Does anyone have solar- or wind power-making devices on their properties? I have actually been thinking of adding a couple of solar panels and maybe a wind-power device to "green up" my home a little. It's also a way to save some money in electricity and cooling costs.

Anyone know where I might be able to find more information on cost of these things?

 

NJ once had a big incentive to install the solar panels...I think they covered 1/2 the install cost....Not sure about now though.

 

i think it was a fad in the early 90's.....I use to see those panels on many homes during then

 

If I did this, then I would kind of hide the solar panels on the backside of my house. I think they're ugly.

I just hope that the association that I belong to will tell me it's OK to put those up.

 

Wind power is expensive(so is solar for that matter), my uncle(who is a cheap bastard) worked for the NY power authority as chief operator for over 20 years was convinced he could save money on his power bill so he looked into both heavily; he also briefly used candles to heat his house, but that's another story all together. Any ways he crunched the numbers and shopped around, the best good quality wind generator he could find was in the $30k range and while he would have done it, he realized it would take 20 years(plus or minus a few figuring in increased price based on previous increase) if NOTHING went wrong. With a giant fan blade the spins, there are many wear items and while I am sure they use great parts, they will need servicing/replacement at some point - that was the straw that broke the camels back for him. While it would have been a fun project, it would not have been profitable.

Solar power is even harder because it produces DC and you need storage(usually in the form of batteries) and an inverter which is very inefficient, the best inverters(which are very expensive) are lucky to recover 85% in the form of AC... Batteries wear out, inverters wear out and god for bid it gets cloudy your producing very little.

I am sure there will be alternatives in the not so distant future, but right now its more of a hobby then a true alternative.

 

my parents in florida have a solar powered heater for their pool, runs the water up through solar panels on the roof. that seems to work well for them, but i don't think we're at the point yet where powering your whole house with solar or wind is going to be a good idea.

 

Check the local building code to see if you can even do these.

Oh and let me guess, you've been watching This Old House?


Moving to Home and Garden.

 

You're far better off making your home more energy efficient than to go looking for ways to generate your own electricity. Spend your money on upgrading your furnace, A/C, windows, fridges/freezers, lightbulbs, etc. Those upgrades are guaranteed to save you money over time and the savings are predictable.

I work for Caterpillar and our Power Systems division sells quite a few diesel gensets these days to individuals (usually with large homes though). They can set up an automatic switchover to take advantage of "peak shaving". During peak hours, the genset switches on automatically to save money on your hydro bill. The rest of the day you run on the grid.

It's unlikely that a home would ever use enough power to offset the cost of the genset, but the upside would be you'd never have to worry about outages. They sell a lot of these units to west coast rappers who want to keep their hoes happy in the hot tub during a rolling blackout.

 

My bad. Wrong section.

Nope. Haven't been watching "This Old House" at all. I just want to find a way to decrease our electrical consumption.

Last night, for example, it was 57 degrees at night. Wife likes the temp to be set at 68 at night. A rational person would open up the window and let the house cool down naturally.

Not my wife.

She wanted the AC on. We have fought over and over on this. I'm an engineer. Why would we spend money on something that is going to occur naturally and free of charge in the first place. My wife got pissed.

Oh well.

Plus, a side effect would be to make our house greener.

 

Hmmmm. Our home is only three years old. We have the latest Energy Star compliant washer, dryer, dishwasher, stove, fridge, microwave, etc. Our heater/AC unit is very efficient and is also Energy Star compliant. I changed all the lightbulbs in the house to energy-efficient flourescent types. I want more.

 

Sounds like you need to upgrade to a more energy efficient wife. j/k

 

LOL, then she would pull the whole "I'm carrying your damn baby!" card on me. Ughhhhhhhh. I can't win.

 

 

My husband is an engineer with a lot of experience in power sources. He's done work for Uncle Sam involving installation of both solar panels and wind turbines. His bottom line for a home consumer is: don't do it if you're only trying to save money on energy. At this point, the technology isn't there to give you a good cost:benefit ratio. If you're willing to spend a little to help the environment, however, then go for it (with kudos). That said, living in FL, you'll do better than, say, someone living in a mountainous region, where you don't maximize the sunlight.

I guess it's kind of like buying organic. It sure isn't cheaper, but it has other benefits.

 

Being that you are in Florida, you should also factor in the costs of damage to any of your generating equipment due to weather. It's hard to take down a windmill if you're in a huricane.

The bottom line is there's really not much you can do to generate electricity cheaper than you can buy it from the grid.

Solar and wind power are very expensive to install, they generate little power, and have high maintenance costs. Perhaps when hydrogen fuel cells become cheaper we'll have a better alternative, but for now, there are better ways to save money.

Perhaps you could at more fuel efficient vehicles.

 

Not really. Wife drives a very-well tuned 2003 Honda Civic, and I drive a 2004 Honda Accord. Both cars are very efficient.

I might try to see how much it would cost to install a solar heating or solar cooling panels.

 

This is something that I plan to look into once we move into a SF home. I haven't done extensive research, but have heard of people with solar panels who end up using very little net grid power. Obviously, they aren't using all of their electricity during daylight hours, but some electric companies trade the electricity you generate and don't use with the electricity you use during the night/non-sunny days. This removes the cost of batteries. Also, there were some tax incentives to installing solar panels - not sure if they are still available though. Estimates were you could recoup your original investment in around 10 years. Still have to do more research and see what is being offered (technology and tax incentives) when I actually have a place where I can actually install panels.

 

Energy must be cheap where you guys live. Using online calculators, I figured that out here in the Bay Area, it would take me about 10 years to break even with a solar system. This is for a grid connected system with no batteries and incentives factored in.

And thats assuming energy rates dont increase above the normal rate of inflation. We all know where energy rates are headed (upward)...