East of the Mississippi North of Tenn. Solar Power Questions

[OneWheelBiting]

I am looking to sell my home in town here to move out to the country. I have 150 acres already but it is in Timber and faces north. I plan to buy more land that faces south. I know I can go without electric/gas heat, I know I can go without electric hot water heater but without wood I don't know. My main needs are home office laptop, sat internet, and fax machine. as for lighting I think switching to LED's will help. Any how I am aiming at keeping the total install cost under $20k I don't want trackers. Help. Warranty is important....longer life over higher power is better for me. 15 year plus equipment only...

[Jack Parr]

Curious here? Land that faces north? How so?

I would think that land faces all directions, or omni directional.

Are you intending to mean that your house faces north? and should face south.

Like I said, just curious.

[OneWheelBiting]

you my friend have never been to elkhorn city ky(that pike co). it is so steep that in the winter the sun doesn't shine on the slope I own more then 2 hours at peek some days. If it snows a foot I have it for weeks when others around have it for days. grade is a average of 40 degrees......a lot of cut and fill to build there anyway that is why I will be building somewhere else.

[BigBoy]

Just my opinion and not answering your question, but... I don't know a lot about solar but I've decided (for myself) that it is just too expensive to get much practical use out of right now.
Have you considered a generator and a small bank of batteries? I've spent a lot of time at http://www.utterpower.com/ lately and I really like this idea. For about 25% of solar you can have a setup that will give you as much kilowatts as most city dwellers use. Run all day on a couple of gallons of diesel or biodiesel OR just run a couple hours a day on a pint or so to power the high powered appliances and to charge the batteries. By the way, this is a setup that could run 24/7 for decades. Not a lightweight gas generator.
Just something to think about! And it's an informative website!

[OneWheelBiting]

I lived on a boat for a few years. When charging a bank of batts you will be using way more then a pint. You will be using a gallon a hour under load with a 20hp genset 7.5kw or so. For $20k I can do solar with enough power and storage to run my shop and home for 5 sunless days without starting a genset. no power bills and a monthly savings of $350.00 at todays rates. Which works to a pay off on the costs of install in under 60 months....everyday after that it's free power. I will be using 15 year warranty plus equipment to help put my costs even lower.

[mightybooboo]

Originally Posted by OneWheelBiting

I lived on a boat for a few years. When charging a bank of batts you will be using way more then a pint. You will be using a gallon a hour under load with a 20hp genset 7.5kw or so. For $20k I can do solar with enough power and storage to run my shop and home for 5 sunless days without starting a genset. no power bills and a monthly savings of $350.00 at todays rates. Which works to a pay off on the costs of install in under 60 months....everyday after that it's free power. I will be using 15 year warranty plus equipment to help put my costs even lower.

I would think only 2 hours of sunlight would make solar very impractible.Any way you can possibly get out of the shadows?2 hours on my motorhome does very little.
Plus I dont think in any way 20 thou worth of solar will produce 350/month worth of power.Please elaborate on that.

BooBoo

[OneWheelBiting]

you must not have read where I will be buying a new property to build on with better light in winter. And as for your motor home you might have 500watts of panels on it which would be a huge setup for it. For my house I will be running 3000 watts of panels, and a set of rolls batts, plus when we build everything that can go will go.....Nothing but LED lights, solar fridges, wood heat, everything we can do to keep the house as low on the power requirement scale as we can. Our only big draw back is we will be building with 8x12 square eastern red cedar logs I milled up this past summer.

[mightybooboo]

Still dont see that at 350 month.Not to argue with you,maybe someone else will comment,I could be wrong,but dont think so.
Are you saying you will reduce your consumption by 300/month?That might make sense then.
Also not trying to rain on your parade,im a strong advocate of solar.

Lets wait for some others to chime in.

3000 watts,thats a nice setup!It will run your house with your savings in use,you will even be able to do better than LED bulbs with that much power.You should be very comfortable,but not 350 dollars worth,not from what Ive read.

BooBoo

[OneWheelBiting]

If electric to run my home on rural service is $350 a month and I go with solar I am saving $350 a month. $350 divided into $20000.00 is 57 or so. Which would mean my solar system becomes free to own after 57 months. But since the price of electric goes up with each day I would say the pay off would come quicker.....Plus no power outages in bad weather like ice, snow, and flooding.

[Fire-Man]

Originally Posted by OneWheelBiting

If electric to run my home on rural service is $350 a month and I go with solar I am saving $350 a month. $350 divided into $20000.00 is 57 or so. Which would mean my solar system becomes free to own after 57 months. But since the price of electric goes up with each day I would say the pay off would come quicker.....Plus no power outages in bad weather like ice, snow, and flooding.

What Mightybooboo is saying Is you are not going to be able to produce $350 worth of electricity per month with 3000 watts of panels. You said you didn't need trackers so lets play with some numbers here------if your 3000 watts of panels had Some GREAT days and produced 30'000 watts or 30 kilowatts per day-------here a kilowatt cost 11 cent, so that would be a little over $3 per day---about $100 per month tops------unless you are paying ALOT more per killowatt, that is if you could get 30k per day. I think you are saying if you get on solar you will be saving $350 per month, but I feel you know that your lifestyle will be alot different---you will have to cut WAY back on your electric Usage or you are going to have a Large Gas Bill each month. I live good with only 1500 watts of panels, but I had to make alot of changes and some of my panels are on trackers---I only produce app $35 to $45 per month during the summer. But I would Say-----------Go For It!! Randy

[BigBoy]

Originally Posted by OneWheelBiting

I lived on a boat for a few years. When charging a bank of batts you will be using way more then a pint. You will be using a gallon a hour under load with a 20hp genset 7.5kw or so. For $20k I can do solar with enough power and storage to run my shop and home for 5 sunless days without starting a genset. no power bills and a monthly savings of $350.00 at todays rates. Which works to a pay off on the costs of install in under 60 months....everyday after that it's free power. I will be using 15 year warranty plus equipment to help put my costs even lower.

On the fuel usage, I can only go by what the guy that uses and sells these prints. It's obvious you didn't check the website. The engine used is a slow speed single or twin cylinder Lister style diesel, not a high speed Onan or whatever. I looked back at his site and I was a little low on the usage. They average between 1 and 2 quarts per hour according to the load. It's a totally different engine (and head) than what you had on the boat.

[OneWheelBiting]

I have check a lot of websites....pint nothing....lived aboard a 34 ft sailboat and I am telling you will use way more then a pint to charge a battery bank.

$350 a month in eletric for us on the rural program where we are is only 700KW a month of usage....So I will see a return...My biggest item as for usage goes is my woodworking equipment.

[OneWheelBiting]

BTW the engine on my boat was a westerbake 2cyl. idled about 600 rpm.

[mightybooboo]

I agree,it takes a lot to charge a battery bank,you can only put in so much at a time.

I paid 7.6 /Kw last bill,you are paying 50 CENTS/Kw???????

Thats crazy.

BooBoo

[OneWheelBiting]

In our rural electric co-op you pay out the nose for electric if your a business like I am.

[Fire-Man]

Originally Posted by OneWheelBiting

In our rural electric co-op you pay out the nose for electric if your a business like I am.

If you are Paying 50 cents per kilowatt--------I would have been on solar a long time ago-------Thats a Unheard of Rip Off around here-----------I do have a business here and that is why I have to pay 11 cents p/kil---It is cheaper for a residence---Like Booboo at 7.6 cent in some places. Randy

[BigBoy]

Let me correct the one sentence that is such a problem. I did say pint where I should have said quart but I cleared that up on the last post, I thought, but I see you still are using the word pint. So...

Instead of..."Run all day on a couple of gallons of diesel or biodiesel OR just run a couple hours a day on a pint or so to power the high powered appliances and to charge the batteries."

It should have been... "Run all day (24 hours) on between 6.6 and 9.9 gallons of fuel (depending on load. U.S. liquid measure. Either diesel or biodiesel B10-B100) or just a couple of hours (120 minutes) on 2.2 to 3.3 quarts to power the higher wattage appliances or tools. (Washing machine, welder, etc.) (Partial charging of batteries would be achieved anytime the genset is running. An extended running time may be required to achieve a full charge.) All fuel figures are approximate and culled from communication between actual owners and users of this particular type of genset and the company where it was purchased. No guarantee expressed or implied.

[mightybooboo]

Originally Posted by BigBoy

Let me correct the one sentence that is such a problem. I did say pint where I should have said quart but I cleared that up on the last post, I thought, but I see you still are using the word pint. So...

Instead of..."Run all day on a couple of gallons of diesel or biodiesel OR just run a couple hours a day on a pint or so to power the high powered appliances and to charge the batteries."

It should have been... "Run all day (24 hours) on between 6.6 and 9.9 gallons of fuel (depending on load. U.S. liquid measure. Either diesel or biodiesel B10-B100) or just a couple of hours (120 minutes) on 2.2 to 3.3 quarts to power the higher wattage appliances or tools. (Washing machine, welder, etc.) (Partial charging of batteries would be achieved anytime the genset is running. An extended running time may be required to achieve a full charge.) All fuel figures are approximate and culled from communication between actual owners and users of this particular type of genset and the company where it was purchased. No guarantee expressed or implied.

BB,if I tweaked your nose,it was purely accidental.Certainly didnt intend to,dont think you saw it that way either,but if so it wasnt meant that way.

BooBoo

[patarini]

All the panels have 20 plus year warrantys -- I am using a c-60 charge controller and like it. ./I use a 2000 and 3000 watt inverter meant for trucks -- works fine, we run our house on 300 watts solar with no problem in summer, All electric lights are 13 watt CF bulbs, good light -- beats LED! Runs my laptop and home puter too -- We do limit power so the teens can play video games a lot! Look in mother earth news for how to convert a gas water heater to wood!

[OneWheelBiting]

I get Mother Earth News in the mail...

I like the Compact Fluro's but I had very good luck with LED's when I live on my boat. As for a gas water heater to wood swap I don't think so. Nat Gas is our countries biggest resource and is hit here in eastern kentucky everytime you drill for water. All you have to do is allow the gas company to pipe from you and they give you 50% credit for each cu.ft. pumped out.......Most of the time you end up dying with more gas you own then you'll ever use. I have a credit with them at one farm already for 200k cu.ft. which is like 80 years worth, even if I got to buy a 500 bls tank and truck it in to my new place to use.