Wow I want To eventually go solar. I have done a bit of research online and I say go for it. http://www.care2connect.com has alot of areas of useful info and plenty of groups of people living the dream. check it out!
It really depends on your area, and how much you use. There’s a significant silicon shortage right now, which is not supposed to clear up until 2007, so you might want to wait a while.
We have a 1kw array, and it provides a little under a quarter of our power use with an electric dryer and an electric stove. Your milage may vary.
i live in jamaica i know that you r saying that i have perfect sun do my water heater work fine even when there is a lot of rain like 3 to 4 day the water is still pretty warm. electricity in Jamaica is a little high and there was a feature in the paper the other Day where there a man is totally free from the public electricity grid in a 10 bedroom house and there is a plus side u are one of the few that is saving the endowment to let your child breath a little esayer
I investigated it during the last California Power crisis. I thought that getting a full up system would be very expensive (probably about 30-40K) and probably wouldn’t pay for itself.
A friend had a brilliant idea though. Just put in a system to run your meter backwards! No batteries, no wiring to the house. That would maximize returns because you would essentially be banking electricity with little or no overhead.
I’ve made a solar box-type cooker. You can find plans for them on line; just search on solar cookers. You don’t have to have a big dish or mirrors or anything, just a cardboard box, some black point and aluminum foil. They can be made for just a few dollars and they can be used on any sunny day. They are slow cookers and you can’t burn the food.
It works the same way your car gets hot in the sun if you don’t leave the windows open. In fact, one of those windwhsield reflectors can be wrapped around the solar box cooker to help it work.
There are two advantages of this kind of cooker: first you don’t have to (pay for gas or electricity to) heat up the house by running the stove on sunny days, and then second, you don’t have to use (pay extra) for the air conditioning to cool it.
The sites I have seen for solar cookers on line had several diffeent inexpensive designs plus recipes. The cooker gets about as hot as a moderate oven, about 325 degrees F. You can bake with this. It does not broil the food like a big lens or parabolic mirror would.
This is an inexpensive low tech way that you can use right now to save money in the summertime and possibly at other times of year, depending on your latitude. Give it a try. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
you need to find out what the weather pattern of your area is. if you dont live in an area hat has a significant amount of sunlight year round then it probably wont help you a whole lot.
absolutely none. sorry. but we do have some stop signs in my town where they have little solar panels on them and they have little blinking lights you you can see them better…those are really cool.
Well when I was younger my parents had Solar Panels put on the roof to heat our water.
They sucked. We wound up taking a lot of cold showers.
I beleive the technology has improved since then.
Clothes line outside to use the sun to dry them is solar power. Could save a major amount of power is more people used them.
I don’t like to pay so much to dry jeans, towels so I dry them in the sun and it can actually take less time on the clothes lines than in the dryer.
Caltech built a natural gas turbine to make electricity. With the price of gas up, I don’t know.
(1 cubic foot of gas = 1020BTU
35.3 cubic feet =1 cubic meter= 10.54 KW-Hr.)
If you know the price of your gas you could compare.
I’ve had early experiences and recommend you take a wait and see attitude. If you put something on your roof, then what happens when you need to repair a leak in your roof? You may invest a lot of money in solar and not reap the rewards you expected.
The solar panel is a type of rock that can take in solar heat at a very high level. The energy of the heat is taken through a metal line causing energy.
I think solar is such a great idea, and I wish that the price of the cells would come down, I would use it everywhere. When you go off the grid do you have to pay for the line usage? And what if you need to use the grid will the power company charge you huge install fees, as punishment? Good luck, and thanks for caring about the environment
I lived totally off the grid for the 10 years prior to this. It was a great life. We did have a propane fridge and a gasoline generator for backup when there was a long cloudy period, but with a wind generator we could have done without it.
Anyway, throughout the years there were many times when the community in general had lost power, but we never did.
my experience with solar power was first introduced to me by my science teacher.. it was a solar oven that melted cheese over tacos… yummy…
i have solar panels at home to heat the water for the kitchen, bathroom and pool they are very good and last long the only problem i found was that they are not that efficient when there’s no sun… lol
other wise solar power is perfect for anything!
its a little expensive at first but the benefits are worth it
I worked for a couple of years with a company that produced solar arrays. They mostly sold to the Government for NASA and to Third World Countries which had no real power grid. At the time, about 25 years ago, it was not economical to use solar power in this country, as energy was cheap and easily available. With rising Gas and Oil prices, it well might be worthwhile. Bear in mind, however, that most westerners are addicted to high usage of electricity for all our air conditioners, televisions, VCR’s, DVD players, hair dryers and curling irons, radios, lights on all over the house, etc. It would take some adapting, but I think it could be done. Be aware you would need the room for some pretty big (and not very pretty) solar arrays and they would need access to light every day, like not having a lot of trees about. Not always easy to do. Think about trying to find ways to use less electricity when you set this up, like using flourescent bulbs for electric lights, solar water heaters, and watching water usage. You need to change more than you power source, you need to change a lot of habits, too.
While I lived in Arizona it worked really well. My friends and I were renting a house and felt a bit uncomfortable but it was a great neighborhood and great deal. About the second day it seemed that the solar power is the same as electricity. And the bill is so inexpensive. I’m a big promoter of using solar energy. At first it may be awkward because its unusual still but it works just as well if not better than electricity. There was a server thunderstorm and the area lost power except those that had solar power.
We have seven lots and they are lighted with solar lights.
It costs nada except the one time fee for the lights. It is awesome. We want to go completely solar.
Wow I want To eventually go solar. I have done a bit of research online and I say go for it. http://www.care2connect.com has alot of areas of useful info and plenty of groups of people living the dream. check it out!
It really depends on your area, and how much you use. There’s a significant silicon shortage right now, which is not supposed to clear up until 2007, so you might want to wait a while.
We have a 1kw array, and it provides a little under a quarter of our power use with an electric dryer and an electric stove. Your milage may vary.
It takes Decades to pay for itself.
i live in jamaica i know that you r saying that i have perfect sun do my water heater work fine even when there is a lot of rain like 3 to 4 day the water is still pretty warm. electricity in Jamaica is a little high and there was a feature in the paper the other Day where there a man is totally free from the public electricity grid in a 10 bedroom house and there is a plus side u are one of the few that is saving the endowment to let your child breath a little esayer
I love feeling the sun on my face ,as a blind man i find it amazing that I can sense something so far away
I investigated it during the last California Power crisis. I thought that getting a full up system would be very expensive (probably about 30-40K) and probably wouldn’t pay for itself.
A friend had a brilliant idea though. Just put in a system to run your meter backwards! No batteries, no wiring to the house. That would maximize returns because you would essentially be banking electricity with little or no overhead.
I’ve made a solar box-type cooker. You can find plans for them on line; just search on solar cookers. You don’t have to have a big dish or mirrors or anything, just a cardboard box, some black point and aluminum foil. They can be made for just a few dollars and they can be used on any sunny day. They are slow cookers and you can’t burn the food.
It works the same way your car gets hot in the sun if you don’t leave the windows open. In fact, one of those windwhsield reflectors can be wrapped around the solar box cooker to help it work.
There are two advantages of this kind of cooker: first you don’t have to (pay for gas or electricity to) heat up the house by running the stove on sunny days, and then second, you don’t have to use (pay extra) for the air conditioning to cool it.
The sites I have seen for solar cookers on line had several diffeent inexpensive designs plus recipes. The cooker gets about as hot as a moderate oven, about 325 degrees F. You can bake with this. It does not broil the food like a big lens or parabolic mirror would.
This is an inexpensive low tech way that you can use right now to save money in the summertime and possibly at other times of year, depending on your latitude. Give it a try. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.
you need to find out what the weather pattern of your area is. if you dont live in an area hat has a significant amount of sunlight year round then it probably wont help you a whole lot.
absolutely none. sorry. but we do have some stop signs in my town where they have little solar panels on them and they have little blinking lights you you can see them better…those are really cool.
I just got my first Solar lamps and they work good. I think I will be getting some more.
As a whole home thing I think that I would go with wind
Well when I was younger my parents had Solar Panels put on the roof to heat our water.
They sucked. We wound up taking a lot of cold showers.
I beleive the technology has improved since then.
Clothes line outside to use the sun to dry them is solar power. Could save a major amount of power is more people used them.
I don’t like to pay so much to dry jeans, towels so I dry them in the sun and it can actually take less time on the clothes lines than in the dryer.
Caltech built a natural gas turbine to make electricity. With the price of gas up, I don’t know.
(1 cubic foot of gas = 1020BTU
35.3 cubic feet =1 cubic meter= 10.54 KW-Hr.)
If you know the price of your gas you could compare.
i don’t know
I’ve had early experiences and recommend you take a wait and see attitude. If you put something on your roof, then what happens when you need to repair a leak in your roof? You may invest a lot of money in solar and not reap the rewards you expected.
Solar powers have made me drool. I’m wondering when would those goodies come to my country.
well, i fully charged my celluar phone battery with it!
nOT ENPOUH EXPERIANCE WITH IT TO GIVE YOU AN HONEST ANSWER.
The solar panel is a type of rock that can take in solar heat at a very high level. The energy of the heat is taken through a metal line causing energy.
I think solar is such a great idea, and I wish that the price of the cells would come down, I would use it everywhere. When you go off the grid do you have to pay for the line usage? And what if you need to use the grid will the power company charge you huge install fees, as punishment? Good luck, and thanks for caring about the environment
In California the Government pays half the expense.
The Panels have to be cleaned a lot.
It’s so fun.
I have a solar powered calculator.
I lived totally off the grid for the 10 years prior to this. It was a great life. We did have a propane fridge and a gasoline generator for backup when there was a long cloudy period, but with a wind generator we could have done without it.
Anyway, throughout the years there were many times when the community in general had lost power, but we never did.
my experience with solar power was first introduced to me by my science teacher.. it was a solar oven that melted cheese over tacos… yummy…
i have solar panels at home to heat the water for the kitchen, bathroom and pool they are very good and last long the only problem i found was that they are not that efficient when there’s no sun… lol
other wise solar power is perfect for anything!
its a little expensive at first but the benefits are worth it
I worked for a couple of years with a company that produced solar arrays. They mostly sold to the Government for NASA and to Third World Countries which had no real power grid. At the time, about 25 years ago, it was not economical to use solar power in this country, as energy was cheap and easily available. With rising Gas and Oil prices, it well might be worthwhile. Bear in mind, however, that most westerners are addicted to high usage of electricity for all our air conditioners, televisions, VCR’s, DVD players, hair dryers and curling irons, radios, lights on all over the house, etc. It would take some adapting, but I think it could be done. Be aware you would need the room for some pretty big (and not very pretty) solar arrays and they would need access to light every day, like not having a lot of trees about. Not always easy to do. Think about trying to find ways to use less electricity when you set this up, like using flourescent bulbs for electric lights, solar water heaters, and watching water usage. You need to change more than you power source, you need to change a lot of habits, too.
i made a solar ovan and cooked a ot dog that my teacher ate
While I lived in Arizona it worked really well. My friends and I were renting a house and felt a bit uncomfortable but it was a great neighborhood and great deal. About the second day it seemed that the solar power is the same as electricity. And the bill is so inexpensive. I’m a big promoter of using solar energy. At first it may be awkward because its unusual still but it works just as well if not better than electricity. There was a server thunderstorm and the area lost power except those that had solar power.
Love my solar calculator. But I doubt that helps you much. ;0)
I feel hot.. bcoz of the rays of the sun directly hit to the solar panel..
i have a solar powered scale, it annoys me to have to wait for it to be ready as it doesnt store the energy.
solar calculater, school science class, light ,hello i think u should know
We have seven lots and they are lighted with solar lights.
It costs nada except the one time fee for the lights. It is awesome. We want to go completely solar.