Solar Power in NH (lease, how much, house)

[SolarMan]

HI,

I just discovered this forum researching solar power for my house in NH.

i was wondering if anyone here uses solar power on their house and if they are completely off the grid.

also if anyone knows of any sites about solar in NH could they please post them, im looking for the average # of sunny days in nh.

looking forward to hearing about your success/failure stories

[buck naked]

we are passive solar - the heat does not come on at all on sunny days during winter - that's a big savings in the oil bill


we have considered adding solar panels, but we are not there yet

[SolarMan]

so are all your windows rigged?

and how many years do you think it will take until you are not paying it off anymore and saving money


Update soon NH will pay 30% of the cost of full off the grid solar on your house.

[JMX]

The one site I know of is the New Hampshire Sustainable Energy Assoc.
New Hampshire Sustainable Energy Association

[countrylv22]

JMX Thank you for posting this link! I appreciate it!


SOLAR MAN Thank you for posting this thread!


I am also looking forward to what people have to say about this.

By the way, I saw a special once, on the HISTORY channel, I think it was

"Modern Marvels". And they mentioned a couple of interesting facts, It would

only take 1/10 of the size of Nevada with solar panels, to power the entire

country. The other example they gave, was with wind mills in North Dakota &

South Dakota, that would also power the entire country. That sounds pretty

cool!

So my question is, to all of you who are well versed on this, WHY ARE WE

NOT doing this yet?

What are the reasons (sorry for my ignorance on the subject )

Also, if I would install solar panels in a house, how many would I need, if I

need to be on my computer for about 8 hours or so a day.

Lets say the house is 2000 square feet. Does anyone know the cost

on this? I asked about this a long time ago in another part of this forum (not

NH), and was told it was expensive, but I did not get any details.

I am also curious if the people in NH are really involved with this, and if they

are happy with it.


Anyway, thank you so much !

Countrylv22

Originally Posted by JMX

The one site I know of is the New Hampshire Sustainable Energy Assoc.
New Hampshire Sustainable Energy Association

[countrylv22]

Thank you for your post!

I was wondering, if its not too personal. If you do not mind.

What is your annual heating bill like $$ ??

What is the size of your house, square feet & or bedrooms as well?

Thank you for your input!

Countrylv22

Originally Posted by buck naked

we are passive solar - the heat does not come on at all on sunny days during winter - that's a big savings in the oil bill


we have considered adding solar panels, but we are not there yet

[SolarMan]

there was a formula that i was given to calculate about how much an off the grid system would cost.
we use 570 killawats a month andf it would cost us like 44 grand to be off the grid.

if i - the 30% NH will take off starting jan1 its like 37 grand
but thats totally off the grid

[Aerobars]

Originally Posted by countrylv22

It would only take 1/10 of the size of Nevada with solar panels, to power the entire country. So my question is, to all of you who are well versed on this, WHY ARE WE NOT doing this yet?

Well, quite simply cost. Here's one estimate that generating solar power costs about $0.30/kWh. This is 2-5x what residential electricity currently costs. To construct something of this scale would be nearly impossible. A solar array of 1/10 the area of Nevada would be 29,000 km^2 (or 29,000,000,000 m^2). According to one website (take it for what it's worth) solar cells cost about $16,000 for 26m^2. Therefore this power project (for the cells alone) would cost $17,846,153,846,153 (that's more than 17 trillion dollars). The GDP for the US in 2006 was $13.13 trillion. So, the US would have to devote the entire work efforts of the entire country for over a year to fund this project. Then we have to build more massive infrastructure to get the power from Nevada to the rest of the country (not included in the cost estimate above). And our entire national power generation capability would be in one spot (can you say target for terrorists, foreign countries who try to attack, etc). So, why not spread the solar cells out? Well, it isn't as sunny in most places as it is in Nevada, so we'd need more solar cells.

Nuclear power costs about $0.02-$0.04/kWh. What we should be doing is building more nuclear power plants.


Sources:

Howstuffworks "How many solar cells would I need in order to provide all of the electricity that my house needs?"
Solar Photovoltaic Industry Cost and Price Trends

[GregW]

There have recently been a couple of basic solar/wind articles inn Fine Homebuilding and other magazines. IIRC home size solar will cost around $30,000 and have a payback time of over 20 years.

Basic Advice – If you have cheap access to or are hooked to the grid stay hooked up. This is the cheapest energy storage and government subsidy generator available. Site, design and build house to use as much passive solar as possible. Cut electricity use as much as possible. Learn to live with your location and be prepared to be a bit chilly in the winter and hot in the summer.

Areobars - I’ll second the nuclear power of we add complete fuel recycle and a couple of full size breeder reactors. There is plenty of raw uranium in the ash piles of our coal-fired power plants to run the country forever.

Why we are not pushing foe more alternates just look at what happened when Regan was elected and the Saudi’s dropped the bottom out of oil prices. We will have alternates when Exxon can lease the sun and wind to us for their profit.

[buck naked]

our home was built in 2004 - it's 1800 feet, a 3 bedroom ranchstyle home - it's hard to compare $$ spent because of the rise in fuel costs - however, the first year we had 4 fills on the tank

[SIZE=-0] we installed storms on the sliders, resulting in radiant heat resulting from sunlight admitted directly to the living spaces through south-facing windows, which warms the interior surfaces (walls, furniture, floors, etc.). [/SIZE]

currently we are down to 3 fills per year on a 250 gallon tank - we keep the thermostat set at 62 and wear sweaters in the evenings


at the cost of today's fuel, that is a savings of $600 annually right off the top