Solar powered units?

Question

Are these cheaper than paying the elctricity bill each month? What does it cost to purchase one and have it installed? Would you still be able to use electricity when it's cloudy or at night when there's no sun? Anything else I should know?

Answer 1

You can find out more detailed information by doing a search on www.GoElectricNow.com.  I suggest entering Solar Farms into the search box and you'll find many sites with the information you're seeking.  I hope this helps.

Answer 2

The earth is a solar powered unit.

With Renewable Energy, one must pay for it up front.

With the usual way, you pay over time, like a mortgage payment, a $100k house cost $200k over time, this is where RE saves money.

Things need to change in your house to do this.

Eliminate all phantom loads, your TV is using power, in the off position while your on the PC.

When replacing your refrigerator, buy one that uses less power.

Look at your hot water heater, lots of money to be saved by going to a tankless model.

When looking at phantom electric loads, think about making your outlets switchable, so when you exit the room, one switch turns ALL things off.

I see the future as a hydrogen one, using RE to produce hydrogen fuel, like propane,  stored in a tank, used as needed, make electricity for your home, heat for the same, fuel for your car, all power by RE, powered by the sun.

Answer 3

Solar panels are quite expensive, and while they reduce or eliminate your electric bill, they currently take a long long time to pay for themselves.   There are many government rebates and tax credits available to reduce the price, but even if you take advantage of all of them, you are still looking at many years (10 to 20) before your solar system pays for itself.

If you want to go "off grid" you'll need to buy batteries to store electricity for use at night or on cloudy days.  Some utilties have what is known as "net metering" that effectively lets you "spin the meter backward" so that you don't have to store that extra electricity.

If you are serious about installing solar panels on your roof, then there is a whole bunch more that you should know - more than can be written here.  

I've put a couple of helpful web sites below - one that lists incentives that are available in the US, and two that might help you find a solar installer.  Call up a solar vendor in your area, they will have a much better idea about the economics associated with your utility and climate.

Good luck.

Answer 4

Time works actually for us, because they become cheaper and cheaper. Otherwise it is of course better if you think about not only producing electricity but also hot water by using the power of sun. The last one is more sufficient and efficient. It all depends on where you live, how much sunlight you have through a year.

Probably the most price-efficient solution is if you build a new house and you can cover the whole roof with these PV (poly voltaic) and solar heating panels, so you can actually save the cost of the conventional building materials.