How much will it cost to solar power my home.?
Image by Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious
My parents’ home in northern Japan. That’s a 3KW photovoltaic (solar power) system on the roof. The wind turbine also provides a modest amount of power.
They’ve always had solar water heat too, but I don’t see it on the roof anymore. I wonder if my dad removed it when he had the solar panels installed. I’ll need to ask him.
Photo by my dad.
Question by traderbobhn: How much will it cost to solar power my home.?
Is there an online calculator?
I consume 30kwh per day. Winter minimum sun time is about 10 hrs.
Can you help? Leave your own answer in the comments!
4 Responses to How much will it cost to solar power my home.?
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This source may help. If you want an off grid system where ALL your power ALWAYS comes from your own solar panels, then it will be EXTREMELY expensive. A better solution is to have a grid tied system, where you send extra power back to the grid during sunny days and take power from the grid at night. You can size the system to generate as much energy every year as you use. That is cheaper, but still out of most people’s ability to pay, unless you are rich. It was over $ 25,000 for my house, so I didn’t do it.
campbelp2002
March 26, 2012 at 9:37 am
Many places have calculators or simulators to help you get an estimate. But to REALLY know how much it would cost YOU, would need to get a quote and take a good inventory of how much energy you really use on a monthly basis.
here is a site that might help.
http://www.wholesalesolar.com/starthere/starthere.html
Eric
March 26, 2012 at 9:39 am
For every $ 1 you save in consumption, you save $ 5 in production. Look to use less electricity, 200 Kw a month is a great goal. This can be done. Buy CFL’s, then one at a time, buy LED’s. Look to eliminate all phantom electric loads. Buy a load meter, use it. The easy way is the use of power strips, when not in use, turn off the power. When your refrigerator needs upgrading, look at a Sunfrost.
Here is two links that can provide more info than is allowed here.
The biggest thing to remember is with Renewable Energy, you pay for this up front. With the non-sustainable way you pay every month, more, more and more.
odysseus1959
March 26, 2012 at 10:16 am
You have to do the math your self or have someone do it for you. There is no magic way to do it. The best thing to do is call a dealer who can go to your home and do a survey. It is the only way to know for sure. I do surveys of the spot where the solar array is going to be placed and then give the customer a print out that even shows a picture of the sky with the suns path on it for each month of the year. It shows which trees that need trimmed or cut down or any thing that will block the sun. And an estimated power production per month and year.
First you need to take last years electric bills and total the kWhs and divide by 365. Next you need to divide that by the PEAK sun hours you get in your area. There is no place on the planet that gets more then 6 to 7 hours of PEAK sun a day.
Go to this page and follow all 6 steps. Should take you about 5 to 10 minutes. http://www.oynot.com/grid-tie-only-how-to.html … You will even have a good idea of the price by the time you are done.
Don K
March 26, 2012 at 11:04 am