Where to get cheap solar pannels?

Question

i am 16 and have a part time job... i want to get my house off the reciving end of the power grid and make enough energy with solar pannels to put back into the grid... does any one kno where to get pannels on the cheap side?

Answer 1

Nowhere.  About 40 grand will get a house off the grid, which is why solar panels are not widely popular.  But wait a few years, a new company has produced a flexible solar panel that will revolutionize the solar industry and bring the cost down dramatically. Check out the Dec issue of popular science, where it highlights a lot of amazing new products and inovations--like the new microwave machine that can turn tires into oil, or perhaps make oil shale at last economical.  Since we have more oil locked up in oil shale in NW Colorado than all the rest of the oil producing countries, we may see a change in oil imports in a few years down to NOTHING.

Answer 2

Why don't you start saving money to buy the world's cleanest car.  It runs on compressed air and will be available in 2008.  Be the first to drive this car.

Presently solar panels that make electricity are very expensive.   A thermosiphon solar hot water system is a better choice.   It uses no electricity to make hot water.

Answer 3

No such thing as cheap solar systems yet.  If you start saving now by the time you buy your first house the price should be down and you'll have enough information to do it right the first time..

Here is a website that can give you an idea of what you will need and how much it will cost.

http://www.solarelectricsupply.com/

Answer 4

Here's the answer!

http://renu.citizenre.com/

Good luck on your endeavor!

Answer 5

Unfortunately, solar panels themselves are not cheap, so even second-hand/used panels still command a high price (because there is a relatively high demand and a low supply of them available).

You don't have to make a super hi-tech home to be able to live comfortably off the electricity grid. But if you expect to have electricity to spare so you can feed that _into_ the Grid and/or you plan on using a lot of electrical gadgets in your home, then it gets more and more expensive.

I tried to live self-sufficiently in southern Queensland (Australia) ten years ago. I bought a cheap block of land without mains power or water supply but it did have a cabin and two small dams (ponds). I collected rain water off the roof into galvanized tanks. That was my drinking water. And for showering (washing) myself and for doing laundry, I used a fire pump to charge a header tank about 12 feet high, so I had a little water pressure. If I needed hot water, I burned wood underneath a copper tank (recycled from a junked electric water heater).

Initially I got by with one 80 Watt BP solar panel. This charged two deep-cycle 12v batteries, and there was a 600 Watt DC to AC converter in the cabin which provided enough mains power to run a small color TV and VHS tape player combination.

This gave me enough for simple 12v DC lighting. I could use incandescent auto bulbs, like my neighbor, Or I could drive into town at the nearest rural supply store which sold PV panels and even  normal-looking flourescent lights that used 12 volts as well.

Winter heating was from burning wood. (I had plenty of trees on that 30 Acres.) And cooking and refrigeration was from bottled gas. After a while I started using powdered milk for my tea and coffee, and only ate canned meat. This meant I could live without a refrigerator. I did research the electricity consumption of refigerators, and decided they were not viable for me. The propane gas powered fridges used an awful lot of gas, and the electric ones would have required me to get about three panels just for the one fridge. And then I'd either have to turn them off at night and not open the fridge  door until daylight, or I'd need more batteries and possibly more panels as well.

It was expensive.

Eventually I ended up with three panels on the roof running two batteries and I did without refigeration. I had TV, some a UHF CB radio to talk to the neighbors and also a 100W ham radio transceiver as well. (I am a licensed radio ham.)

The panels and much of my gear including the fire pump was stolen when I moved back to Sydney for work. (Which proves there's a market for second-hand solar stuff!)  ;-)

What I am saying here is that your Solar setup doesn't have to be expensive or fancy. Here is a pointer to some photos of my neighbor's place out there in Qld. I shot the pix about a month ago while I was up there for a short visit to check out my own property.

http://www.solarhome123.com

http://www.geocities.com/gedanate/permac...

Answer 6

Try http://www.EcoHouseFootprint.com for Solar power gear