Some basics to help get started

SO, here is some information to help you get started with setting yourself up on solar panel power. Some things need to be taken into consideration when planning your approach to setting up a photovoltaic solar panel system. The following are options to think about when determining your solution:

1. Supplementary tie-in solar panel system to offset part of the utility power that is consumed.
2. Tie-in solar panel system that offsets all utility power consumed. This works by installing a system that produces more power than is consumed during the daylight hours in order to offset the power consumed from utility during the dark hours. The previous blog is an example of this solution where approximately a month's worth of reserve power was produced over the course of a year to provide for potential extra cloudy weather. This solution does not provide backup power when utility goes down during dark hours.
3. Tie-in with battery backup. This solution could be a combination of either solutions 1. or 2. above with the addition of a battery bank such that when utility drops out, your house will still have power available for X hours until your batteries run down, utility comes back on, or sunlight energy is available through the solar panels.
3. Off-grid. This solution usually requires a battery bank since the house is run entirely off of solar panels with no tie-in to utility. The battery bank will need to be substantially larger than the other solutions in order to maintain power for your home during the dark or stormy hours. This solution can be more costly up front due to the addition of a larger battery bank.

Now, all of these options considered, if the desired solution involves a utility tie-in, then an inverter needs to be selected. The size or capacity of the inverter needs to be determined based upon your final goal of supplementary or full utility offset. If your goal is to offset all of your utility power by over generating during the day and using utility during the dark hours, then the inverter needs to be sized according to that daytime power generation. For example lets say you only want to spend $4k-$5k initially. Inverters can be purchase anywhere from $1k to $2k and on up. But for a typical house as described in the previous blog. Five bedrooms, three bathrooms, great room, dining room, kitchen, office on gas heat, a 3.3kW system is adequate for full utility offset power generation. So since the goal is full offset of utility power usage, a 3.3 or larger inverter needs to be purchased initially regardless of how many panels are initially installed. I think I have found 200 Watt panels in the $450 range. So, a person could purchase 4-6 panels and an inverter in the $1k-$2k range and keep their budget in that $4k-$5k range and generate 800-1200 Watts of power in good sunlight. That's 24% to 36% of total usage generated with the solar panels without spending as much up front. Then each year, or whatever budget plan is established, more solar panels can be added to your system to offset a greater percentage of power usage. Keep in mind that in LPEA district, the credit offered is based upon the initial hardware and installation cost. So, if you spread your cost out over a few years by "piece-mealing" your system. You won't get rebates for the expenses following the initial installation. I'm not sure how the Federal Tax rebates work. However, we have to work with what each of us has available to us.

If your goal is just to offset part of your utility usage then determine what amount that is and size the inverter appropriately. If you want to offset half of the utility power that you use then based upon this example of a 3.3kW system, you will need a 1500-1700kW inverter. The good news is that the inverter cost does go down somewhat with the lower power rating. The websites that I included in previous blogs have a few inverters to choose from. Sunny Boy seems to be one of the more popular brands in my research experience and when talking with people who have done installations. Your initial installation may not have sun tracking. This will cut down on your initial installation cost but bear in mind that your power generation may be up to 50% less than it could be as a result. Since solar power coupled to a house now adds resale value to the home. It may be easier to get a home improvement loan for those who are able to do so and installing a complete system from the beginning is an option. With the solar system offsetting your utility bill each month, that extra money can be redirected towards paying off the home improvement loan.

I believe the installation time and cost can be kept to a minimum with some simple design considerations. Based upon what I have researched, I think a two pole breaker can be added to the existing breaker panel in the house and a 14 gauge two conductor outdoor power line run from the new breaker to the solar panel system. The inverter can be located with the solar panels which permits the lighter gauge wire run from the house to the solar panels. If the inverter must be installed away from the solar panels then much heavier gauge wire carrying DC power must be run from the panels to the house and the wiring cost will be considerably more. Just a rough estimate of cost difference is say $150 -vs- $600, or more depending upon the length of the wire. Those are very rough numbers just to use as an example.

I don't know if this information helped. But,hey! It was free!
Have a great day!
James

How to's of designing your own solar panel power plant

Okay, Here's some tips on setting up your own solar panel power supply for your house.
Take your last electric bill. It should show the monthly totals of kWatthours consumed. There are a few things to take note of when looking at these totals. Look for the months when the kwh(kiloWatthours) consumed was least, look for the months when the kwh was most and all all the months together to get a total of kwh consumed for the year. Each household will be different on these numbers based upon gas or electric heat, A/C or not, the quality of insulation used when your home was built. Your geographical location, is your house surrounded by large trees or out in the open? How much sunlight do you get during a summer day, during a winter day? Is your house located in a valley or canyon (or are you butted up against a hillside) such that you get shaded sunlight in the morning and afternoon rather than direct sunlight? What kind of appliances do you have? Do you have any unusual power loads in your home? Do you want to be able to keep power going when your utility power drops out and its night time? What is your typical could/storm activity over the course of a year? All these things and more effect your solar panel solution and the capacity needed.

Please refer to the tiny little table at the top of this article for the remainder of this discussion. Sorry it's so tiny, I couldn't determine how to insert a spreadsheet into this blog.

So, here in southwest Colorado where I live, actually, in the Arboles area, it has been referred to as the "banana belt". We indeed get our 300 out of 365 days of sunlight, so I will use that percentage 300 divided by 365 equals 82% sunlight in a given year.

So, there is a lot of information in that table. Let me explain. The first column is the total estimated direct sunlight at my location in total hours per day for a given month. The second column is total number of days for each month. The third column is the actual kiloWatthours used that I pulled from my electric bill. The 4th column is the number of potentially generatable kwh if you had 100% sunny days all year. The 5th column is derating the 100% sunny days with a more realistic 82% (300/365) sunny days. The 6th column is the number of kwh over or under produced for the given month. In this scenario the total produced kwh at 82% sunny days generates 1750 extra kwh at the end of the year. This will help accommodate for underproduction as a result of extra cloudy days when electric power generation is less than expected.

So, the first step is to produce a table for yourself like the one above and determine the quantity of power you will need to generate. Next, I'll post on how to calculate number of panels and how to determine the right sized inverter.
That's all I have for now.

Have a great day!
James

These are my choices so far for solar panel solutions

Okay, I promised a hardware list. So, here's what I've found to date:
(Please note that these manufacturers/vendors have no working relationship with me. I have nothing to gain from promoting their products, I just am liking what I am seeing in options and prices associated with these particular brands).

For your inverters:

You may want to consider the Sunny Boy 3000US, or 4000US depending up on the kWatt capacity of your solution. You can find lots of details on the Sunny Boy including pricing here:
http://www.wholesalesolar.com/products.folder/inverter-folder/SB3000US.html
www.sunelec.com, This site has both solar panels and inverters of other manufacturer besides Sunny Boy.

For solar panels:

Sun Electronics, $2.38/watt cost on panels.
www.sunelec.com
http://partsonsale.com/solarhomekits.html

Solar tracking units:
http://www.wattsun.com/residential_trackers.html (we have actually used these tracker kits, they are very thorough and very reliable)

Federal Government website defining incentives and breaks:
www.energy.gov/taxbreaks.htm

Laplata Electric website defining incentives and breaks:
www.lpea.coop/billing_metering/netmetering.htm

That's all I have for now. If you are a DIY and want some help give me a hollar, I'll help out until it consumes too much of my time. I can get great prices from the seller of the sun tracking system through my employer if 8 or more units are being purchased.

Renewable energy solar panel solution $7500!

I'm putting together some real numbers on a spreadsheet today that I will post on here when I get it compiled, but for my region of the US. Durango, Colorado, $15,000 covers practically all the hardware necessary to put a house on solar panel power with a utility grid-tie that permits a person to backfeed any excess power they are generating but not using back onto the utility line through the power meter running it backwards and generating credit that will be used during the night time and other "rainy days". This is what I am coming up with for a 3.28kWatt system with sun tracking on an average sized house. approx. 2800 sq ft. with a kWatt hour total for the year of 7100kWh. With an average of 300 sunny days the solar system could produce up to 8865kWh. This particular household in the lower usage months requires about 500kWh/month and in the high usage months it's 900kWh/month. The high usage was during the two hotest summer months with A/C. The lower usage months were five months in the spring and two months in the fall. This house is heated with gas.

Now, the kicker for southwest Colorado residence is the $3000 rebate from LPEA that applies to this solution and the 30% tax break from the Federal government that applies. It brings a $15,000 hardware cost down to $7,500. Installation costs will vary for each household depending upon existing conditions. For some households roof mounting the panels flat on the south facing roof will be the only option. For others, ample free ground space is available and if zoning restrictions permit, a sun tracking solution would be best. Mounting the solar array on a 6-10 inch steel pole near the house where the sun is visible from sun rise to sun set will gain the owner up to 50% more generated energy than mounting statically. I am nearly ready to spec this hardware out for people on a DIY basis and soon there afterward, I'll have some basic cost estimates for turnkey or item by item labor costs.

I'll do a spread sheet for wind solutions as well, but I'm concentrating on the solar panel solution first.
Feel free to email me with your thoughts and interests. Have a great day!
James jdlmodelt@yahoo.com

Wind energy

I had a friend email me last night asking about wind energy solutions. So, let's talk wind. I am not an expert on any of these renewable energy solutions, but I have a growing fascination with them as our energy resources available to recover become less stable as a result of any given political agenda. Renewable energy sources equate to a certain degree of independence and I enjoy that.

So, wind. There are numerous resources available on the internet concerning all renewable energy technologies. For wind, the basic unit seems to run about $1/watt in cost. That does not include batteries for storage, nor does it include the inverter to convert the generated DC voltage into AC voltage so it will be compatible with your house as well as possible tie-in to your local public utility service in order to get credit when you are generating more power than you use. It seems a lot of these wind generators have about a 5 year life-span. That's a recurring number that I have noticed. When comparing this to solar panel solutions, solar panels seem to be selling for $2.5/watt up to $7.0/watt. Solar panel generators have a life span of 20-25 years.

Things to consider: annual wind or sun conditions in your area. Space available for a solar or wind solution. Some homes are situated in areas where daily or regular wind activity is a given. Some homes are situated where the wind is less predictable, but the sun activity is very regular.

It will need to be decided if the house is going to go off the grid and be completely isolated or if the solar or wind energy will be supplemental to the utility power. If off-grid is selected, energy storage batteries will have to be included in the solution. If this is a supplemental solution then a grid tie-in inverter, most of them include this, will have to be included in the solution. Each of these options adds or removes cost to/from the overall solution. As I mentioned earlier in this article, I am still learning a lot about this topic myself, but my goal is to determine just a few viable solutions for friends and family that they can implement at their homes. I'm not in this to "sell" a solution like I've seen on a lot of websites. There are a lot of people out there "selling" do it yourself solutions. They all claim theirs is the best, so I haven't selected any of those resources yet.

If I were to consider building my own simple wind generator supplemental system, the basics needed would include, an automotive high output alternator, some propeller blades, a DC to AC inverter, and a hefty pole to mount the generator on. Also, some car batteries to store the generated energy. The complication associated with this involve safe battery storage and the utility tie-in. This is just a crude overview of options that exist. It will take me more time to investigate DIY or prepackaged solutions available.

I don't know if this helped at all. I hope to provide much more detail and information and even some truly "free" solutions for people right here, real soon. I don't plan to hit anyone with the "buy my video or book or CD for $20-$50 and find out how to do it", line.

Have a great day!
James

I think I'll try this

I did some extensive research the past few days and I have come up with a 3.0 kilo Watt solution that utilizes 13 solar panels, an inverter, and some various wiring and mounting hardware for $13,900. Here in my part of Colorado, I can get $3,000 from my local electric utility company and I can get 30% or $4,200 tax break from the federal government. So, my final cost for a basic package is $6,700. I can get a computerized tracking system for the solar panels that increases output by 51% for less than $1,500. Well worth adding. So, $8,200 for the DIY types. I am jazzed about this. A great deal of the energy produced will be wheeled back onto the utility line while no one is home during the daytime hours. It will likely offset the night time usage. My average electric bill is $115/month ($1,380/year) So, if my daytime generation were to offset the night time usage, i.e. break even. Then free electricity in $8,200/$1,380/year = 6 years payoff time. I would have to do a quick study of the daytime and night time power usage of my house to verify the consumption -vs- produced energy ratio to come up with a tight payoff time frame. But, this is fairly realistic where I live in Colorado.
Have a great day!
James

Solar panel options

I hope to add information and interesting, informative articles here that can keep readers up to date concerning what's available and what's affordable according to a person's budget limitations.

I believe that affordable solar panel solutions for a household is just around the corner. The price for solar panels is forecasted to drop in the next few months to a year. Depending up on how much that drop is, incentives offered by the regional public utility, and incentives offered by state and or federal government, going solar with a household my have a payoff in 5 to 10 years. I based that number on $20,000 solar powered solution with a $2000/year electric utility expense. I did not include income from selling unused green power back to the utility company. That unused, resellable green power that is being wheeled back to utility has a premium value associated with it. Utility companies are being required to provide/produce X% of renewable energy power. As EPA restrictions tighten, the utility companies will be required to increase that percentage of electricity generated by renewable energy sources. I believe utility companies will soon find that many of the rural households of our nation have a valuable resource to offer in renewable energy in the form of solar panels. Some research has shown that an average household requires about 4kW to maintain average peak loading. This equates to about a $20,000 to $25,000 solar panel solution. For some people, that number is obtainable today. For others it is out of reach. I think my local utility company offers $1500 incentive. That doesn't take much off of a $20,000 cost on my part that is directly benefiting the utility company. I'm not sure what incentives or tax breaks are available through the state or federal government but I will determine that when I get a chance and include it here. This is just a quick intro to get the ball rolling. Feel free to contact me with questions about this application if you can't wait for the next blog.
Have a great day!
James