PV Gap

Clayton Said:

are there any courses you can go on to learn how to fit solar panels to your home or other energy saving stuff

We Answered:

I put up solar panels on my house. It was so simple no class was needed. The panels come with a guide when you buy them, and any carpenter (even hobby level skills) is sufficient to help you.

Gene Said:

Would you put solar panels on your home? and why?

We Answered:

If your house was not built to include solar panels, it may encounter problems that most people do not consider. For example, your neighbor may plant trees nearby and they could shade your panels. Your house may not have good alignment with the sun, so your net hours of sunshine may be too small. If your local planning folks allow panels and your house is oriented properly to the sun and no trees will block the sun, I suspect it will be a good investment long term. Still the up front cost is high.

I feel that common folk like myself would be better served if we could buy shares in our local power company by purchasing a number of panels ... offered and installed by them ... and that we would then get a net monitoring of both our own electrical use and a reduction on our electric bill for the portion of our investment. That way, it seems we could each make a small investment in solar and add to that investment as we earn more money ... and essentially eliminate the need for new centralized power plants.

How many malls does your city have that are completely empty and could be returned to the community as a mini power plant site. My city is loaded with malls that nobody uses anymore. Businesses move and and fail because nobody goes there. They go to the new more sexy malls. Several of these outdated malls have power lines running directly through their empty parking lots. Why not have community solar investments in these sites? Every building could include solar panels and the entire parking lot could be covered with panels. The inside of the building could still be used for other routine purposes. The local power company would be the perfect organizer and maintainer.


This way "solar" would not be so expensive. The cost would be shared by many and so would the rewards.

Diane Said:

What's the easiest way to learn about installing solar panels yourself in your home?

We Answered:

I ran into the same problem! There is so much hype out there that it is hard to know where to turn. I found a really simple solar starter course that posed things in terms that I (having no background or experience in this area) could understand. Here is the link: http://solardiypanel.com/ It actually make it understandable and took the huge amount of information and reduced it to just what I need to know.

Kim Said:

Do you use passive solar panels to help heat your home?

We Answered:

This probably isn't the best answer, but here goes. My father-in-law is an electrician at a nuclear power plant, so he knows more than a bit about transmission, generation, and so forth. He told me it was completely impractical to use passive solar panels to heat your home, BUT he has them rigged up in the back yard to heat his water.

So, I'm afraid I don't really have a solid answer, but I can suggest that you might want to be asking another question.