Posted on 09/18/2011 1:41:55 PM PDT by decimon
Inverters and balance of plant items preclude the average homeowner from installing a solar system IMHO.
Deport illegals. That will fix school budget problems in a hurry.
But will their “meters spin backwards?” ;-)
Cheap components and better storage devices could begin to make it viable. Maybe something simple like some outdoor lighting to start. Maybe trickle charging batteries.
Can you get DC appliances? 12 or 24 volt?
The way things are going, we may be glad to have investments that pay out 6 percent a year.
The life of the solar panels is likely a minimum of 25 years.
It is not a “great” investment, but is probably a better one that was made on a lot of Corps of Engineer dam projects.
Just because the government is for it doesn't mean that it is evil. Better the panels than to go into some scam artists pockets.
I’ll bet not one of these college educated geniuses even knows what that is.
Solar panels price has droped below $2 per watt, so payback on 12 cents per kilowatt hour is somewhere between 5-7 years, I am told by my electrical engineer friend who installed some big solar projects for the military. We use a lot of solar panels for work in remote locations with low power needs. In that type of situation, you cannot beat them. They have proven every bit as reliable as grid power here in southern Arizona, and much, much cheaper, because you cannot extend grid power for 100 yards for the price of installing a solar panel. These panels are a lot more expensive than that at about $4.18 per watt installed, so that makes the payback period that they are saying about reasonable for Southern California. We have a bit more sunshine than they do.
Actually, we are very close to it being a reasonable investment here in southern Arizona. The power companies favor distributed production because it helps keep the voltage up on their lines. The inverters have an automatic shut off that takes them off line during a power outage and brings them back on once the power is up.
You get to "run the meter backward" to offset any grid usage. After that you sell to the power company at a somewhat reduced rate.
The most expensive part is installation.
Thanks...So we can form our own opinion...can you post some numbers as to your cost and your ROI or pay back estimate?
Hey, San Ramon is bad, but Mt. Diablo is worse!
Mt Diablo has solar panels at one school pointed north east! (Clayton)
>> “and the MBTF of the panels is...?” <<
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About 20 years presently.
>> “The spawn of the spawn of the spawn of the children taught morality by these school districts will vandalize these solar panels to the point that I guarantee you that a break even will never be achieved.” <<
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Even without that, the birds dropping rocks on them, as flat ast they are mounted, will make them a huge losing proposition (ask Alameda County about the panels at their Hayward court complex parking lot)
>> “We’ll know the time has come when we see people hauling panels out of Home Depot.” <<
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If they won’t fly at Costco, they won’t fly, and Costco gave up after less than a month, and sent them back to the Manufacturer.
>> “Cheap components...” <<
.
Big mistake for most.
If the inverters and charge controllers are not from Trace, they will not do the job for long, if at all.
Thanks.
Small and expensive appliances for now.
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