Posted on 02/08/2011 7:55:56 AM PST by 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.
I used to be in construction before I decided to go back to college and get my EE and started designing microprocessors.
Spend the $$ first on making sure your home is fully insulated in the walls, floor and ceiling. This is within the abilities of most home owners.
Get a Kill-O-Watt ($20) and find out where all the high current devices are in your house. Changing them to more energy efficient versions will help more.
Just doing this will save real $$$ while having to spend 20k for a solar array which might save you $10/month.
Solar panels may make some degree of sense in the sunny Southwest (particularly for reducing your air-conditioning bill), but make no sense at all in the snowy, cloudy Northeast. Solar cells have been getting more efficient and cheaper over the last decade, but they are nowhere near being cost effective outside small niche markets without major government subsidies.
“I would not recommend digging coal on your own land. The permit process will require months of work by a geologist and a PE to meet Department of Interior requirements”
Shovel and shut up.
I don’t think they will catch you digging a few tons a year, unless you start selling it on the street corner.
Lousy idea where you live but if you want a lot more information go to Yahoo.com and join a blog there that will give you a ton of ideas. SIMPLYSOLAR
Your welcome
I don't think there is any coal in the UP, except at on a C. Reiss Coal dock in Escanaba or Marquette.
As far as wind goes, I was in Hawaii a couple of years ago and went to the south end of the big island. There is a huge wind farm there, and if any place could make a go of wind energy it would be Hawaii with its highest electricity price in the us and constant strong wind. Of the 75 or so wind turbines on the site, not a singly one was functioning. It wasn't economically feasible to keep them running even with the tax credits. So if you're looking into alternative energy to save money it's probably not going to work.
How deep is the well, how much pressure are you delivering at the top of the well and how much water are you trying to pump (in GPM)?
A domestic well, even one that is very deep, shouldn’t kill you on electric bills unless the pump setup is mis-designed.
The system has a moderate battery bank (24VDC) and a 4KW Trace inverter, and whatever source is available charges the batteries.
Spring, summer, and fall, the solar panels provide enough power for my highly-efficient home. Winter... not so much. Sun is a rarity. The wind generator being down at the moment, I have to run the gasoline genny for a few hours once or twice a week to keep the batteries topped up. Usually the wind genny would suffice, since it's pretty windy up here; not steady, but enough.
What you want to do can be done -- I'm doing similar. But it is not effortless. Clearing ice and snow off the panels after a storm is a pain; keeping track of the battery state of charge is a pain.
But on the upside, no electric bill, and the capital investment in the panels, batteries, and inverter has long since amortized away. The local power company (NYSEG) can fail and I don't even know it until a friend calls to ask how I'm doing in the blackout, and I tell them I wasn't aware there was one!
“all we need is a good converter. He has one that came with the batteries but, it’s over 10 years old.”
I would not lose sleep over the age of the converter. It probably has very few hours of service and they generally last many years.
Batteries are another issue, even if perfecetly maintained, they generally aren’t good for more than 5-6 years but I have heard of people getting 10 years out of them.
If you have the safety equipment and knowledge, batteries can even be cast and manufactured at home but the lead paste is very toxic and I wouldn’t try it myself.
Absolutely agree.
The first places I start investing in “energy efficiency” on a home are the doors. There are far too many homes with far too much leakage around doors.
Next are the windows.
Those two areas are the worst offenders in heat loss, because many people don’t take the time to really do doors and window installation correctly.
Next area is insulation.
Some of the best engineering ideas I’ve seen recently on homebuilding have to do with a) going to 6” walls and b) staggering studs on the inside/outside walls, so there is no direct connection from the outside wall to the inside wall through the stud except possibly in corners. This radically reduces the heat transmission of a house from the inside walls to the outside.
http://www.thelibertyman.com/steam_generator.php
Little pricey but you could build one yourself for much cheaper.
A couple of cautions about heating water and making steam. Heated water under pressure contains a huge amount of potential energy and can explode.
If you want to heat water, heat a coil, not a tank, it is much less likely that you will blow up the house or have live steam coming out of the shower head (bad on the complexion, posibly bone deep)
If you want to make steam to generate power, make sure you understand the safety requirements and do it in a shed away from the house.
If you are interested in turning wood into electricity, there are simpler ways to do it than making steam. Google wood or charcoal gasifier, you can run an internal combusion engine directly of of smoke or syngas from your wood. If you find the FEMA manual, there are photos of an old Ford tractor being run on wood chips and a gasifier.
I don’t want to be a downer but heating the hot tap on your own is a complicated and potentially dangerous affair. I agree with the other poster about looking into a wood fired outside boiler, the engineering is already done, all you have to do is come up with the wood and plumb it in.
Oh, about sizing the solar for the pump. The pump doesn’t run continuosly. You want to consider the average hourly use over 24 hrs and size the panel to charge enough, during the daylight, for that.
Then consider the ‘price break point’, you may end up getting one slightly too small. You can turn off other devices when the pump runs.
A root cellar is stiil a very good idea. Putting a free non-working freezer in it just for a clean insulated box is a good idea too.
I’m amazed at the prices of fresh veggies this winter and expect it to continue.
Thank you so much for the info. I’ve made up my mind not to go solar. Don’t know if my stubborn hubby will go along. But, if he doesn’t he can build the darn think himself...lol I’m going to check out a wood gasifier next. I’d never even heard of one of those until someone mentioned it.
Our well is something over 300’ down. I’m wondering if the pump isn’t good. Just a guess. We had the new well dug about 4 years ago. Seems like we’re using a lot more electricity now. I’m not sure of the GPM output. Our water comes out of the facet ok, nothing great though. I think it’s a bit on the slow side.
We are talking economic Armageddon here.
Who is going to enforce those laws?
No one.....
You sound like the weather where you live is very similar to ours. How long do your batteries last? The ones we would get from my brother in law are probably 5 years old or so, used from the state. We can get them pretty cheaply though, a couple hundred dollars.
I am going to check on the wood gasifier. Thank you for your feedback. This is what we needed. It’s hard doing this on your own without it. I really appreciate all you and the other freepers that have commented. Well, except that one...lol No feedback from him, just a smarmy comment.
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