Home Solar System

Nice with solar system, DRL 
 

Zargg
Nice with solar system, DRL 

Thanks, Zargg. I'm getting stoked about it!
 
Than

craigb
Someday, I'd like to have a house with a running stream I can tap into.  Wind power is FAR more efficient than solar (though unpredictable, like solar), but hydro power is almost 1,000 times better than wind!
 
(Can you tell I used to be part of an Alternative Energy startup?)

 
There are too many neighbor's trees for wind to be viable for me. A water wheel would be nice although a lot of maintenance. Kinda hard in an urban setting too. Geothermal is a possibility but very expensive for a residential install.

paulo
It wouldn't fit in my house.

Yeah, I need to quit using that term as I am getting razzed about it. :)

The man who designed my house designed it to benefit from passive solar heating. There is an enormous double height room with floor to ceiling window that is impossible to heat with the installed radiant ceiling system, and all the windows face south. Unfortunately he neglected to figure in that in the Puget Sound area, sunlight in the winter is short in duration and generally absorbed by cloud cover. Gets toasty in the summer though. I expect my payback for solar electric including purchase and maintenance would probably be longer than my remaining lifespan, and it would be considerably less green as a power source than the plentiful hydroelectric sources in my region.

I keep saying I'm going to do a solar water pre-heat system ...

webbs hill studio
hey slart,
8.4kw is an impressive array-we cope with 4.0kw.but require some biodiesel generator backup in winter.
 
you don`t mention storage though as with a Tesla Powerwall or similiar you could be totally independant of the grid and all that encompasses.
not breaking even, in your (and my)lifetime is a pity but divorcing yourself from fossil fuels is probably the most effective means of preserving this planet and a good example to others,although when there is a blackout around here there is no shortage of visitors for hot showers etc... .
solar can be problematic and you do need to tailor your energy use but it is not as challenging as Big Oil makes it out to be.
 
what i don`t get is the lack of Wave Power-unlike wind or solar,the tides do not stop turning-perpetual motion-why hasn`t this gained traction-anyone know why?

 
Well, hydroelectric is solar power--or how does the water get to the clouds. Replacing that with bio-diesel does not make a lot of economic or environmental sense. How much carbon to make a diesel engine and aluminum supports for your solar array, let alone the batteries? If the distant air quality management district would permit it, many of my neighbors would be burning their woodlots (also solar) all winter. Wave power certainly does have possibilities, but it can have some pretty negative effects on the local ocean habitat, although probably nowhere near as environmentally destructive as damming rivers has proven to be.
 
The grid encompasses some of the best qualities of the human population's ability to cooperate to provide efficiently for necessities. It is largely the independent attitude of controlling and maximizing one's own interests, which the off-the-grid mentality embodies, that makes the climate change deniers seem like champions of the common man. Like the argument over using the train or owning your own motor vehicles to move freight, a well managed power grid is potentially much more valuable as a device for saving the planet than every man for himself power generation, which is not even an option for the more than half of us who live in city slums or high rises. Coupled with nuclear generation the grid is the only way that we are likely to see sufficient power generation without carbon emission to effectively reverse the rise in global temperature in the short time available. Even if you believe that intermittent cheap power from wind, waves or sun can meet real world needs, the ability to distribute that power using ulta-high voltage transmission would be more efficient than local storage of all of the power produced. And the economic effect of taking a significant number of users off the grid in a world where helping one's fellow man is only an unintended consequence of making a profit, could make capitalizing grid improvements problematic, and raise the cost of energy to everyone who still depends on a distribution system.
 
 
Big Coal has fallen under the weight of the reality that the cost of maintaining the equipment that burns their product adds enough to its dirt cheap price that is is not competitive with the plentiful natural gas that fracking can produce. The myth of clean coal seems to have all but disappeared from the public discourse in the face of that reality. Big Oil has a serious economic problem, in that they currently own enough fossil fuel that if they were to sell all of their underground property, the thermal tipping point would be overshot. While fighting a retreat with lobbying and propaganda they recognize the risk that enough people will eventually realize that the black gold has to stay untapped to produce some kind of regulation that will force them to book their losses. Lately Big Oil has become Big Gas and is hawking the fact that methane and its relatives have a higher hydrogen to carbon ratio than oil to push their product. And they have begun to diversify and move into a new market in renewable technology and a new role as Big Green, and see themselves as benefiting from the same regulations they were fighting tooth and nail against just a decade ago. 
 
Of course if all of us were simply willing to hunker down at home and watch the pipes freeze, or sweat profusely when necessary the issue would be more rapidly resolved, but try convincing everyone that they do not need to live comfortably in today's modern world of the future and should instead return to a pre-industrial world. Try even convincing them that the way they live is the cause of the rise in temperature, or the acidification of the oceans, which has potentially lethal consequences that are generally not even part of the discussion. I am not saying that individual action is not important in the human generated climate fiasco, but the benefits of individuals investing in off the grid generation may be overstated.
 
 

slart, I agree that mass electricity generation and distribution is much more efficient. But, as an aside, the local utilities here in Texas are providing incentives for solar and wind as it is good for them too. Most of the demand around here comes in the hottest part of the days for HVAC. In that instance, solar is ideal to help fill in at peak demand. The city (as a local utility co-op type thing) is also investing in mega kW solar arrays as well.
 
Strangely, Big Oil has not put up much of a fight here. And, you probably know that Texas is Big Oil country. Since so much natural gas has been found they are moving more toward it. They are also getting more efficient with new  drilling and extraction methods so they can produce oil and gas cheaper. They are using robotics and automation more and more on drilling rigs.
 
As to going off-grid, I would like to be able to do so. If the city would allow it I would want about 4 more kw and a storage solution. The city requires all buildings to have electrical service so that prevents me from going completely off-grid. I also know it is not for everyone. I lucked into the situation as I own the house and it has a fairly large, due-south facing roof area and the pitch of the roof is -4 degrees difference from my latitude. And, to be honest, my intent was not so much to be green conscious as it was greed by paying less for electricity. Maybe a little feel good factor for going green but, as an individual, almost useless for any real carbon saving or impact on the environment.