How well do Solar Panels work?

MsLady | Feb. 8, 2011 | MsLady

[MsLady]

My hubby and me are thinking about going solar. Basically because we feel society is breaking down and things are getting very unstable. Obama seems to be h*ll bent on making our lives more costly to the point of ruining everything. And because we like the idea of being as independent as possible.

At any rate, we live way up north. Snow levels usually run 200" or more. Long winters from oct. through march/april. We probably have seen the sun 2 or 3 times since the beginning of the year. Lots of cloudy days from about dec. till feb/march. I wanted to know if anyone had experience with them, especially if you live in the north.

We will be building our own.

[Errant]

Yep, and yesterday, over 20.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The Department of the Interior, Office of Surface Mining has regulations allowing “incidental” coal extraction (coal near the surface that is uncovered while building a highway, for example.) If the coal lays under what is called “prime farm land,” you would be required to return that land to 100 percent of pre-mine productivity and post a bond with your state (if it has primacy to oversee mining.)
When the 1977 law (amended in 78 and 79) was first drafted, it allowed up to 2 acres to be disturbed and no more than 250 tons to be extracted but not for sale. I'm pretty sure this has been changed, however.
The main thrust of the law was to prevent the loss of topsoil and keep dirty storm water from running off mine sites with holding ponds. Later, more regs were added covering blasting, dust, compaction of soils, mining into alluvial valley floors, etc. The mountaintop removal mining in W. VA seems to ignore the law's “approximate original contour” stipulations and certainly interrupts free flowing streams and creeks.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I should add; the law was published as PL 95-87, signed by Jimmah Cahtah.

[dangerdoc]

Thus the need not to talk about it.

I’ve moved tons of dirt and rock around my property. If some of that were coal, nobody would be the wiser. I wish I had an exposed seam on my property, I would dig some up just for the principal of the matter.

In fact just discussing it has aggravated me to the point I’ll have to pour some used motor oil in the in the creek just to make me feel better. /jk

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Don’t throw away that used oil.
It’s worth $2.00/gallon during asphalt paving season.

[dangerdoc]

/jk

I was just joking. Everybody knows you don’t pour oil in the creek, you spray it on the road and ditch to settle dust and kill weeds.

[SaraJohnson]

When I was a kid and broke, I rented houses with friends.

I had a roommate once who changed the oil in his car and then poured the dirty oil into my vegtable garden compost. He was around 20. He had no idea that was a bad idea until he heard me screaming like a banshie.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

“Hey great!!! For only a forty thousand dollar investment, you’ll be able to warm up a cup of tea—sometimes even twice a day!!!!”

-

Understand your point, but actually one can accomplish what you described, for $100. Basically - a trickle charger, a battery and once a day, a couple minutes of heat from some sort of low-wattage small heating element.

Solar isn’t yet anywhere near economically competitive, but can in a pinch (teotwawki or oil crunch etc) provide a VERY basic limited backup capability. Just marginally more convenient than camping.

If there’s literally no power, for $100 ... that’s somewhat better than nothing. Sort of. :)

Unless one has an unlimited budget (your $40,000 reference) — in which case it’s actually possible to build a system capable of supporting nearly a “normal” house power load.

Mostly a hobby until the technology improves.

[NVDave]

The pump can be good, but pumping into a restriction or excessive back-pressure that causes the power usage to go up - waaaaay up.

Most of the time, people with wells never think much about friction losses and excessive “head pressure” (ie, pressure at the head of a well). That is, until they’re in your situation, where you have a finite amount of energy at your daily disposal, and you find yourself saying “Wow, a huge chunk of our energy usage is spent getting water out of the ground.”

If you can get those pressure (PSI) and GPM numbers, then if you can get the HP and/or model # of your well pump flip me a message a PM and I can run some numbers for you on what your pump “should” be pulling for power draw. We used to own a farm in Nevada with four irrigation wells and a domestic well.... so I’ve been down this road with wells that had power bills in the $3K to $5K/month range. It costs a lot of money to pump 1200 GPM out of a well 235’ deep at 30 PSI...

[MsLady]

Thank you so much. I have no idea of the numbers. I’ll have to see if my husband knows. I’m not even sure he does. We had the well dug about 6 years ago, costly over 12,000 to have it done. Our well is over 300’ deep.

[Daffynition]

In snow... not so much. ;(

[mad_as_he$$]

Based upon your description solar is the wrong choice for you. Also, solar is the most expensive per KWh supplied. Can you go hydro?

[Daffynition]

Why not Geothermal? AC included. ;D

[MsLady]

Yea :( we get a lot of snow here. In fact it’s been snowing for days now. We have at least 150” of snow, it’s probably more just not sure. Usually we get around 250” give or take a few.

[MsLady]

I don’t think we can go hydro, no reliable running water on our property.

[mad_as_he$$]

Geo is ok but you still have to run a heat pump or other concentrating technology. It is expensive up front also.

[Daffynition]

Yes...like any technology...over time...it will become more affordable.

I’ve seen some housing developments up here in NE using geo and the homes are twice a expensive as comps per sq footage.