Home Solar Power Advice?
Image by Dept of Energy Solar Decathlon
The public takes a first look inside the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid’s solar-powered home on the first day the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon opens to the public on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Friday, Oct. 09, 2009. (Photo by Stefano Paltera/US Dept. of Energy Solar Decathlon)
Question by Paul Dub: Home Solar Power Advice?
Does anyone have any tips or advice on installing a solar power system for their home?
This seems to be a growing trend and as the technology is becoming more efficient it is also starting to be more economical and installed in more and more homes.
We have started a blog http://www.sunpoweradvice.com and would like to hear some experiences from people who have installed solar power systems in their home.
Feel free to answer in the comment section below
4 Responses to Home Solar Power Advice?
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After following the progress of solar hot water systems over some 40 years I’ve come to the conclusion that the thermosiphon hot water system is the best. After traveling to China and seeing their systems in operation convinced me that this is the most efficient type of system but most people are not aware of this. It uses no electricity and no moving parts.
SilentDoGood
November 1, 2012 at 9:56 pm
too good
web Desk
November 1, 2012 at 10:15 pm
What I started doing is gathering solar panels bit by bit, but got the ones with the same watts and voltage. I currently am using five wheel chair batteries stored in my basement linked together rated at 12v each. I have 7 15w 12v panels out back supplying power for my batteries. I use the power during night and morning to run 12v lighting to cut back on energy, and PC fans also run on 12v and work fairly well in the summer which I use next to my bed to keep me cool. I have underground lines from my panels running through conduit to my house to a charge controller to avoid overcharging my batteries. I also have an experiment underway building an wind generator. I completed it, and am waiting on the winter winds to do their thing. I would build a frame for your panels protecting them from the weather, hail, rail, snow? They should be facing the direction where you will be getting the most sun throughout the day, and the winter period. I advise you to uses sealed led batteries if they are going to be installed in your shed or basement to avoid gasses. Normal car batteries will cause a problem. You should have a solar charge controller to protect your batteries from overcharging. I gave up and just built my own charging system because most on the market are too expensive, that is the heavy duty ones. I’m going on over four years using panels, and they never let me down yet, and still charge fairly well on cloudy days. With these 7 panels, I can almost run a 19 inch television using an inverter.
Garden Man
November 1, 2012 at 10:46 pm
Found the most cost effective thing to do was to get the whole house set up for running on solar before actually installing the panels. That means cutting your power consumption to about 1/10th the typical household power usage. Once you do that you will probably find your power bill so drastically reduced (with little or no loss of quality of living) that you will find no need to actually install any panels.
thor
November 1, 2012 at 11:34 pm