Are you using solar to power your home?

[Billy_Bob]

I don't know if he means to say that that's how much power he actually gets from his system, at its peak, or whether that's just what the panels are rated for.

Rated for.... I get nowhere near the rated levels, ever...

The average is about 32% of rated power..

 

[HenryBHough]

I have been using solar to power a weekend cabin for over 15 years. Not out of any misguided belief that so doing might save the planet. Only because there is no utility within some 20 miles of the place. Just two small panels. No fancy mountings, just nailed to a South-facing wall. Connected to a pair of wheelchair batteries (deep cycle, compact). Even then I was able to get 12 Volt DC LEDs which, using less than 5-Watts each, threw off light equal to a 60-Watt conventional lamp. Couldn't use fluorescents because they won't work in the cold and, at the time, were only slightly less expensive than the LEDs. For entertainment, a combo CD/Tape player AM/FM radio designed to run on 8 flashlight batteries but converted to accept 12VDC directly. Only conventional lamp was in the outhouse because there was no heat out there and even LEDs wouldn't work.

Even on sunless days the batteries were good for two full days of use . Had we used the place for a week at a time we'd have needed more panels and more batteries but that was never the intent.

In addition, though not domestic, I still help maintain solar on five mountaintop radio repeaters that are exclusively solar powered, 24/7/365. Gave up on wind machines because iced blades tend to fly off. The batteries at two sites are over 10 years old and still holding up. The others haven't been up there that long. One site, where there is particularly heavy wet snow, requires a visit once each winter to get the snow off the panels. Remote telemetry says the batteries hold up through over 3-months when there is no solar contribution due to length of days and snow/ice cover.

Doesn't mean the crap sold for homeowner use is any good but well built solar is king where there is no grid.

Longevity? The original panels are still working nicely but the batteries have been replaced twice.

 

[Billy_Bob]

In addition, though not domestic, I still help maintain solar on five mountaintop radio repeaters that are exclusively solar powered, 24/7/365. Gave up on wind machines because iced blades tend to fly off. The batteries at two sites are over 10 years old and still hkoldinkg up. The others haven't been up there that long. One site, where there is particularly heavy wet snow, requires a visit once each winter to get the snow off the panels. Remote telemetry says the batteries hold up through over 3-months when there is no solar contribution due to length of days and snow/ice cover.

Interesting...

New blade designs, with graphite, keep ice from forming on the blades. I am amazed that they abandoned the wind generators but can see it if they over built storage as much as you described.

 

[Borillar]

I would consider it, but our Nazi HOA won't allow them. Don't know if it would really be worthwhile here in Oregon considering all the rainy days we have. I would definitely have solar panels if I lived in Arizona or other sunny states.

 

[ChrisL]

I have been using solar to power a weekend cabin for over 15 years. Not out of any misguided belief that so doing might save the planet. Only because there is no utility within some 20 miles of the place. Just two small panels. No fancy mountings, just nailed to a South-facing wall. Connected to a pair of wheelchair batteries (deep cycle, compact). Even then I was able to get 12 Volt DC LEDs which, using less than 5-Watts each, threw off light equal to a 60-Watt conventional lamp. Couldn't use fluorescents because they won't work in the cold and, at the time, were only slightly less expensive than the LEDs. For entertainment, a combo CD/Tape player AM/FM radio designed to run on 8 flashlight batteries but converted to accept 12VDC directly. Only conventional lamp was in the outhouse because there was no heat out there and even LEDs wouldn't work.

View attachment 299921​

Even on sunless days the batteries were good for two full days of use . Had we used the place for a week at a time we'd have needed more panels and more batteries but that was never the intent.

In addition, though not domestic, I still help maintain solar on five mountaintop radio repeaters that are exclusively solar powered, 24/7/365. Gave up on wind machines because iced blades tend to fly off. The batteries at two sites are over 10 years old and still holding up. The others haven't been up there that long. One site, where there is particularly heavy wet snow, requires a visit once each winter to get the snow off the panels. Remote telemetry says the batteries hold up through over 3-months when there is no solar contribution due to length of days and snow/ice cover.

Doesn't mean the crap sold for homeowner use is any good but well built solar is king where there is no grid.

Longevity? The original panels are still working nicely but the batteries have been replaced twice.

What do you do with the batteries?

 

[Bob Blaylock]

Generally, that means you need a solar power system that covers a lot more land than what the building itself takes up.

Interesting. So you have to have a little "solar panel field" in your backyard.

Maybe more than a little. I know that typically, a system limited to the rooftop of a building doesn't provide enough power, by itself, for that building.

 

[Billy_Bob]

I have been using solar to power a weekend cabin for over 15 years. Not out of any misguided belief that so doing might save the planet. Only because there is no utility within some 20 miles of the place. Just two small panels. No fancy mountings, just nailed to a South-facing wall. Connected to a pair of wheelchair batteries (deep cycle, compact). Even then I was able to get 12 Volt DC LEDs which, using less than 5-Watts each, threw off light equal to a 60-Watt conventional lamp. Couldn't use fluorescents because they won't work in the cold and, at the time, were only slightly less expensive than the LEDs. For entertainment, a combo CD/Tape player AM/FM radio designed to run on 8 flashlight batteries but converted to accept 12VDC directly. Only conventional lamp was in the outhouse because there was no heat out there and even LEDs wouldn't work.

View attachment 299921​

Even on sunless days the batteries were good for two full days of use . Had we used the place for a week at a time we'd have needed more panels and more batteries but that was never the intent.

In addition, though not domestic, I still help maintain solar on five mountaintop radio repeaters that are exclusively solar powered, 24/7/365. Gave up on wind machines because iced blades tend to fly off. The batteries at two sites are over 10 years old and still holding up. The others haven't been up there that long. One site, where there is particularly heavy wet snow, requires a visit once each winter to get the snow off the panels. Remote telemetry says the batteries hold up through over 3-months when there is no solar contribution due to length of days and snow/ice cover.

Doesn't mean the crap sold for homeowner use is any good but well built solar is king where there is no grid.

Longevity? The original panels are still working nicely but the batteries have been replaced twice.

What do you do with the batteries?

And that would be why its a mess and extremely bad for our environment. The batteries I have are the great big 1500amp/hour lead acid type.

like these;

These things are monsters and cost 1,675.00 each..

 

[ChrisL]

I would consider it, but our Nazi HOA won't allow them. Don't know if it would really be worthwhile here in Oregon considering all the rainy days we have. I would definitely have solar panels if I lived in Arizona or other sunny states.

Why would you live in a place with an HOA. I never understand why people agree to that. Basically, you have agreed to let your neighbors boss you around. You should move and have some freedom to do what you want with your own property.

 

[Bob Blaylock]

I don't know if he means to say that that's how much power he actually gets from his system, at its peak, or whether that's just what the panels are rated for.

Rated for.... I get nowhere near the rated levels, ever...

The average is about 32% of rated power..

I earlier was trying to come up with some realistic calculations for how many panels you'd need per kilowatt hour of daily energy usage. I made a guess at 50%. Sounds like I was being overly optimistic.

I'm imagining that between what sounds like an ideal location, and your own technical expertise, you're probably getting better output than most.

How are your panels mounted? Are they fixed, or on a tracker? How close are they to always facing directly at the Sun?

One thing I found easy to calculate is how much you lose by not having the panels directly facing the sun. Whatever the angle is by which they are off, the cosine of that angle is the amount of power you get, relative to what you'd get if you were facing directly at the sun. If you're not off, then the angle is zero, and the cosine of zero is 1, meaning you get 100%. If you're exactly perpendicular to the Sun, off by 90°, then the cosine of 90° is zero, meaning you don't get any of it. If you're off by 45°, then the cosine is .707…, or the reciprocal of the square root of two; you get slightly better than 70%.

 

[Billy_Bob]

I don't know if he means to say that that's how much power he actually gets from his system, at its peak, or whether that's just what the panels are rated for.

Rated for.... I get nowhere near the rated levels, ever...

The average is about 32% of rated power..

I earlier was trying to come up with some realistic calculations for how many panels you'd need per kilowatt hour of daily energy usage. I made a guess at 50%. Sounds like I was being overly optimistic.

I'm imagining that between what sounds like an ideal location, and your own technical expertise, you're probably getting better output than most.

How are your panels mounted? Are they fixed, or on a tracker? How close are they to always facing directly at the Sun?

One thing I found easy to calculate is how much you lose by not having the panels directly facing the sun. Whatever the angle is by which they are off, the cosine of that angle is the amount of power you get, relative to what you'd get if you were facing directly at the sun. If you're not off, then the angle is zero, and the cosine of zero is 1, meaning you get 100%. If you're exactly perpendicular to the Sun, off by 90°, then the cosine of 90° is zero, meaning you don't get any of it. If you're off by 45°, then the cosine is .707…, or the reciprocal of the square root of two; you get slightly better than 70%.

Sounds like you have been doing some serious studying..

My panels are on a tracker. From about 7am to 7pm they track the sun and stay at 90 deg angle of incidence. From about 9am to 3pm is when we get the most power as the energy has the shortest path through our atmosphere. During peak times we get about 70% of the rated output. When you average out the day that number drops rapidly.

 

[HenryBHough]

Interesting...

New blade designs, with graphite, keep ice from forming on the blades. I am amazed that they abandoned the wind generators but can see it if they over built storage as much as you described.

One site was used (non-disclosure agreement limits this) to test graphite blades. The results were better but there was still a failure mode. The blades didn't fly off but the (short) tower was shaken to pieces.

Each site used 36 batteries of a size commonly used on Cat D-8 crawlers. The 50-Watt (each) UHF and VHF radios combined were smaller than one of the batteries.

 

[Borillar]

I would consider it, but our Nazi HOA won't allow them. Don't know if it would really be worthwhile here in Oregon considering all the rainy days we have. I would definitely have solar panels if I lived in Arizona or other sunny states.

Why would you live in a place with an HOA. I never understand why people agree to that. Basically, you have agreed to let your neighbors boss you around. You should move and have some freedom to do what you want with your own property.

Normally, I wouldn't have. It was a situation where my family needed a house pronto and this one became available with a good location and price. It has nearly doubled in value since we have lived here. I joke about the HOA. It isn't really as onerous as I make it out to be, but they presently won't allow solar panels on our roofs.

 

[HenryBHough]

What do you do with the batteries?

When any are replaced they go into storage until summer when they are hauled away for recycling. By waiting for backhaul space to be available the cost of transport is minimal. It's inbound transport that is the most serious limiting factor.

 

[Billy_Bob]

Interesting...

New blade designs, with graphite, keep ice from forming on the blades. I am amazed that they abandoned the wind generators but can see it if they over built storage as much as you described.

One site was used (non-disclosure agreement limits this) to test graphite blades. The results were better but there was still a failure mode. The blades didn't fly off but the (short) tower was shaken to pieces.

Each site used 36 batteries of a size commonly used on Cat D-8 crawlers. The 50-Watt (each) UHF and VHF radios combined were smaller than one of the batteries.

Low output and massive storage.... That makes sense..

?? They didn't shock mount the gen-set? IF they left it hard mounted they had a failure that was preventable. The newer next generation blades have warming units in them that allow the blades to shed ice if it attaches... The three I have are 5 years old and still running..

 

[HenryBHough]

Low output and massive storage.... That makes sense..

?? They didn't shock mount the gen-set? IF they left it hard mounted they had a failure that was preventable. The newer next generation blades have warming units in them that allow the blades to shed ice if it attaches... The three I have are 5 years old and still running..

The maker provided the pylon but the generator was hard-mounted on a swivel atop it. We had wanted to guy the pylon, having dealt with the on-site winds, but they were specific that it NOT be guyed, rather allowed to flex. I believe it might have worked if the temperatures were not as extreme- the composite pylon material wasn't up to the combination of extreme cold and wind. Heated blades might have done better but using power to keep them warm would have defeated the purpose given the limited space available for batteries. You pretty much had to walk over the batteries to get at the regulators and radios. Building just barely visible on the left:

Could carry only 2-batteries per trip.

 

[the other mike]

Saran wrap dome...

 

[Dogmaphobe]

Yes.

It grows ALL of the plants in my garden, and does quite the masterful job of it to boot.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Are you using solar to power your home?

Why yes I do... I dry my BVD's...

 

[Fed Starving]

Economically solar panels aren't a great investment because they need continuous maintenance and last a limited amount of time and usually aren't recyclable. Objects like the Curiosity rover can benefit because the sun isn't too hot out there and the panels can last an extra long time, but once they die they're gone forever. If I lived in the outback I would bring solar panels with me in case I needed an emergency power for a phone or some other mechanical necessity.