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Solar panels on your roof?

C

Citadel535

Senior member
I was wondering if anyone has had experience with solar panels on homes roofs. I remember reading about them in popular science and always wanted to do it. I read that batteries were charged during the day to provide power at night and that people could actually power their entire homes off these things.

Has anyone used them?
 
No but my uncle has a solar water heater. It's cheaper than solar panels, and very simple so I imagine maintence is easier too.
 
only in experiments, but for alternate power you need to use them in conjunction with wind generators to be even remotely efficient, the cost for hybrid systems are still too high for the savings. they are excellent if you're off the grid or just have money to burn and like doing things for the environment.
 
I believe it's more efficient to just heat water using solar energy, rather than to try to convert it into electricity. Of course, it can be done.
 
Like a few others said, it might be more cost effective to do solar water heating instead of all solar panels. The problem is with storing the energy - you have to have a lot of very large batteries, and then when you use it you have to convert the DC back to AC which includes a loss.

When we build a new house, what I'm thinking is geothermal, plus solar water heating, plus just enough solar panels to run the heatpump and central air during the day. Then maybe a wind turbine for those overcast days. No batteries involved.
 
Originally posted by: kami333
No but my uncle has a solar water heater. It's cheaper than solar panels, and very simple so I imagine maintence is easier too.
Click to expand...

Most people ahve a mix of the two. Water panels is commonly used to preheat water before it goes into the boiler.

And wait for infer-red solar panel tech to take off. Only in the lab right now about 80% less efficient than the best tech available right now. But in the future, clouds will not be an issue 😉
 
Way too expensive right now. I priced out a system to run my house. Just the panels would be $20,000. Not including batteries and inverters. I think it worked out to 8-10 years to pay it off.
 
We get a considerable government subsidy to put solar hot water heaters in here in Oz 🙂

Solar panels sound a bit crazy hippy to me (and rather complicated)...
 
There are always ads on the radio in Austin for some company called Texas Solar or something. They say their employees all run solar. There is a state or city subsidy for solar panels that makes it cheap.
 
I thought about it, CT has a $5 /kw rebate on them, but even still you'd make more money investing 20k in the market than you would save in electical costs. I still might do it, we'll see...
 
I heard once that people in Cali on the grid with these can actually get negative electic bills for putting more power into the system during the day than they are drawing out at night :shocked:
 
Originally posted by: Citadel535
I was wondering if anyone has had experience with solar panels on homes roofs. I remember reading about them in popular science and always wanted to do it. I read that batteries were charged during the day to provide power at night and that people could actually power their entire homes off these things.

Has anyone used them?
Click to expand...

I'm thinking about getting them installed on my next home. Illinois gives a 50% rebate on solar panels up to $10,000 and a 25% rebate there after. But the question is, how much capacticy can I get for $10,000...
 
Originally posted by: acemcmac
I heard once that people in Cali on the grid with these can actually get negative electic bills for putting more power into the system during the day than they are drawing out at night :shocked:
Click to expand...

I'm sure that would be illegal and dangerous to back feed power onto the outside power lines.
 
Originally posted by: KK
Originally posted by: acemcmac
I heard once that people in Cali on the grid with these can actually get negative electic bills for putting more power into the system during the day than they are drawing out at night :shocked:
Click to expand...

I'm sure that would be illegal and dangerous to back feed power onto the outside power lines.
Click to expand...

Just about everytime I see something on one the homeshow networks that has solar panels in the they talk about how they actually get a check from the powercompany for their excess energy.
 
Originally posted by: KK
Originally posted by: acemcmac
I heard once that people in Cali on the grid with these can actually get negative electic bills for putting more power into the system during the day than they are drawing out at night :shocked:
Click to expand...

I'm sure that would be illegal and dangerous to back feed power onto the outside power lines.
Click to expand...
If done properly, it is neither.. and it can pay.

But realistically .. Ok, here's the jist.

Solar panels are very, very expensive for anything that can generate a decent ammount of power. Expect to pay at least 3$/watt, installation not included.

You need to live in an area with a lot of sunlight to even think about generating enough electricty for there to be an excess.

Unless you're rich and can afford a huge array.. in which case you probably don't care about your electric bill in the first place....
 
Solar panels are economically advantagous in regions where electricity is charged at a higher rate during peak usage hours (when solar generation is greatest) than at night. In addition, your locale must have a law requiring the electric company to buy power from you at the retail rate, rather than their cost. For people who meet those two requirements, solar panels pay off big time. During the summer of the major shortages caused by enron, panels would have paid for themselves like right away. Remember, they last about 30 years so a ten year payoff period is still more profitable than most savings accounts or other investments if you have the bank to front the money.

It would be worthwhile to support local laws favoring solar usage first, and then buy them when those laws pass.
 
Originally posted by: 2cpuminimum
Solar panels are economically advantagous in regions where electricity is charged at a higher rate during peak usage hours (when solar generation is greatest) than at night. In addition, your locale must have a law requiring the electric company to buy power from you at the retail rate, rather than their cost. For people who meet those two requirements, solar panels pay off big time. During the summer of the major shortages caused by enron, panels would have paid for themselves like right away. Remember, they last about 30 years so a ten year payoff period is still more profitable than most savings accounts or other investments if you have the bank to front the money.

It would be worthwhile to support local laws favoring solar usage first, and then buy them when those laws pass.
Click to expand...
That's something I forgot to mention..

It would have to be seen as an investment, since it would take quite a few years to pay yourself back.

I don't know anything about these local programs, so you're on your own as far as that goes.. Sounds very promising though.

Solar isn't a very viable option here in western Oregon, for the most part..
 
Bunch of ignorance in this thread. A ton of people have them in my county, especially inland.

Personally, we have water heating panels, and they'll heat the water hotter than your normal gas/electric water heater (hot enough to melt pipe insulation).
 
Originally posted by: Eli
Originally posted by: KK
Originally posted by: acemcmac
I heard once that people in Cali on the grid with these can actually get negative electic bills for putting more power into the system during the day than they are drawing out at night :shocked:
Click to expand...

I'm sure that would be illegal and dangerous to back feed power onto the outside power lines.
Click to expand...
If done properly, it is neither.. and it can pay.

But realistically .. Ok, here's the jist.

Solar panels are very, very expensive for anything that can generate a decent ammount of power. Expect to pay at least 3$/watt, installation not included.

You need to live in an area with a lot of sunlight to even think about generating enough electricty for there to be an excess.

Unless you're rich and can afford a huge array.. in which case you probably don't care about your electric bill in the first place....
Click to expand...

Dunno about over there. But there are programs here in Australia where you can pump power back in to the grid. If you live in a sunny area, you might even be able to make a profit (highly unlikely though). As others have said, cost is extremely high and from memory, 10 years is the time it takes to recover you're initial investment. Which I don't think is worth it, as we'll likely have tech out before 10 years which will be far superior etc etc etc.
 
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