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."

Comments

Solar is not a good choice if you want to save $

[shaitand]

I hate articles like this because they mislead people. Solar is NOT a way to save money and every sucker who is drawn in by this idea will be turned off solar for a long time.

These kind of articles always ignore the real costs and usually just look at the cost of the panels. But the panels aren't the only consideration, you have to consider the cost of the battery bank and the cost of replacing the batteries periodically. You won't get the full life out the batteries either, that constant charge and discharge is going to reduce the capacity of those batteries quickly.

The other cost is both in terms of economics and comfort. To actually be able to come close to living on that small solar output you are going to need to install all new appliances and run a water heater that will deliver luke warm water at best. You are going to have to come to terms with being frugile with power in almost action you take from there on in.

Re:Why can't he sell it back?

[nido]

I don't understand the reasoning for such a restriction, since the possibility of selling more than you buy would encourage wider adoption.

This is the reason. There are three problems with individuals (citizens, if you prefer) persuing their own personal Energy Liberation. One is easily solvable; the other two are not.

Freedom from the electric company is one aspect of Liberation Theology; Valcent Products' technology offers the possibility of a BioDiesel Cooperative, where individuals could buy a "plastic bag" to hang at the local Algae Farm, completely cutting Wall Street out of the transportation energy marketplace. (There are other options coming down the pipe to cut Big Oil out of the picture -- I'm just listing this one because it's the most direct substitution I've yet heard about.)

1. As the cost of energy plummets from the commodity rate (where you pay for every watt-hour/gallon consumed) to the ... investment level (where you pay once, and for irregular maintenance), individuals will have a lot more time on their hands... How will they spend their time, if they don't have to spend so much time to pay for energy (heating, light, transportation - I believe the statistic is 500 calories of energy to get 1 strawberry from California to New York in the winter)?
2. Government revenues will fall like a rock. With people working less, income taxes receipts will fall like a brick. However will the government motivate us to slave away if we don't have to?

   Also, a good chunk (300 billion?) of federal revenue comes from leasing lands containing hydrocarbons to Wall Street. Once we've cut Wall Street out of the picture, there goes that honeypot. How will the U.S. Federal Government finance the interest on the money supply, much less station troops on bases and outposts in 100+ countries?

3. Utility companies have traditionally paid good dividends. How will we support people whose incomes depend on those dividends? With significantly reduced cost of living, pensioners won't be a big problem. But private golf courses don't mow themselves...

I'm sure there are other problems with Energy Liberation, but these are just the three I've been thinking about...

penny smart pound dumb

[timmarhy]

"That installation would have cost a bit more than $50K, but the price would have dropped to around $38K after the rebate."

so i saved a few hundred dollars a year but had to spend 38K ????? what the hell is the point. PV can't ever replace base load power sources.

note i'm not entirely against solar, there has been some interesting work done with molten salt which is cheap tech. the problem is nothing using that process can generate enough power. i think our future lies in something like solar thermal salt and nuke stations simmering away providing the base load, turning them up if weather prevents the solar thermal handling the peaks.

Re:Eh

[Reality Master 101]

The payback time, assuming energy costs don't spike steeply, is a little under nine years. If we sell the house, we should get it all back immediately.

If he thinks someone is going to pay a 36K premium (1/3 of the price of an entire house in some areas of the country), he is completely insane. He'll be lucky to get an extra $5 to $10K, if he's not lucky, it'll reduce the value because of the lack of attractiveness.

Re:your SUV

[Reality Master 201]

My, my - aren't we tetchy? That's quite a lot of self-justifying and pontificating in response to to such a small original comment.

You do a lovely little reductio ad absurdum at the end, though, with the "list all the areas in your glass house in which you expend energy to make your life better," bit. That's nice.

If you want to be green..

[HockeyPuck]

Instead of spending $36k on a solar array, why not take your $36k and spend it on planting trees.

I don't understand

[edbarbar]

My neighbor just installed 22 solar panels, he says they will pay off in 7 years, but I don't see how it makes sense, except for government subsidies.

He says half the cost was just in the installation, then some percentage of the remainder is the brackets, wiring etc., and finally the solar panels themselves. Compare this to a massive installation.

There is only 7% transmission line loss, and I would imagine a solar installation of scale would cost 1/5th per kwh of what my neighbor did, plus they can store heat for use over the night.

So how does this make sense? It turns out he is getting 25% back from the federal govt., and PG&E pays him .36cents per KWH he feeds back into the grid. That's an insane amount of money. He gets to use the grid as a battery, and gets the consumer cost of .36c for the privilege.

The whole thing is silly, IMO. It just jacks up others rates by making a phony market.