PV Gap

Marie Said:

A few questions about solar energy for your home?

We Answered:

There are 2 ways of installing solar, you can stay on the grid and get a system that will reduce your bill, that's what I did. Or you can go off the grid, you will need a much larger system and you will need a bank of batteries to store the energy for when the sun isn't shining.

I can tell you that the system I had installed cost $26K, but I got a rebate from my utility of $10K and a fed tax credit of $2K. If you install a system now you will get a fed tax rebate equal to 30% of the installed costs. I have a 2000 sf tri level home and my system generates over 75% of my summer usage and over 50% of my winter usage. That is a savings of over $2K per year. I should break even in 6-7 years, it would have been more like 10 without the rebate. My utility lets my meter run backwards so they are buying back all the energy I produce but don't use. I've only had one day that I didn't really generate any electricity, so even on cloudy or overcast days I get some sun on my panels, it only needs the light so it temperature doesn't matter.

The best thing to do to see what type of system may be right for you and what results you can expect is to have a local licensed contractor come out and give you a no cost, no obligation quote. Your specific site will determine your results. My roof isn't at the best angle, but I'm still getting better results than the contractor quoted me.

Beth Said:

do you have solar heating at your home?

We Answered:

I have a remote summer place that has two 170 watt solar panels for power. They charge a bank of 6 deep-cycle batteries.

The main problem with having this type of setup is that the batteries provider 12 volt DC power. Most things in your house that you want to power are 110 volt AC. This mean you either have to buy a pricey inverter that sits between your batteries and the wiring in your house, or you have to rewire and reequip your house with 12 volt DC fixtures and appliances.

Jerry Said:

Using Solar for your home?

We Answered:

Well basically, you're getting power from the company as normal, but you're also selling them the solar energy you produce. This makes your bill less, or can even make you a profit. By law, energy companies are required to buy your surplus solar energy, so conserving energy will still be good for your finances.

Solar panels can be quite expensive initially, but eventually you'll get the money back in energy savings. Depending on your state/country, you may also be eligible for subsidies which will reduce the cost of solar panels.

Chances are, you're not going to cover your entire roof in solar panels, so the size of your house doesn't matter. What matters is how much energy you use. http://www.solar-electric.com/solar_syst… offers the following way of calculating how much making all of your energy solar will cost you:

"First, take number of KWH shown on your bill. Divide that by 30. That gives you your average daily usage. So if you use 700 KWH, that is 23.3 KWH per day.

Take that number. Divide it by the number of full sun hours you get per day on a yearly average. Multiply it by 1.15. That will give you a pretty close estimate of how many watts of solar panel you need. So if you get 5 hours per day, divide 23.3 by 5 - that gives you 4.66 KW, or 4,666 watts. Multiply that by 1.15, which gives you 5,360 watts of solar panel needed.

Average installed cost of solar electric if you do it yourself is around $7 per watt, or $9 if you have it installed by a licensed contractor. That includes the cost of the panels, inverters, wire, mounts, and other hardware. It does NOT include anything else you might need to pay for, like inspections or extra watt meters by the electric company."

Depending on how much money you've got to spend, you might not be able to make all of your energy solar. This is fine, because any saving is a saving, and all solar energy means reduced environmental impact.

You can find information on subsidies and rebates available to you if you live in the United States at http://www.dsireusa.org/