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Switching To Solar Power – One Month Later
ThinSkin writes "After an interesting article on solar panel installation for the home, Loyd Case at ExtremeTech has written a follow-up after about a month of normal use. Posting an $11.34 electric bill (roughly 3% of previous months), Loyd shares his experiences using solar power and how it can be fun for the geek, with computer monitoring services and power generation data. Of course, solar power isn't all fun and games, given the amount of required maintenance — even unpredictable maintenance, like wiping off accumulated ash from fires in Northern California."
... even though it was raining cats and dogs today. I'm still using it withou
2. Are they bolted on? Any locking mechanisms?
3. Is it easy to climb on to the roof?
4. Do you have good access to a road from the home?
5. When are you planning to take a vacation?
6. Does it have any kind of GPS thingie or Wifi thingie attached that will phone home?
Thanks buddy.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
It's OK, he has Three Dog Night on the iPod.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
1. They are somewhat heavy (50 lbs). They are awkwardly large at 5ftx3ft. Two person job if you don't want to risk a rooftop fall.
2. They are typically bolted on. Uninstall time will be in the several minutes per panel range. Be sure you have an electrician with you to avoid death by electric shock.
3. You can see in the pictures he has a typical roof. Bring a ladder. And a crane if you want an easier time lowering the panels.
4. Yes, see the pictures.
5. Don't know about that one. Probably end of December or next summer.
6. Doubtful.
"Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
No way a panel will last 16-18 years.. Try 2-3. You've got to factor in the price of complete replacecement. Hell, lets say he gets really lucky and they last 10 years.. he's still making a net loss.
He's should've bought like 2 less solar panels and used the money to paint his house some color other than pink.
I prefer that people stick to doing what they do best and thus provide greater wealth to humanity through specialization (as mathematically proven by Ricardo [wikipedia.org]).
You and every banker.
Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
You forgot to engage the hydropower backup generator.
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
I think I saw that on the Red Green show. Only instead of a 12VDC to 120VAC inverter, he tried to use a step up transformer. Which might even work if you hooked up a DPDT toggle switch and jiggled it back and forth 60 times per second...
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
I have no TV. No washing machine. Not even a boiler (my hot water is run off from the power plant). I wash my clothes in a laundromat, I get my TV fix on a cheapo laptop and my lights are LED. I think the only appliance I have that draws any real power is the refrigerator... If I could power the lights and refrigerator on solar I'd have no bills. A trip to the laundromat is also more comfortable than doing it myself, imho. A really pretty Pakistani girl does the hard work and as a sideline I get to chat her up. Not many attractive Asian babes in my basement last time I looked.
But when you're stealing power from the sun, I think you're in the clear for leaving your nightlite on without feeling bad about it.
I think you need to investigate this whole solar thing a little bit.
I'm not not licking toads.
I thinks the Arabs, the Canadians, the Chinese, and the Russians might not appreciate you nationalizing their oil.
Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
Who wants a working healthcare system when you can privatise it
Who wants a working health care system when you can blame greedy corporations and socialize it instead??
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Why would that ever be a problem? They could just drink Brawndo, The Thirst Mutilator. It's got electrolytes, It's got what plants crave.
http://www.brawndo.com/