Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Solar panel installation to generate electric savings for business or residence is a total scam. There are comapnies all around the country with slick materials and smooth talking salesmen who are advancing this ripoff. There is a sucker born every minute and in 2011 they are buying solar panels.
funny you should say that. the former client of mine that is doing it is an electric company. i'm going to go out on a limb and guess that they have a better grasp on whether or no generating power from solar panels is a scam than you do. since, it is how they make money and all.
plwhit - the battery is certainly a concern. but hey, my car is warrantied for around 30-50k depending on which car my family has had. yet every car we've had has gone 200,000 miles. so warranty does not indicate life. as for the cost, it will come down overtime too. maybe not a ton, but by the time people are buying these as replacements, the idea, at least, is that nissan would be rolling more than 40,000 EVs off their lines per year, and would benefit better from economies of scale.
a company i used to have as a client recently line it's roof with solar panels. their breakeven calculation on them for running their office and data center was 3.5-4yrs. i think that's a pretty great investment for any company with an office building and a roof. in 3-4 years, you're basically enjoying free electricity, reducing that cost from your company's profits? that seems like a no brainer to me!
Great sales pitch. Kind of like a used car salesman.
$500 200w solar panel
$.12 per kw from electric company
Assume 5 hours of sun per day and you get 1kw per day.
This solar panel takes 4166 days to pay for. That's 11.4 years. And that's assuming free installation and free wiring/converters.
I had hear they take 10-15 years to get your money returned back in 2000. Looks like things haven't changed much.
im loving the climb in oil prices. the real motivator will be as other forms of energy become more expensive (petroileum) it makes it more reasonable to look into others. however, there are tremendous amounts of petroleum reserves that are untapped because it would be more expensive to extract them. so that is a logical next step. of course, nuclear power and more drilling in our own country and offshore of our own country should also be our next steps. im not really sure at what price of oil would have to be to make it sense to expand things like solar and wind energy, probably more than double what it is now.
The biggest change I think we'll see is in car design.
There have been 100+ mpg cars around for over 20 years. They just aren't that pretty and powerful. If gas is $10/gallon people will choose a less pretty and less powerful car and get the mpg to ensure they can still live out in the suburbs.
A two seater car where you sit in a row (like a fighter jet) should always get 100+mpg with a small engine in it.
The biggest change I think we'll see is in car design.
There have been 100+ mpg cars around for over 20 years. They just aren't that pretty and powerful. If gas is $10/gallon people will choose a less pretty and less powerful car and get the mpg to ensure they can still live out in the suburbs.
A two seater car where you sit in a row (like a fighter jet) should always get 100+mpg with a small engine in it.
yeah, there's a team of EEs (i think that's what they were) in Virginia developing a car that's beyond 100mpg. lightweight materials, more aerodynamic, etc. sacraficing power is a great way to get significant gains in mpg. my tsx is "underpowered", but it's a bit overweight also. but because it's a 4cyl i can get pretty good mileage especially on the highway.
as for the solar panels, i don't know, i'll ask my buddy the details, i'm just telling you what they told me. they are a power company, so i'd like to assume they know what they are talking about. they installed them last year, so i think they also factored in a nice tax break from the fed that reduced the cost.
The biggest change I think we'll see is in car design.
There have been 100+ mpg cars around for over 20 years. They just aren't that pretty and powerful. If gas is $10/gallon people will choose a less pretty and less powerful car and get the mpg to ensure they can still live out in the suburbs.
A two seater car where you sit in a row (like a fighter jet) should always get 100+mpg with a small engine in it.
i havent looked into hybrids in quite some time but i remember a while back seeing the horsepower on them and thinking that if you just took a regular engine with the same pathetic horepower you would have the same gas mileage as the hybrid.
i havent looked into hybrids in quite some time but i remember a while back seeing the horsepower on them and thinking that if you just took a regular engine with the same pathetic horepower you would have the same gas mileage as the hybrid.
not really true though. because the hybrid engine actually shuts the engine off when it's not needed, you're consuming no gas at times. i really like where some manufacturers are going though with the new diesel engines finally coming to the US. i think i would have bought the passat if it was available in diesel when i was shopping. jetta just doesn't do much for me. the diesel engine rode nicely though.
im just comparing the listed mpg's that they were estimating.
i guess it depends on which cars you compare.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
