This thread: Is the new Tesla battery something to get excited about? - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board makes me wonder how much solar energy I could hope to generate if I put solar panels on the half of my roof facing SE. I would estimate the total area at maybe 250 square feet. I live in Montreal which means that at the winter solstice the sun does not get above 22 degrees and is up for 8 3/4 hours. Also there is a lot of dreary weather. Could I, using a storage battery, say Tesla’s generate enough for a 24 hour draw of 10A, about 1.1 kW? That would enough to operate my oil furnace, a circulating pump (which could be foregone in emergency since there is enough gravity flow to keep the downstairs warmish) the fridge and freezer. I am thinking of the ice storm of 1997 in which we had near constant rain (which froze) and I was without power for a week.
Twenty amps would allow some lighting and even the router and one of the laptops to operate. What does a microwave use (although that really doesn’t matter much if you have battery storage since you don’t operate it for long periods)? The thought of a repeat of that experience is frightening.
I just thought that there was no way I could generate enough power in this climate, but Tesla’s announcement seems aimed at me.
If all you wanted to do was keep the battery charged and in reserve, than it doesn’t really matter how poor your solar resource is.
But, the question you need to ask yourself is why you want to do this.
From a purely economic perspective, it’s going to make a lot more sense to just buy a generator and keep some fresh gasoline on hand.
Over in England they have ‘Green Deal’ Energy audits supervised by the government to visit homes and businesses and give a complete assessment of various options. They cost £150.
They seem to have much the same in Canada, and they cost $150. Canada ecoEnergy Refit Program. Including various grants to part pay for work chosen.
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By going to the Canadian Natural Resources site at www.nrcan.gc.ca the homeowner can find a list of accredited inspectors.
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If you rang up an assessor and asked before booking if they could include Solar recommendations, you might find out without being pressured to buy.
By the way, you should consider putting the solar cells on a roof facing SW if you have one as the demand for energy is greater in the evening.
Talk to a local company that installs these panels. They will come out, evaluate your site, measure it, and give you a bid with all these details.
I am having some panels installed this spring, in Minnesota.
They came out and examined my property, and said that because of my roofline and the trees around my house (which I would absolutely not consider removing), only about 1/4th of my roof could be economically used for solar panels. They also noted that about 1/2 of my garage roof could have solar panels, but there would be increased installation cost because of having to bury wires across my back yard to connect to the house electrical system. So I ended up deciding against that option.
They then checked the exact latitude/longitude, average cloud cover, etc. to determine how much power would be generated. Then they looked at a year’s worth of my electric bills, to determine the average electricity I used. Then went through Federal & State rebate programs & tax incentives, to see how they would affect things. And various financing plans, if I don’t pay cash for the system. Then they gave me a bid, with several options, and all the figures involved. The end result for me is that solar panels will generate 44% of the electricity I use, and will take 11 years to pay back the costs. After that, the electricity they generate is all free to me.
But the best method is to have one (or more) suppliers come to your site and give you detailed bids. Then you can evaluate them, and choose one (or none). Just expect that to get some sales talk from all of them.
Hari_Seldon, I don’t think the time has yet come for solar (or wind) power to be the perfect solution to residential power sources. I live near the 44th parallel and have a large roof surface at the right height, orientation, and pitch for solar power, and I could put up a small tower for wind.
Every year, I calculate the cost and savings of a solar and/or wind system, and it’s still cheaper to pay the local power company. For outages, a generator and a house wired to accept generator input is still the best compromise. I would feel differently if the local power lines were not so readily available.
Similarly, I would like to have an electric car, but the technology just isn’t there yet and the cost is too high.
Maybe in five more years…