PV Gap

Myrtle Said:

how much would it cost to power a 1000 sqft. home with a solar system 100%.?

We Answered:

It's a common misconception that residential solar system sizing is based on the size of your house. In fact, the best way to determine this would be to take a look at your electricity bill. You are looking for the number of kilo-watt hours (kWh) that your home uses per month. It would be best if you could look at a bill that possibly has a bit of "history" on it, showing your usage over a year so that you could get a good idea of your average energy usage per month. If you don't have a power bill to go off of, you can always do a loads list calculation and figure how much electricity you would need to generate.

http://www.altestore.com/store/calculato…

The next factor that will come into play is the location of your home. Each location on the planet has an average "solar insolation value". This will be the average amount of "noon day sun" that your home gets each day.

These are the two factors that will determine the size and cost of a residential solar system. Incorporating batteries into a system of this size can be very expensive ($3000-$40,000 for the batteries alone) and could require monthly maintenance.

A ballpark cost for one of these systems would be anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 depending on your usage and solar resource. If you want to get a better idea of a system that would power your own home, plug your info into an online calculator.

http://www.altestore.com/store/calculato…

Howard Said:

what is the cost of a solar system sufficient to run my meter backwards?

We Answered:

For my house it is about $50,000! But if you don't use any electricity in your house, even a cheap 1 watt solar panel could slowly run your meter backwards. All that is needed is for the solar panels to make more electricity that you are using. So it all depends on how much electricity you use. But if you even have a meter, you are connected to the grid, so it would be wrong to say that you were independent of the grid. To be truly independent you would need a giant bank of batteries to store up extra electricity from sunny days to use at night and on cloudy days. In that case, you would have no meter to run backwards. See the source.

Nina Said:

what does it cost to add a solar powered system to a 2100 sq ft home?

We Answered:

You weren't very specific so I don't know if you mean for hot water or heat or electricity. Also your location is important because your climate greatly affects the efficiency of a solar system.

If you want a solar powered house you must super insulate and have a back up system so you still need all utility connections. You can sell excess electricity back to your power provider.

In addition to the increased insulation costs the system will cost about $18,000 to $22,000 and provide about 60 to 80 percent of your energy depending on your location.

Timothy Said:

what is the best solar panel system for a small home?

We Answered:

We had a solar hot water heater in Phoenix Arizona and our water heater didn't run until the dead of winter.
I don' know the brand.