Solar Power For Home

Archive for the ‘best solar panels’ Category

Question by king.louis: When are we going to develop solar panels that are more effective at catching the sun’s rays?
Today in order to “complement” the electricity in the home you need to install large solar panels on homes, approximately 1300KW. Are we getting to a point where we will only need a small panel to feed our homes with the energy necessary to run all our appliances? When can we expect to see new solar technologies that are much more effective?

Best answer:

Answer by stamatis
Unknown. After a research during last months, I found today panels have approximately an efficiency of 15% (very low). NASA has make some experiments lead to a result of 25%. This because no solar panel use all wavelengths of light (colors) which the sunlight have a lot.
Today the most efficient way is steam produced indirectly from sun.

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Question by Cameron: With solar panels, what is the difference between price per watt and the total cost of the panel?
When you are purchasing large quantities of photovoltaic solar panels, they are priced as the overall cost, and then a price per watt. What is the difference, and how does the price per watt relate to the overall performance?

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Answer by roderick_young
The price per watt is a figure of merit, but is not how the panels are sold, any more than a gallon of gas is sold by how many miles you will be able to drive with it. You buy the gas at a certain price, then how many miles you actually get depends on what car you drive, and other factors.

In the same way, a certain model of panel is sold for an agreed-upon price. Let’s say it’s a 200-watt panel, and sold for 0. If the panel was rated in accordance with established standards, that means the panel will deliver 200 watts under ideal sunlight and temperature (that only happens about an hour a day, if that). So you can calculate that the price was 400/200 = per watt.

If the strong sunlight shines on the panel for 1 hour, then the energy produced is 200 watt-hours. This is where many people get confused. A watt is different from a watt-hour. A watt is a unit of power, like how strong a man is. A watt-hour is a unit of energy, like the work accomplished by that man in 1 hour.

The watt-hours or kilowatt-hours delivered are what light the rooms, run the appliances, or are sold to the power company. Getting those is a matter of having a good geographic location and installation.

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Question by tucher87: How many solar panels with one wind generator would you need to power a pop up?
I am looking at buying a pop up and would like to make it run off of deep cycle batteries but charging these batteries I would like to use a combination of solar panels and 1 wind generator. How many batteries would I need how many solar panels and what wind generator should I buy. I would be powering the lights an fridge and sometimes a AC or Heater.

Thanks
I live in west Texas where it never rains and its always windy

Best answer:

Answer by redsrule4500
Hope it’s not cloudy without wind for a while, you’ll be left with warm food and darkness.

An air conditioner/heater would be such a huge load on the system, wind/solar most likely don’t make sense for an individual, unless you’re on a lake or in California where it’s sunny everyday.

You would need around 200 W for a fridge, 100 W for small lights, and….500 W (?) for heating/air….so you’re looking at some pretty big batteries!! Every 2 hours you will use at least 1.5 kWh of energy.

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Question by Emily: How solar panels and furnaces work?
Ok, so my homework was to research and write about how solar panels and solar furnaces work and about their construction. We didn’t even take one lesson on it in class and we are not allowed to copy and paste much and have to keep it simple wtf? Its soo annoying as we have hardly took it in class. Please can someone help.

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Answer by Jacques Poutine
you are on the internet.

take a ride on the google train and try researching its what non-stupid people do.

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Question by monkeyalien: What can you tell me about rebate incentives for residential solar panels in New York state?
Also, where can solar panels be purchased in the Binghamton/Liberty/Jeffersonville area? Home Depot has some on their website & I would like to see them in a store before purchasing or ordering them.

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Answer by Bobbie
Enacted in August 1997, this personal income tax credit originally applied to expenditures on solar-electric (PV) equipment used on residential property. The credit, equal to 25% percent of the cost of equipment and installation, was expanded in August 2005 to include solar-thermal equipment. The solar-thermal provisions apply to taxable years beginning on and after January 1, 2006. The credit is capped at ,750 for solar-energy systems placed in service before September 1, 2006, and capped at ,000 for solar-energy systems placed in service on or after September 1, 2006.
Solar-energy equipment is defined as “an arrangement or combination of components utilizing solar radiation, which, when installed in a residence, produces energy designed to provide heating, cooling, hot water or electricity.” The credit may not be used for pool heating or other recreational applications. Any amount of credit that exceeds a taxpayer’s liability in a given tax year may be carried forward for the five following taxable years. Any portion of the system cost provided by a non-taxable federal, state, or local grant is not eligible for this credit.
Systems must comply with the 10 kW capacity limit on residential, net-metered solar-energy systems*. In 2007, legislation was passed increasing the capacity limit to 50 kW for condominiums and cooperative housing associations. In addition, members of condominium management associations and tenant stockholders of cooperative housing associations are now allowed to claim a proportionate share of the total system expense towards the tax credit. These changes took effect beginning in the 2007 tax year, but as with other portions of the tax credit, they do not have an expiration date.
*The language of the tax credit generally requires that PV systems conform to the state’s net metering law, thereby limiting system size to 10 kW. In August 2008, the state net metering law was expanded by S.B. 7171 to permit net metering for residential PV systems up to 25 KW. It is unclear at this point whether the state intends for the new net metering limits to apply to the tax credit described above. The 2009 Solar Tax Credit Form IT-255 does not specifically address this issue.

http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/incentive.cfm?Incentive_Code=NY03F&re=1&ee=1

Contact:
Taxpayer Assistance – Personal Income Tax Information Center
New York State Department of Taxation and Finance
W.A. Harriman Campus
Albany, NY 12227
Phone: (518) 457-5181
Phone 2: (800) 225-5829
Web Site: http://www.tax.state.ny.us

Hope that you find the above enclosed information useful. 09/19/2011

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Question by Brittany Klein: What are the costs of installing solar panels in a school?
I have to do a brochure project on Solar Panels for my school. I need to include costs, benefits, political concerns, economic concerns, and social concerns.

I need this information ASAP!

thanks in advance(:

Best answer:

Answer by Tudorsolar
Hi
There are two types of solar panel installations one is domestic (the one you are using in your home) and another one is commercial (used for business like your school)

Domestic installation are up to 4kW and usually you can install them without any special permits. Installation process takes about 2 days if you want to find out benefits of that kind of installation go to
http://www.tudorsolar.com/cost-calculator/ and enter your postcode and the size of the system you would like to install ( ex: 4.00kW). There is also a lot of useful information you could use for your project like..
-Why solar?
-How much you can save and what are your benefits.

Political concerns… Government encourage people to install solar panels. The offer FIT’s (Feed in tariffs for 25 years (UK)) and also grants for some businesses and privates houses. Government will spend millions on this project. They also have the right to pick the sup-players which mean that that some small businesses will get bust.

Concerns:
Electricity prices will go up. Electric providers will have to make up the lost in business by putting prices up in UK this year 18% for electricity and 16% for gas.

Solar panels are now produced faster then ever. They produce clean pollution free energy however there is waste created during manufacturing process.

After Solar Panel life time expire this is about 30-40 years. It will turn to the wast which will have to be utilise.

Solar panels do save a lot of money but to start with you have to have money to install them in first place. If you don’t you will be the one who will have to pay electricity for the people who had many for it. The gap between poor and wealthy will get even bigger.

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Question by Z Dude 23: Can you connect amorphous and monocrystalline solar panels together in a parallel?
I have a large monocrystalline solar panel I just got today and I want to hook it in parallel with a couple amorphous solar kits. There is a total of seven amorphous panels and one monocrystalline panel. Would the monocrystalline panel burn the other panels up? Just want to be on the safe side, thanks!

Best answer:

Answer by thor
You can, but you wouldn’t be getting all the power possible. I’m guessing the monocrystalline is much more efficient than the amorphous panels, but in parallel you’d only be getting the power output of the lowest efficiency cell.

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Question by Alison Armitage: Can solar panels be used for heating water?
We are soon having solar panels installed. As we will then need to use as much electricity as possible and we have gas central heating, is it possible to have a system linked up to create hot water during the day instead of the gas boiler firing up every time we turn the hot tap on? Any ideas on cost would be an advantage too please.

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Answer by Crazy man
It is a good decision. If I were you I would prefer the vacuum tube solar collector which is very efficient although it is about 20% more expensive but in no time you will recover the additional cost. I have one and I have never needed to use the electrical backup even with three or four overcast days. Even with no sunlight they will obtain heat from the infrared waves of the light. I live in the tropics but it will be even more useful for those living in th e temperate zone.

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Question by flight777: How much power is generated by the solar panels at Albuquerque Airport?
I understand Albuquerque Sunport recently installed solar panels atop their parking structure to generate electricity. Just wondering how much power this actually generates on a typical day. Thanks.

Best answer:

Answer by Jason Amoratis
at most 4,985 kWh daily
or
17,940 kJ daily

this amounts to an average of 207 kW of power every hour, which should require over 4,000 m^2 (43,000 ft^2) of installed PV panels.

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Question by Anonymous: How much does it cost to install solar panels?
I already have 18 solar panels I just want to know how much it will cost to install them.
Please give me a price i don’t want to call someone and ask them to give me a quote, i want an actual price.
I just want them hooked up to my house so i wouldn’t have to use the city’s power, and no i do not have any batteries.

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Answer by TDS*
depends how you want them installed and where. give more details for a more accurate answer. id say probly around 2 grand tho…

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