DYI
http://www.rotatinghome.com/about.html
I can foresee a time when every roof is a solar panel and the electric utilities cry about it and demand a cut.
Rough estimate: my roof is about 120 square meters * 1 kW/m^2 * 25% efficiency * 12 hours/day * 365 days = 131,400 kWh per year. Knock that down by some amount because of clouds and non-optimal solar angles and it still provides all of my electricity unless I want to use it at night.
http://www.i4at.org/surv/solmap.htm says I get about 3.5 kWh / day / m^2 on average or 153,300 kWh per year hitting my roof. With a 25% efficiency I still get between 3 and 4 times as much electricity as I use during the year. From there it is just a matter of installed cost vs. about 11¢/kWh and rising cost to buy electricity.
(Just noticed that the 3.5 kWh/day requires the surface to face the sun, so I'll need to rotate my house during the day :-(. Looks like I'll lose some of my planned electricity.)
DYI
http://www.rotatinghome.com/about.html
One of those important acronyms: ROI. How many decades before it pays for itself.
“square meters”
What is this recent love affair with the European metric system? Fad? Cool factor?
I realize it’s a superior system of measure, but for general conversation among Americans, it sounds pretentious.
Nothing personal, Karl. Just a pet peeve of mine.