advanced systems even adjust the panel's position to "track" the sun's movement throughout the day to achieve maximum exposure. A basic setup is quite maintenance free with no moving parts. If you're off grid though your battery bank needs to tolerate a three day autonomy of sunlight, and you should never discharge your bank below 50% capacity. With just those simple rules you can see how large a bank is required. Some remote locations use a gas powered generator during cloudy days to charge the bank. We're not completely fossil fuel free yet Lol. It's always controversial when one of the largest oil companies coincidently happens to be the leader in panel production. (BP). Call it an interest in future markets or simply gobbling up the industry's patents to secure our oil dependency. It's sickening when you realize the money that has, is, and will be spent on the war could've drastically reduced our dependency on oil by simply investing in a nation wide "solar based infrastructure". As soon as Washington can find a way to line their sleezy pockets from solar we will see a difference. Heard of Cherry hill? I'm just South of it. Ok, I'm done for now. Lol. |
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Silver Member Username: Mrskullz1Brooklyn, New York Post Number: 469 Registered: Feb-07 | the only cherry hill i kno is in baltimore....and one of the most ghettoist areas i've been in right after new york that is |
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Gold Member Username: WingmanaliveA pic is worth 1000 posts!! Post Number: 6792 Registered: Jun-06 | I'm at least 2 hours away from Newark. |