Posted on 02/08/2011 7:55:56 AM PST by MsLady
My hubby and me are thinking about going solar. Basically because we feel society is breaking down and things are getting very unstable. Obama seems to be h*ll bent on making our lives more costly to the point of ruining everything. And because we like the idea of being as independent as possible.
At any rate, we live way up north. Snow levels usually run 200" or more. Long winters from oct. through march/april. We probably have seen the sun 2 or 3 times since the beginning of the year. Lots of cloudy days from about dec. till feb/march. I wanted to know if anyone had experience with them, especially if you live in the north.
We will be building our own.
Thank you so much for the feedback. This is very helpful. My hubby wants me to do the building. I don’t want to waste my time doing it if it isn’t going to be very efficient.
Right now we have a windmill that produces on average 1/4 to 1/3 of our electricity. And 2 wood stoves with propane back up. We have looked into heating our water with the wood stoves but, haven’t really study it out yet.
That being said, you can radically reduce your self reliance on other energy sources although this will require some lifestyle adaptations and not just loads of $$$.
To get a feel for the effect of location on solar energy in general and specifically on passive solar energy, I recommend a really outstanding book The Passive Solar Energy Book, Edward Mazria, Rodale Press, 1979. Yes, it's been in print a long time but it's the best I've found for the basics and walks you through the key design factors very well. I've adapted its information to industrial design, not just residential where I have also applied it.
In addition, take a look at expedition vehicle strategies for self sufficiency including solar. www.expeditionportal.com has very good information on this and a homeowner can pick up some useful tricks.
I do appreciate this info. This is the kind of stuff I’m looking for. My hubbies being pretty insistent about this. But, tells me he wants me to do the research. So I’m doing :)
If one windmill produces 1/4th of your power needs, then 4 should about cover it if you have adequate storage. I don’t know the size of battery you are speaking of but 25 auto batteries will not do it.
You are talking huge cash outlay but if you can afford it, look into fork lift batteries, cheaper per kwh than auto batteries and I think they are all deep cycle.
I have the wind to power my house but I’m 100% utility power because I can’t justify the investment. And honestly, if you have power when the infrastructure goes down, I’d be more worried about guns than lights.
We have two shallow wells and one deep well. The deep well pump is killing us in the amount of electricity it uses. So we have a hand pump we are going to run a line into the house to the basement, for basic stuff and in case we lose power. When we have no power, we have no water. We’ve also been thinking that we should run the washing machine from the shallow well also.
I’ll check out the tromb wall building. Thanks for the info :)
Here in the north solar is generally fine for charging gadgets but not so great for any real power production. The problem is that current solar panels reflect far more energy than they collect and energy storage is still a problem.
Passive solar can be pretty effective for helping to heat. I built a porch and put in 5 sets of sliding glass and keep my houseplants out there all year. I also have a couple of southfacing 4x8 foot picture windows that collect heat during the day and keep the furnce at bay.
My neighbor uses geothermal to help heat his house. Even here in Michigan the earth is considerably warmer just a few feet down.
The second-best solar-based energy system I have owned was lots of well-insulated windows. Not quite as good as the skylight on a cost basis, but it helped on illumination and added a pleasant, light feeling to the house. I had roll-up blinds for privacy at night and they worked great.
So, keep it simple and cheap. Avoid that pricey, high-tech gimmickry of PV and even solar heating systems.
We own about 20 acres up here. Probably enough to build a pond. We have a stream that turns into a fast running brook that goes down to the lower part of our property I don’t know if it would be deep enough though. When there is a lot of water it’s probably only a few inches deep but, it sure moves fast. It dries up at the end of summer/fall.
It is even possible to use the waste heat drom the generator to heat water.
As others have said,the first step is to reduce your power needs to the very minimum.This means spending more money on lots of insulation and careful siting of the home.It is actually cheaper,probably a necessity,to buy the super-efficient EXPENSIVE refrigerators and other applianes,rather than try to buy enough solar panels to power the convential ones.
There just isn't a way for individuals to produce/harvest electricity at the price the utilities sell it to you.
The only real exception is those very few lucky enough to have a year-round stream of adequate flow and drop in which case home hydroelectic plant is great.
The guy that put our windmill in a couple of years ago is also doing the thermal ground loops. I haven’t read very much on those yet.
Another thing to consider is, it sounds like you live in or near Alaska. The serious lack of Sun will be your biggest problem, but also, the steep angle of the Sun during Winter Months will severely lower the heat they will collect.
In addition to that, the hours the Sun shows during Winter won't help you much with both types of collector; P/T.
You might consider some other type of energy source. Like Wood boiler and turbine generator system. A good Turbine Electrical system will handle most of your residential energy needs during all types of weather. You can also build one at a fraction of the cost of a Solar system. (You can build the boiler yourself.)
I don’t know if there is any coal around where I live. This is or was once a huge copper mining area. We don’t have mineral rights on our property below a certain level. Not sure how many feet down.
Thank you so much for the info. I’ll check out the website and the book.
Wow, Copper?
Fantastic....
Copper is going to be better than gold and silver.
You might be surprised that there is coal nearby. The North American Continent has it all over the place. Many locations don’t have enough to mine so it was never extracted. This fools people into thinking there isn’t any.
Just because you never had commercial extraction, the coal is likely there.
Back in the old days, they used to put “Black” on the name of a city or town that had deposits that the locals would use for their local use.
Also, look for streets/roads with Black in the name. This is what this means.
Some liberals think this meant to designate areas for blacks, but they wouldn’t believe the truth.
That said, a few solar panels, windmill, batteries, and inverter would provide you with enough dependable electrical power for low wattage lighting, radio, laptop, wireless Internet, small TV and etc.l
I have a 3KW solar panel grid-tie system. On a sunny day, it generates well over 15KW. Our 2,700SF deep South home is all electric and for the last two months, we've had to buy roughly 2,000 KW a month from the electric company. Last year, without the solar system, we had two buy twice that amount of power.
The system actually saves about 1/4 but has caused us to become more energy aware and that adds about another 1/4 for 1/2 cost of last year.
Without the government rebates (state 50% and fed 35%) it wouldn't have been worth it. Very glad we've had it installed though since costs of electricity have increased over 10% this year alone.
You're doing the right thing by becoming self-sufficent!
In your climate, I'd recommend three to four feet of blown cellulose in the ceiling at minimum.
The batteries were used for back electricity at the state police post.
Hey great!!! For only a forty thousand dollar investment, you’ll be able to warm up a cup of tea—sometimes even twice a day!!!! PT Barnum and WC Fields had a name for people like this.
It really depends on how much juice you need to power only what you should run, if the SHTF. One should expect to run only minimal devices, such as radio, heat, reefer (off and on), etc., to get through the outages. If your wind power generation is 25% now, that is excellent for when the SHTF. Any flowing water nearby?
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