PV Gap

Daryl Said:

do solar panels save you money and if they do how much off your monthly electric bill?

We Answered:

You can buy a solar system as big or as small as you need.

The problem (in the US anyway) is that photovoltaic systems are so expensive that they take many years to pay for themselves.

In the US, there are many rebates and tax incentives that you can take advantage of that will lower your cost of installing this kind of system, but they often still have a very long payback.

For information on rebates that are available, check out the first website below. It lists incentives for each US state.

I would call a solar installer near you and ask them for prices and paybacks. I've listed two good resources for finding solar installers. One is a certifying organization that certifies installers to show that they actually know what they are doing. The other is a referral service that lists feedback from other purchasers to let you know what they thought of the installer.

Great question.

Erika Said:

Which are the lightest, available solar panels at the moment?

We Answered:

Rule of Thumb for sizing Solar Panels: figure out the average current draw of the remote device that you need to power in Milliamps (MA). We're assuming a 12 VDC system. Pick a solar panel with a current rating of at least 10 times this number. Example: your remote Solar Panels device draws 6 MA average. Pick a solar panel of at least 60MA output current, or to calculate power (watts) would be 60MA x 12 VDC = 720 MW which is 7.2 watts so a 10 watt panel will work great for this system.
Current weight is 3.3 lbs.
http://www.rickly.com/gsa/SolarPanels.ht…