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I have a obvious question, why doesn't everyone have solar electricity? There are so many advantages but obviously it has to be the initial cost start up which makes it difficult to purchase the system. I have tried to get a quote but they all of the companies want to give me an estimate over the phone. It is very annoying as I want someone to come out to my home for the estimate. Can you please let me know your experiences with the system and would you recommend it?
I have a obvious question, why doesn't everyone have solar electricity? There are so many advantages but obviously it has to be the initial cost start up which makes it difficult to purchase the system. I have tried to get a quote but they all of the companies want to give me an estimate over the phone. It is very annoying as I want someone to come out to my home for the estimate. Can you please let me know your experiences with the system and would you recommend it?
They absolutely have to come out to your home!
I don't have solar because of all the taller houses around me............and huge trees! Also the fact that the ridgeline runs N/S.........with really only the east facing roof getting any sunlight at all and not enough of it to make the investment worthwhile. And there is no yard space for a ground array.
I have solar for my well and probably, eventually, solar to recharge the main batteries for my gate opener. For stand alone, remote systems, photo-electric cells rather make sense and are not that complicated to install.
But, a thing or two or three. Just as some things on the ranch have solar, so they might have wind. As it might be, I will probably eventually have wind of some kind, if only to have another system around, perhaps to recharge emergency storage batteries.
Secondly, realize there are at least 3 theories to solar power. Photo-electric cells, heat exchange, and kinetic liquid head. Heat exchange is like "any" boiler system where water or a fluid is heated and the heat is transferred to another fluid to run a turbine (complicated) or perhaps just to heat the house.
Kinetic fluid head is the one I rather find fascinating. Heat a liquid such as water to evaporation. Send it up a conduit to a tank where it condenses back into liquid. When power is needed, open the valve so the height produces kinetic energy by turning a turbine and then the liquid flows back to the heating tank to start the process again.
The advantage is that the question about solar power is what do you do when the sun isn't shining and this method has that answer. The disadvantage is that unlike the other methods, this requires some significant engineering and probably some decent amounts of land.
Finally, to be totally solar and be off the grid? That would be "nice" but probably would draw some unwanted attention in one's bureaucratic world. Buy at least some of their power.
I have a obvious question, why doesn't everyone have solar electricity? There are so many advantages but obviously it has to be the initial cost start up which makes it difficult to purchase the system. I have tried to get a quote but they all of the companies want to give me an estimate over the phone. It is very annoying as I want someone to come out to my home for the estimate. Can you please let me know your experiences with the system and would you recommend it?
'Buy-in' is expensive. Our solar-power system cost us a lot, though it cost 1/4 of the lowest quote from any professional installer. I did it mostly myself instead. When you deal with an installer the mark-up is huge.
Once you decide to do it, there is a learning curve. After it is installed the learning curve continues, as you modify your lifestyle to your system.
No two systems are identical. I live in a town of 230 people, in our town there are four homes on solar-power. Each of these four homes did it completely different. I bought my E-panel pre-wired from a company that markets DIY systems. They assemble / market 30 different sizes and styles of systems. There is no one-size-fits-all system. Do you want to go 'off-grid'? Or 'grid-tied'? Or 'grid-assist'?
One feature that is really going to kick us 20-years from now, is when these various homes have all been sold to their second or third home-owners. You could look in a tract-housing development, at 10 identical homes with 10 different families living in them. Each of those homes will have different electric bills. There is no 'standard' or average amount of usage. When you and I tailor a system to be compatible for our lifestyle, it will not be compatible to anyone else' lifestyle.
I am on two solar-power forums. When a new poster comes along and begins asking questions, the conversation starts with "How much electricity do you currently consume"?
You start to go onto solar-power by reviewing your energy consumption, and modifying your lifestyle by reducing your consumption. That is the first real step. Even when you done, do you consume 1.000 watts per day? Do you consume 1,000 Kilo-watts per day? Or do you consume 5,000 Kilo-watts per day?
There are families who fall into each of these different categories.
We have been on solar-power now for 6 weeks. So far we like it.
... Secondly, realize there are at least 3 theories to solar power. Photo-electric cells, heat exchange, and kinetic liquid head. Heat exchange is like "any" boiler system where water or a fluid is heated and the heat is transferred to another fluid to run a turbine (complicated) or perhaps just to heat the house.
Kinetic fluid head is the one I rather find fascinating. Heat a liquid such as water to evaporation. Send it up a conduit to a tank where it condenses back into liquid. When power is needed, open the valve so the height produces kinetic energy by turning a turbine and then the liquid flows back to the heating tank to start the process again.
I have to build a new pig barn before winter sets in. I designed this new structure to give me a roof that I can use next year for a solar-thermal array. It is an East-West aligned building with it's Southern roof set at 22-degrees for optimum Winter Solstice efficiency ?
I need to reduce our heating bill. We consume a little over 3 cords of firewood each winter, I hope to reduce that to less than one cord.
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... Finally, to be totally solar and be off the grid? That would be "nice" but probably would draw some unwanted attention in one's bureaucratic world. Buy at least some of their power.
That is a good point. I can see wisdom in the idea that if you did have a home with grid access, it might be smart to have a meter and use a little grid power from time to time.
One of our neighbors installed a grid-tied net-metering system a year ago. Very expensive system, it is interesting talking with them, to see how much their monthly expense has gone up.
The installers who marketed this, start with the idea of looking at your average monthly electric bill and setting up the financing at that exact amount [plus interest].
Then after it is all installed, your meter is retro-fitted to a meter capable of spinning forwards and backwards, logging all of this and communicating back to the power company. Which is a more expensive meter, which requires a higher month connection fee.
So while they have the previous year's monthly bills all held in a file, and they know the average of what they had been paying before. What they are paying now is higher.
The couple are both college professors, they decided to go net-metering because it would be green and save-the-world. They are happy to be paying more for that purpose.
Of everyone had solar then the power companies would go broke. They don't like that idea.
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