Solar Power in WI (how much, house, neighborhood)

[guidoLaMoto]

Anybody using a solar installation here? ... How many panels producing how much juice? I'd like to discuss some particulars.

[brrabbit]

I have 2 guys in the neighborhood having solar. One guy has 16 panels (on the south), he's very frugal, yet has a Chevy Volt. He said his bills are more or less 0 (I think he pays a little, but not much).


Another guy did it himself and has "many" panels (his roof is covered from all sides). He's an electrician, bought panels in China, installed them himself, not connected to the grid, and he says he even uses electric heater pump and he's got enough juice at all times.


I plan to install some, 40 or so. My house is East-West, and I have a few big trees, so I will have majority of panels installed on the Western slope (with a few on Eastern). The hope is to get 14-15 Kwts per year and that should be enough to cover my needs. I am still waiting for the approval, so wait another 3-6 months and I will be able to tell you more of first hand experience.

[guidoLaMoto]

Thanks for the reply...I'm asking because I just put in 2 panels (total 400W capacity) to run my well pump, for water security reasons....The pump only draws 500W from the grid and only needs to run about 5 minutes per day. It also runs at lower draw/voltage on DC, but apparently, if you can't blind yourself by looking at the sun, it doesn't produce enough to work. ...As you may know, WI has had overcast skies for 13 of the last 14 days. Useless.

I could install another 6 panels @~$500 per panel to get enough juice on a cloudy day-- hardly worth it economically just to save 2/3 of one cent per day in grid cost.

Your friend may have 16 panels of 200W which only operate at 10% efficiency here, so, with 3 hrs of usable sun per day in WI across the year, he averages less than one kW-hr per day of production. Average US household averages 30 kW-hr//d of usage. (Even on a cloudless summer day with 5 hrs of sun & 100% efficiency, he only gets 16kW.)

It used to be that a man lied about three things-- his succes with women, the money he earns, and the gas mileage he gets on his car...We can now add a fourth-- how well his solar installation works.

Caveat emptor.

edt-- just checked electrical consumption of Chevy Volt-- 2.7miles per kW-hr https://www.gm-volt.com/threads/elec...y-volt.336525/ on battery alone, but it's a hybrid so you don't "plug it in." The new 2023 will be all electric and gets 4mi per kW-hr. Yoiur buddy must be takiing his car out only for a Sunday push around the block.

[brrabbit]

We had about 2 weeks of "no sun", my security cameras are at 90-100%, so even partial sun gives some juice...

[brrabbit]

I am second guessing my decision to go solar... Mostly, the question comes over whether old house can sustain additional weight of the panels. The old house isn't designed to carry this extra weight.