solar power! $1.35/ watt

[DrPizza]

$1.35 per watt. A kilowatt hour is around 10 cents. That means that you'd need to generate 1 watt for 1000 hours to equal 10 cents worth of electricity. 13.5 times this long to get $1.35 worth. 13,500 hours. At 10 hours per day, that's 1350 days to break even, not counting all your other equipment - batteries, inverters, wire, etc. That's still pretty good though. I'm quite tempted by this deal though; big cost up front, and it would "force" us to make wiser decisions about energy consumption; which in itself would accelerate the break even point. Heck, since I wire the house so that all of the lighting circuits are separate from the other circuits, that would make it relatively simple to switch it over so that 100% of my lighting needs are covered by solar. Wow, I'm close to talking myself into this!

 

[mikeford]

Power out = 80 to 95% of power in, so to get 100 watts of 110ac you need about 10 amps at 12v in, but with solar I think you also have a DC/DC conversion between the panels and the 12v since the panel voltage is going to vary depending on the light level.

Also lead acid (cat battery) I think you only get about 80% out of what you put in, so you might need 145 watts of panel output to get 100 watts of 110ac later. Once the storage batteries are full, you don't store any more power either, and with a car battery the life is dramatically reduced if the battery is drained more than about 50% of capacity many times.

Solar is a dandy alternative to running power to a remote location, if you don't need much power, but do need some on a regular basis.

Solar is getting better and cheaper, but it is a very long way from 9 cents a kwhr.

100 watts can be pretty amazing vs no watts.

 

[mikeford]

$1.35 per watt. A kilowatt hour is around 10 cents. That means that you'd need to generate 1 watt for 1000 hours to equal 10 cents worth of electricity. 13.5 times this long to get $1.35 worth. 13,500 hours.

A good first step is to minimize your consumption.

Cost of the panels is a drop in the bucket compared to total costs, many like batteries, are not one time costs, but a good second step is to stay on grid and sell day time generation back to the grid often at premium rates, and draw power from the grid at night and skip all the batteries.

 

[Apex]

$1.35 per watt. A kilowatt hour is around 10 cents. That means that you'd need to generate 1 watt for 1000 hours to equal 10 cents worth of electricity. 13.5 times this long to get $1.35 worth. 13,500 hours. At 10 hours per day, that's 1350 days to break even, not counting all your other equipment - batteries, inverters, wire, etc. That's still pretty good though. I'm quite tempted by this deal though; big cost up front, and it would "force" us to make wiser decisions about energy consumption; which in itself would accelerate the break even point. Heck, since I wire the house so that all of the lighting circuits are separate from the other circuits, that would make it relatively simple to switch it over so that 100% of my lighting needs are covered by solar. Wow, I'm close to talking myself into this!

I think that depends on where you live. Here's ours:

We averaged around 25 cents per kwh in CA at our place. We installed a 6500kw system there, and it completely takes care of a $300-350 per month bill. Now that the bill has passed to sell our excess production back to the electric company, the total value to us will be around $375 per month or so.

State rebates and federal tax credits take care of roughly 1/2 of the cost of the solar array, and those credits can be applied multi-year (so you don't have to be a high-income household to derive the full benefit).

 

[soccerballtux]

I think that depends on where you live. Here's ours:

We averaged around 25 cents per kwh in CA at our place. We installed a 6500kw system there, and it completely takes care of a $300-350 per month bill. Now that the bill has passed to sell our excess production back to the electric company, the total value to us will be around $375 per month or so.

State rebates and federal tax credits take care of roughly 1/2 of the cost of the solar array, and those credits can be applied multi-year (so you don't have to be a high-income household to derive the full benefit).

How much did it cost you?

When you look at it from the perspective of "now I am not paying $350 per month," that's quite exciting.
I bet that legislation will help out their brownout issues too...this should be interesting.

 

[Apex]

How much did it cost you?

When you look at it from the perspective of "now I am not paying $350 per month," that's quite exciting.
I bet that legislation will help out their brownout issues too...this should be interesting.

I paid about $18k installed after rebates. With a value of $375 per month, it should take about 4 years to break even. During the planning phase, the installer estimated this sized system should take care of 70-80% of my total bill. In the SoCal sun, it's easily outperforming.

This being said, prices have fallen quite a bit since the beginning of the year, so the break even point is definitely sooner.

IMHO, if you live in a sunny place, your kwh rates are relatively high, and the govt is still offering these crazy incentives, it's a pretty good buy. For other situations, it may not work out so well.

Another thing to consider is this is a relatively large system (large relative to my usage). Smaller systems will, of course, reach the break even point sooner.

Side note: with the lease programs out now, you don't even pay anything upfront. You just end up reducing your monthly bill (you're paying them an effective smaller $$ per kwh).

 

[somecreepyoldguy]

Hey Apex, could you give me a headsup on what forums you use for solar and where to find what the rebates being offered at the time are? (also in socal) My username @gmail. Thanks

 

[edro]

We averaged around 25 cents per kwh in CA at our place.

Holy carp!

 

[DudeAbides]

I have been thinking about getting solar panels for our roof. Our roof faces south mostly and it seems like we could get good exposure. I have also read about some cooling technology that basically buries a pipeline several feet underground and takes advantage of the coolness of the dirt. Anyone familiar with that?

 

[Apex]

Hey Apex, could you give me a headsup on what forums you use for solar and where to find what the rebates being offered at the time are? (also in socal) My username @gmail. Thanks

Sorry, missed your post. Sure, will send you an email.

Holy carp!

Yeah, it's on a tiered system. First 3 tiers are pretty cheap, but 4th and 5th are kinda costly.

 

[sm625]

no comment. I decided to make a post elsewhere about the efficacy of solar power.