Who has what at there homes Solar Powered.
 

I am thinking about getting some for my house. Either solar or wind. The area we are in has a breeze almost daily year round and it's usually 12 mph or more.

So who has what and hows it working out for you.

Anyone?

I have an array on my roof that's connected directly to my air conditioner - so all summer I keep the thermostat on 64 and if it gets too cold I open a window.

where did you learn to speak? from this guy

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b9...29__yoda_l.jpg

I was thinking the same.

I would like a cheaper electric bill. But more importantly, to have power when the power goes out. We have had a number of storms roll through here lately, and it's knocked out the power a few times. 6-12 hours before fixed. But still.

If I have choice in the matter. Would rather just have solar and be the house in the neighborhood with power.

:2 cents:

How much did the array cost and how much power does it put out at its peak?

will get you nowhere attitude will.

I was in a rush and just screwed it up.

Nothing new around here.

my grass is solar powered. It takes energy from the sun and grows taller every week

For us, either would work. We have plenty of both sun and wind. But I wanted to see what people were using.




It would most likely be cheaper for me but I was wondering the same.

$15k minus a $5k tax credit, I don't recall the output but when I got it installed last year I gave the guy the specs for my Trane AC and told him I wanted slightly more capacity I seem to recall like 1.5 kW?

I would think a little more than that Probably closer to 3. At least for an average size 5 ton machine.

Thats not bad... where do you live?

Here in Las Vegas, we get 300+ days of intense sunlight per year.

It matters a lot on where you live. I looked into it for a MN house and it makes zero sense to do it.

http://www.mrsolar.com/content/solar-insolation-maps/

This is a good page to get started on.

http://www.mrsolar.com/page/MSOS/CTGY/ce

ironically electric energy in USA is relatively cheap..
i guess if you have a large house with a/c, pool and jacuzzi etc it could be costly to run..

personally i am waiting for better tax incentives to proceed..and i am looking at solar panels, wind is great but typically the wind turbines are huge and not really practical for a regular residence..

My electric bills get close to $1000 in the summer months.

5 ton machine? I live in a regular sized modest house.

Anyway, I have no idea. The guy I bought the house from had added a new AC unit a year before I bought it, I gave the solar guy the paperwork for it and told him I wanted enough power to keep my house ice cold all summer and not pay for it.

My roof is slanted N-S so they put a 10 by 20 panel array on the south facing side, and viola, my electric bill drops $150 in the summer.

Of course it'll take 10-12 years of summers to pay it off, but I figure I'll get my money back plus some when I sell the place.

Sadly Mine is even cheaper than that. I pay bi monthly and the average is about 130$ for 2 months. In the summer it will hit about 250 to 300 for 2 months.

But why pay the electric company unless you MUST.

Then you have between a 3 and 5 ton ac unit. Its not the weight of the unit, and I dont really know how they used that but thats the sizes.

Ironically, although I live in California, it's against our HOA rules to install such a system. Big ass satellite dishes are perfectly acceptable, but not solar power.

However, we don't use much power. I have a 3k sq foot house, but it's Northern California and mild here. We don't use the heat in the winter; Although it gets cold our house tends to stay warm. In the summer we don't use the AC much. I've discovered if I open up the windows in the morning, close them up at noon or so, and use ceiling fans in the afternoon, I don't really need the AC unless it gets above 95 - which isn't too often. We also run big stuff only at night like the dryer and dish washer.

Right now it's noon and all we are running is two ceiling fans and a handful of computers.

Our power bill is less than $100 a month.

Not bad Roc. Nice to see someone not paying the lifes blood to the electric company