Does this solar energy system seem to be a truly functional?
Seems like a good deal for the rather inexpensive price.
Anyone out there with knowledge about solar power that can give us the SD on this type of system?
I’m just wondering how much power one panel can generate. I know you can install more than one, but with several, you are beginning to talk about a relatively high start up cost.
I’m picturing a very long cord…
The Sun’s bright enough and the bulb’s strong enough.
Mangosteen, did you mean to include a link to a product? It’s hard to say if it’s a good deal without knowing the price or any of the other specs.
Sorry, Here’s the site
It puts out 200W. It costs $599-$799. If you had five of them, you could run a small microwave oven.
The site says 30kWh/month with the smaller unit; 150kWh/month for the $2995-$3995 (!) unit.
What is the average monthly usage?
920 kWh/month, according to this DOE page. So you’d six of the larger units for the average house, for a total cost of $24000. That’s more expensive than getting a custom installation, which google tells me costs on the order of $10000 - $15000 for similar capacity.
you are likely able to find local solar electric installers that will give better prices. siting the installation is important for the greatest benefit. likely a local installer could give you benefit from their pricing and save you from many hours figuring how to do it right.
I believe the performance would be troublesome. The cost is astronomical. It would take me about 20 years to recover the original cost. If I figured in the present value of the up-front cash, it could take much longer. That would depend on the increase in the cost of electricity, which I will assume is no more than the cost of money.
These things are for those who want to experiment and innovate. They are not cost efficient much as electric vehicles won’t be for some time.
Just to be fair, you have to figure in incentives and tax credits that are available.
Which means dropping your average consumption by 10-15% would be equivalent to buying a panel.
One problem with solar power I’ve noticed is that it requires a storage battery, which only has a limited number of uses before it must be recharged or replaced. A set of Solar Power “christmas lights” I purchased stopped working, and the problem is almost certainly the storage battery. There are webpages devoted to explaining how to revive your solar-powered walkway lights by replacing the rechargeable batteries inside, because these eventually fail. I don’t know what large “household” solar power units use – lead-acid batteries, I assume – but, like your car battery, they eventually need replacing.
I’m not saying that this is fatal to the application, but it is one of those aspects of maintenance that gets glossed over or ignored, sand has to be factored in for both cost and convenience calculations.
Plug in solar power. Too good to be true?
In this case, apparently true but not all that good.
solar electricity only requires batteries or other storage if you want it to operate off the grid.
a grid connected system works fine and you save on what electricity you buy or maybe even get money by selling your surplus to the utility.
the mentioned system is a grid connected system.
i think the amount of solar electric systems that are grid connected is huge and far larger than the off-grid systems.
Yep. And $3000 can buy you a lot of efficiency improvements that could conceivably cut more than 15% of a household’s energy consumption. That much will let you replace every incandescent bulb with a CFL, and buy a few more-efficient modern appliances to replace inefficient old and busted models.
Plugs in to the existing AC outlet, eh? Then it must have an inverter built in (duh), plus synchronization. There’s be no battery, so the system would have to be grid-tied.
I’m not sure what happens in regular house wiring if you insert a second voltage source other than the main feed. I remember reading that a popular feature of houses in southern Quebec after the great ice storm was an external outlet that allowed a generator to be plugged in to supply the house when the grid was down–but you had to disconnect the grid feed first. Makes sense; then you’re not trying to power the entire grid. If you just plugged this panel in during a power outage, you’d have to disconnect your house from the grid, presumably.
backup power systems operate with a switch/disconnect to feed house circuits with the source either your backup or the grid, the one not selected is disconnected. this is an important safety feature and requirement.
with a grid connected system you have no backup and it automatically disconnects from the grid when the grid goes down.
the produce cited is a grid connected system and not a backup. you would need additional equipment and setup to have both a grid connect and backup; much better done from scratch by a local installer.
Electrical technicians do not like to see one house out of many still glowing with electrical lights after a power outage. If the owner with the generator did not isolate himself from the grid he could backfeed the line and cause harm to the linemen working to restore power.
Where did all those Y2K generators end up anyway?
the electrical code in the USA requires that disconnection when using site generated power when attached to the grid.
that not to say that a person hasn’t rigged up something that could give them power, violate the electrical code and be a hazard to anyone who comes in contact with their segment of the grid.
Most installed solar systems in the US do not have batteries and are just part of the overall grid. The earlier ones like mine (2004ish) has an auto-cutout in case of power loss to prevent feeding the grid and electricuting the repair guys. Many newer ones have better cutoffs that kill your panel and prevent backfeeding the grid if the grid goes down but lets you switch back on your now isolated house. The idea of course it to only power up a few circuits and a few vital items at a time. Might be your fridge and some lights. Etc.
My system has paid for itself already but that was with the State Incentives paying for a large portion of it and the sell back of Green Credits. To buy panels with Govt. incentives will mean a much longer pay back. I would guess 15 years at the rate of electric cost increase.
The Sunfish panels do not sound like a particularly great way to go. Look for a local reputable installer and get a real system added on and do it right. They will also set you up with the incentives. Please ensure the Contractor is the one collecting from the state and not you. I have heard some horror stories out of Florida within the last year.
The above system