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$6000 off grid whole house Solar System
- Thread starter Tuco
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Britesea
Sustainability Master
Way back when, in CA, there was some kind of scandal (forgive me, I've forgotten exactly what it was) that caused our power costs to really spike. The first thing I did was go through the house and change out all the incandescent lights with cfl (which was all that was available at the time). Just doing that lowered our bill by 50%. We have since moved to LED's and power costs went down again.
When we moved to our current house, we needed all the big appliances (totally empty house!) and one thing I got was a Sun Frost refrigerator. This baby sips electricity, very economical- something like 15 KWH per month. In 17years of use, we've only had one small repair needed- the door latch broke- which cost $30. I wish all my appliances were as great as this one!
When we moved to our current house, we needed all the big appliances (totally empty house!) and one thing I got was a Sun Frost refrigerator. This baby sips electricity, very economical- something like 15 KWH per month. In 17years of use, we've only had one small repair needed- the door latch broke- which cost $30. I wish all my appliances were as great as this one!
The Porch
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I'm no expert by any means. This is just based on research I've done in the last month. I keep hearing about $20,000-$30,000 for a solar system. I believe you can have a whole house system for roughly $6000!
Thank you, this is all very Informative and very helpful information.
Thank you, this is all very Informative and very helpful information.
Denim Deb
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Tuco, I'm not really up on solar. But, how many kilowatt hours would that provide over a month if you average about 5 hrs of sun per day?
Denim Deb
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But, how long does it take to use that amount of watts?
flowerbug
Super Self-Sufficient
the best thing to do currently is to encourage your utility to invest in larger scale projects like wind, solar and battery storage or other forms of energy storage systems (pumped air, molten salt, large battery banks, etc.). these are much more practical and can be done by them for not much $ in comparison to what you would pay yourself for similar. plus they can take advantage of the changing technology and improvements each year as they happen for new projects while you are stuck with sunken costs in your own system.
to me having clean energy generation is more important than a personal solar supply. as long as i have a source of heat in the winter i don't need much electricity every day if there is a storm so having a backup generator is an unneeded expense. yes, it would be nice to have a generator, but it's not worth that $ to me to have it as we don't have power outages much any more.
like has been said, replacing power hog devices with more efficient ones is a good way to help things out too. LED lighting, replacing old computers with newer more efficient ones, replacing an old refridgerator with a newer one (the power company here gave us a $50 rebate for doing it too), better insulation, caulking up and foam sealing cracks if you can, keeping the thermostat turned down or using zone heating, wearing a few more clothes, using fans instead of AC, furnace replacement, thermal mass, better sun shading on the windows, better windows, ... there's a lot of things that can be done to help decrease energy usage.
for one i sure don't need a huge house (even if the space is nice i don't really need it to be happy - i'll work around less space as it means i don't have as high of taxes and i don't have as high expenses). etc...
to me having clean energy generation is more important than a personal solar supply. as long as i have a source of heat in the winter i don't need much electricity every day if there is a storm so having a backup generator is an unneeded expense. yes, it would be nice to have a generator, but it's not worth that $ to me to have it as we don't have power outages much any more.
like has been said, replacing power hog devices with more efficient ones is a good way to help things out too. LED lighting, replacing old computers with newer more efficient ones, replacing an old refridgerator with a newer one (the power company here gave us a $50 rebate for doing it too), better insulation, caulking up and foam sealing cracks if you can, keeping the thermostat turned down or using zone heating, wearing a few more clothes, using fans instead of AC, furnace replacement, thermal mass, better sun shading on the windows, better windows, ... there's a lot of things that can be done to help decrease energy usage.
for one i sure don't need a huge house (even if the space is nice i don't really need it to be happy - i'll work around less space as it means i don't have as high of taxes and i don't have as high expenses). etc...
CrealCritter
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I usually don't post much tech stuff on here because I already know most people are not technology geeks like I am. But if this technology can be developed and made into a consumable product, it will be a game changer. That's why I said I estimate that solar will be affordable and practical enough for the masses in 10 to 20 years. If someone could figure out how to harness and store even a fraction of the electricity produced in a bolt of lightening it would also be a game changer.
For me the truth to "green" energy is multifold. For a system to be effective all known forms of energy generation need to be utilized. Some technologies are known and are efficient such as fossil fuels but others are known and are not efficient yet such as solar and wind. But then there are unknown technologies or are just beginning development like alge and this night time power generation device. It's going to take a multi utlilized system to take advantage of all available technologies before I would consider it "green" and practical for the masses like me. there is so much opportunity that exists in the energy sector, it's unreal.
Interesting read ---> https://www.foxnews.com/tech/breakthrough-device-can-generate-electricity-from-the-night-sky
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flowerbug
Super Self-Sufficient
first thing to do in a place that gets enough sunlight is to set up solar water heating as that can save the most $ and will repay itself very quickly. if you use a solar panel and inverter to run the pumps to move the water where you need it then you can also size that inverter for the size that you will eventually want for the whole house if you get enough panels (eventually) and include some battery storage to start, but perhaps not a huge amount but enough to get you through a day or two of very low usage for the most critical items. that is my recommendation and it will save you the most $ up front. once that pays for itself then everything after that is gravy which can be used to imrpove, add more panels or more battery storage or both. it is a kind of way to bootstrap your way towards the eventual goal.
being so far south you won't have as much winterization issues that we have up here, and also all the clouds we can get and high winds and so very cold storms.
being so far south you won't have as much winterization issues that we have up here, and also all the clouds we can get and high winds and so very cold storms.
flowerbug
Super Self-Sufficient
if you have free compost available that's one way to do it but i don't know how fast it can actually heat water without compromising the pile itself. it would all be about thermal mass there and heat transfer, flow rates, the size of pipes and pumps, all very possible to do.
if you are willing to cobble something together and not have it connected to the water supply in a complicated manner you could probably get by for a lot less than $5,000. i'm pretty sure that would be a quote for a pretty high-tech system. low tech can work. just a black water bladder sitting on the roof with a hose with a plug in it can get water pretty hot and is very low tech. i think they have these for campers and such. i haven't looked into them myself. i live with someone who doesn't want anything done here so i can't play as much as i'd like. if it were up to me we'd already have a hot water system on the roof for the times when the sun is out it would save for both electricity and heating costs as we could use any extra heat collected to keep warmer. i've not had any luck at all convincing The Management (aka Mom
) of doing anything. solar electric would be nice too but i'd first do hot water as that is a big use of electricity for us - our well water is cold - even a tank for preheating water would be useful and save a lot of $.
flowerbug
Super Self-Sufficient
up here you have to use a system that is more like a heat exchanger where the fluid in the system contains anti-freeze rated for the expected temperatures or you have what is called a drain back system which only runs when there is enough heat provided by the sun to make sure it doesn't freeze and the rest of the time it is empty so there is no risk of freezing damage. you could also probably have it set up so that there are heat sources that come on to keep it from freezing but that to me would use a lot more energy than you'd likely capture. we can go quite a long time here without any direct sunlight.
