Out of curiosity I clicked on one of those “one tip” links, this one about “what power companies don’t want you to know.” After about 15 minutes of gassing on about high prices, Obama, and Big Electricity, it developed that what the guy was selling was instructions on how to build your own solar array cheaply by buying the parts from suppliers rather than installers, and installing the things yourself.
Now, I have investigated solar, and based on what I learned, I would never attempt it myself for many reasons, among them that IANAE [electrician].
However, let us assume that you are a decently skilled all-around home repair person (not an electrician or some type of construction worker, that’s cheating), with the ability to call on a couple of friends for a day when you really need extra hands.
Is it remotely possible to do on your own?
Is it possible to do it yourself at a significant savings? Obviously you’re not paying for the labor to install the panels, but then again you’re also not getting the work warrantied. Also, where I live there are tax breaks for installing solar in addition to the federal one–but you can’t claim those unless a licensed contractor does the work.
there are lots of techniques, materials, building and electrical codes that pertain to both. i don’t think you could buy instructions and do it right both in terms of efficiency, durability and safety (doing it wrong could kill people and destroy your house even well after installation).
It’s technically possible to do but there isn`t much possibility for savings and it’s unlikely you’d be entirely successful. Even licensed experienced electricians often make serious mistakes with solar installations, if they’re not experienced with PV systems. Actually, I’ve met a lot of really incompetent NABCEP certified electricians I wouldn’t trust to plan or even supervise an installation, so even certified installers aren’t necessarily good enough.
Fist of all, installing a whole-house PV array system is a very costly undertaking. More so than you think. Especially an “off grid” system, where you must also purchase and maintain a bunch of deep-cycle batteries. It does not make sense to install such a system if your goal is to “save money.” Secondly, I would be skeptical about claims that you can build a reliable system via purchasing components “directly from suppliers” and “doing it yourself.” If it was so easy and economical to do, why aren’t more people doing it?
That guy selling instructions is laughing all the way to the bank when the chumps send him money for something they could easily research on the Internet in 15 min.
What the power companies really don’t want you to know is that there are tons of ways to reduce your electric loads by doing simply things like improving household insulation, replacing power wasting equipment and making a few manageable lifestyle changes.
The powcos really couldn’t care if you know what that Internet scammer knows. He’s over inflating his results and is more interested in finding chumps than providing cheap solutions.
Around here it is the opposite… the power companies want you cut back on energy usage. They even have programs that provide homeowners incentives for reducing energy consumption. The reason I heard was that there are federal guidelines on how many days a power plant is allowed to operate above a certain percentage of peak capacity. I don’t know what these numbers are, but an example might be, “You are not allowed to operate above 95% capacity for more than 14 days a year,” or something like that. If a power plant *does *operate above that percentage, the government will force them to build another plant, which is something they don’t want to do.
Right… the power companies face increased demand, and thus they can either invest a ton of capital to increase their capacity, or they could spend that money to help consumers buy efficient things. The latter option makes happy customers, and avoids all of the headaches of building another plant. Sure, customers still pay for these incentives through their electricity bill (TAANSTAFL!) But I’m ok subsidizing more efficient electricity use, instead of building more plants to power inefficient old crap.
(I was shopping for a fridge a little while back, and the local power company would write a $100 check to help replace your busted old fridge with a new high efficiency model).
It’s a very interesting read if nothing else. And has lots of tips and tricks as well as a catalog of parts for the DIY.
I considered it for a while. I would have used a hydropower hybrid along with solar. I have a small stream on my property.
I am very capable for the set up except to wire it into my house. In the end, the numbers did not add up for me. Mostly not enough flow in the stream, and no good place to put a solar array.
Mods, I hope it’s OK that I put a link to the book. I am not in any way connected to Real Goods.
I priced it out maybe 10 years ago and to go completely off grid with the amount of electricity we use now would be about $50,000. It would be interesting to see is it would be less now
Yes you do. Money that your regulators expect you to spend. Let’s be frank. You make money when you sell a kwh. It’s easy to measure as it goes through the meter.
But while societal costs improve with conservation it’s quite difficult to measure saved kwh that weren’t produced. So your regulators love to coax you into promoting demand side management programs and then they love to short change you when you ask for rate relief associated with those programs.
Powcos do promote very helpful conservation programs and the employees working those programs are commendable for their steadfast focus on customer and societal well being. And while management and shareholders see that it gets them good marks for corporate citizenship, they also lament the revenue erosion it causes.
Well, we’re getting off-topic here, but in fact my local utility sent out a newsletter saying in effect “Good work cutting consumption! And now because we sell fewer kwh than we used to, we’re raising the unit price!” Perverse incentives…
It certainly depends on where you live. My average $/kWh is something like $0.20. You can get solar kits with grid-tie inverters for around $1.25/W. That means I get a return on investment after 6250 hours of good sunlight. Even at only 4 hours/day of equivalent sun (accounting for angle, cloudy days, etc.), that pays for itself after under 5 years.
Installation can easily double the cost, from what I’ve heard. It’s not a task to be taken lightly, but it’s also not something that requires years of training.
Not everyone does it because it’s still a significant up-front investment, and many people don’t have that kind of capital. It’s hard enough to get people to buy a $40 LED light bulb, even though that will also pay for itself shortly. Also, it’s only recently that the prices have dropped enough to be economical for many people.
even more remotely. You can google the same source + the word scam. the people who have looked into it say it would end up costing you more. They equate it to the likelihood of building a state of the art car out of spare parts. The sum of all the little parts exceed the cost of the car purchased outright.
You might be able to cobble together a wind generator that charges a 12 volt car battery that in turn runs an LED light system in your house. I think that’s doable without a lot of fuss or major investment. You could eliminate all the electricity needed for lighting.
BTW, as has already been stated earlier, power companies desperately want consumers to use less electricity. My state actually mandated that the power companies reduce consumption. To that end they are partially funding the cost of CFL bulbs. They also buy old power hungry refrigerators and probably have a bunch of other similar programs.
I think it’s like any kind of home construction/remodeling. Can anybody do it? Of course not. My neighbor can’t work a screwdriver to tighten a doorknob; installing solar panels is and always will be beyond her. Can some people do it successfully and more cheaply than hiring professionals? Sure, my other neighbor, a retired contractor and carpenter with good knowledge of electrical issues certainly could (since he doesn’t consider his labor a cost).
Does it make sense to try for most people? Probably not, unless you really get a lot of satisfaction out of doing it yourself, or you have lots more time than money on your hands, and in either case only if you’ve got some experience and skills already.
People actually do this successfully. Here is a discussion board on the topic:
It is not cheap nor easy:
Wind Turbines: Wind can be powerfully destructive. It is non-trivial to make a wind turbine that will not fail catastrophically in high wind. For any useful amount of power, the turbine needs to be well above any trees or buildings. This pretty much precludes their use in urban or suburban settings. In a home brewed turbine, the tower system is going to cost perhaps twice what goes into the actual turbine.
Homemade solar panels: These need to be made on low-iron tempered glass, which isn’t cheap in low volume, and not widely available, so shipping can be considerable as well. The cells need to be encapsulated in EVA, which is also not so cheap and not so available. It is possible to improvise a vacuum laminator, but you would probably need to make well over 100 panels to amortize the cost and break even over inexpensive Chinese panels. The materials mentioned above are required for efficient, durable panels. Cheaper materials do not last.
The Chinese appear to have decided to dominate the solar panel market. They are selling panels cheap enough that virtually nobody can compete. It is probably a good time to buy some.
Mostly people do this as a challenging and interesting hobby. The price per KWh generated is pretty high.
And like I have stated earlier the power companies are just doing what they have been mandated to do. Think about it. If you sell widgets why would you desperately want to sell less widget? Maybe you’d want to control instantaneous demand but if your factories (in this case generators) can keep up with the demand you would be more than happy to produce your product and make your margins.
And I’m not implying that the powcos are meanies for wanting to produce more. They are just businesses that operate for profit. They buy back the clunk and promote the programs because that’s the rules.
the details on photovoltaics and wind are not trivial. there are electrical issues (code, materials, technique) that are specific to them and differ from ordinary household electricity. there are serious structural issues with these installations, they are exposed to lots of wind and weather, it can cause a lot of damage to your home if not done correctly. there is also finding a location to place these systems so that they will be useful and provide a payback, placing in the wrong spot is a waste.