German-designed house makes enough power to charge an electric car

Inhabit.com ^ | 12/14/10 | Andrew Michler

[hoagy62]

If you read the article, this is accomplished with huge solar panels on the roof. The house is also designed without a permanent foundation to allow for easy setup "with minimal disturbance". The German government is going to build one of these things in Berlin as a showcase for the concept. I'd like to see this thing stand up to a Minnesota winter or a Midwest thunderstorm. I'd also like to see it generate enough power for anything during a Pacific Northwest rainstorm (like we're having right now).

If you look at the picture in the article, you'll see the little car they have parked in the driveway....a Smart Car. Just what I want to do...live in an econo-box, driving a car that doubles as a coffin when you get run over by a truck.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The solar panels produce all their energy during the daytime when you and your car are at work. When you come home from work and put your car in the garage, the sun isn’t shining. That’ll work real well.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

When we were designing our new house (built in 2002) we chased down all the solar stuff we could get but the payout was way, way out there and maintenance was questionable.
We spent our money on a ground source heat pump, thermal floor system and lots of insulation. Glad we did.

[camle]

at what cost? sure we can do thigns like this, but if the cost of the electricity is so huge as to be prohibitive, why bother?
IIRC North Haven spend 1.6 million on solar panels for their schools. it’ll save them 400k/year. the panels last 30 years (at best). guess what? they bought 30 year panels with a 40 year payback.THTA makes sense

[mylife]

Typical liberal claptrap.
No number were used in the selling of this propaganda.

What is the cost?
How much electricity does it produce?
How does that equate to energy from the grid?

[lacrew]

Even assuming this works well...wouldn’t it be simpler and more efficient to use the solar power in the house?

[loungitude]

You should recheck that.

[Baynative]

Speaking of PNW rainstorms. I'm enjoying watching all the alarming reports of widespread flooding that contrast vividly with the constant propaganda from the environmentalists about the need to manage water runoff, the perpetual pending drought and government's responsibility to regulate and control water use by humans.

Isn't it clever how they lobby to tear out the dams and prevent water retention in order to save salmon, then bemoan the (alledged) lack of water in the summer.

It's the life of liberal bureaucrats; Create a crisis in order to create a fix that will inevitably lead to another crisis.

[Rebelbase]

I’m holding out for the personal mini-nuke generators.

[camle]

you are right, I added an extra zero when typing the amount saved. it should be 40k. sorry. my bad.

[Will88]

German-designed house makes enough power to charge an electric car

Does it make enough power to run a refrigerator and range? Or a water heater and television?

These things might mean more if put in more practical terms.

[Kenton]

Wouldn’t this be a little like living under the power lines?

[aces]

They are huge on solar because the govt subsidizes it, I have many German colleagues who boast of their 10000 dollar solar panels for hot water, I told them I could have 2 seven year hot water heaters for 700.00 and they would last as long..they just think we are idiots..killers of the world..they are just soooooo civilized..

[BenKenobi]

That’s why you have a solar collector.

Solar collector is heated up.

Then when you come home, you’ve got plenty of power.

[WestwardHo]

We went with a small panel house, and a little woodstove.
A little fire in the morning to take off the chill, sun in the south windows all day. Furnace only runs at night when the house drops below 60 degrees, and that only happens when it’s in the ‘teens outside.
Smartest move we ever made.
Some years ago, we lived in a house with solar. What a bunch of junk, and actually made the house colder. We had to replace the wornout workings when we went to sell.
Expensive, inefficent boondoggle. (Try roofing around those panels.)

[WestwardHo]

I’m holding out for the personal mini-nuke generators.

You might want to contact Art Bell. He had a guest who saw great possibilities for “cold fusion for residential use.”

[Joe 6-pack]

What a lot of people fail to realize is that Germany is substantially further north than much of the U.S. and sits roughly on the same latitudes as our northern border states and southern Canada. As such, it gets more sunlight hours during the summer, and a lot fewer in the winter than most folks in the U.S. are accustomed to.

I'm wondering how much electricity a solar panel home is going to capture in Bremerhaven in December, although it may not do too bad in June.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The payback on the GSHP was less than five years. We have no had a single service call on this unit. Four wells are 200 feet deep under the driveway and pull 59 F liquid into the house and through the heat exchanger. Electricity bumps it to 68 or whatever we set. It also does a great job with AC although the dehumidification could be better.

[NeverForgetBataan]

be careful putting up the Christmas lights on that thing. You might fry yourself.

[ASOC]

LOL

Like so much on that site - this is vaporware...”concept home aims to “

I used to visit the site, but soon got bored with tiny 100K “homes” with enough space for a family - of hamsters.