Power the U.S. With Solar Panels!

[Leo123]

You are lost in this conversation. You are arguing semantics. Do you really believe you can capture the energy from the sun without it having any effect whatsoever? Do you even First Law of Thermodynamics?

How about addressing the fact that long waves do not produce electricity and therefore only have a heating effect? That is not semantics. I never said you can capture the Sun without it having some effect. In fact, I explained to you how that is true. You keep saying solar panels cool because they convert sunlight to electricity but fail to point out that the Sun's spectrum includes waves that DO NOT produce electricity but produce HEATING. Some of that heat is dissipated by the array as HEAT near the ground.

 

[Concerned American]

I don't believe you can run all that at once though. That being said, except for the electric dryer, I can run most of my home on my 6kw. An electric dryer can take 1.5kw to 5kw all by itself.

Granted, but I have never so much as tripped a breaker during a power outage. The system seems to be properly sized for what I use. The longest power outage we've ever dealt with was three days and it handled it well.

 

[ding]

But I just told you long wave radiation does not produce electricity and yellow and red radiation is less effective. So, not all the spectrum is producing electricity. That was my point and you ignored it twice now.

I did not ignore your point. I explained that solar panels capture energy from the sun and convert that into electricity. That conversion of solar radiation (heat) into electricity reduces the heat that warms the surface of the planet. But if you want to argue it doesn't, be my guest.

 

[Flash]

My home is 3K sq. ft. and my emergency generator is 22KW. It keeps my home running as if the power was still on. Multiple refrigerators, a freezer, microwave, electric stove and oven, microwave, DW, W & D, electric water heater lights and a 3-station split heat/AC system.
My neighbor has a professionally installed solar system with at least 200 sq ft of solar collection and they are constantly complaining that they are depleting their batteries to run a 1800 sq. ft. home in the winter time in eastern WA. Solar is not worth the headaches even discounting the initial costs and the once a decade replacement of equipment.

I looked into getting a whole house generator for our 2500Ft2 retirement home. The minimal needed was 7KW and suggested was 9-10KW. Even at that it would not be the same as being on the grid. We could not have the oven, dryer, hot water heater, pool pump and central AC all on at the same time.

I live in an area that did not not have long outages during the last four hurricanes. In fact our power was only out a few minutes during Irma when most of the rest of the state was down. I decided to go small and get a little generator to run the necessities for a few days until the power came back on. If it is going to be an extended outage we would go to Atlanta and stay with my son.

I think he was fibbing to us when he says he can run his home with just 3KW. He must live in a very small home with few appliances.

 

[ding]

How about addressing the fact that long waves do not produce electricity and therefore only have a heating effect? That is not semantics.

How about you accepting that has nothing to do whatsoever with solar radiation that is converted into electricity is solar radiation that doesn't heat the surface of the planet. It's not magic solar radiation (HEAT).

 

[Flash]

My home is 3K sq. ft. and my emergency generator is 22KW. It keeps my home running as if the power was still on. Multiple refrigerators, a freezer, microwave, electric stove and oven, microwave, DW, W & D, electric water heater lights and a 3-station split heat/AC system.
My neighbor has a professionally installed solar system with at least 200 sq ft of solar collection and they are constantly complaining that they are depleting their batteries to run a 1800 sq. ft. home in the winter time in eastern WA. Solar is not worth the headaches even discounting the initial costs and the once a decade replacement of equipment.

Just think of the dust that would be settling on the solar collectors in Eastern Washington. LOL!

You would have to clean them every week. Then they would get covered with ice and snow in the winter.

 

[Leo123]

How about you accepting that has nothing to do whatsoever with solar radiation that is converted into electricity is solar radiation that doesn't heat the surface of the planet. It's not magic solar radiation (HEAT).

Solar radiation INCLUDES long waves and it has plenty do do with what we are discussing which is heating.

 

[ding]

Solar radiation INCLUDES long waves and it has plenty do do with what we are discussing which is heating.

Is it really a surprise to you that any heat converted into electricity is heat that doesn't heat the surface of the planet?

 

[Concerned American]

Just think of the dust that would be settling on the solar collectors in Eastern Washington.

Not to mention the pine pollen in the spring.

 

[Flash]

I did not ignore your point. I explained that solar panels capture energy from the sun and convert that into electricity. That conversion of solar radiation (heat) into electricity reduces the heat that warms the surface of the planet. But if you want to argue it doesn't, be my guest.

The problem with solar is that it is simply to low level of an energy source per square whatever measurement you use.

I worked on a NRC application for a nuclear power plant expansion in Texas about 15 years ago. My department had to write the section on alternate energy. That is required by the NRC.

It would have taken more than the area of the county the plant was in for solar collectors to even be 50% of what the reactor was going to produce. By the way, Texas has big counties.

Unless you live in a narrow sun band in the SW a roof is not going to give you enough space for the solar collectors to run an average American middle class household. Not the parts of the roof facing South for the most efficient collection..

It is shitty technology for power generation.

 

[westwall]

I'm actually surprised how long their life span has been.

I maintain them well. Even with that I am hovering at 5% efficiency now.

 

[Leo123]

Is it really a surprise to you that any heat converted into electricity is heat that doesn't heat the surface of the planet?

Long waves do not produce electricity. They produce heat.

 

[surada]

How do you store the power that people need when the sun isn't available?

Batteries? That's a LOT of batteries, particularly when you consider we may soon be at war with the country that has most of the materials required to make them.

Additionally, our entire power grid works on AC. Batteries only store DC. You lose considerable power when you convert from one to the other, and then back again because most of our devices ultimately work on DC.

Peru and Australia have plenty of lithium.

 

[westwall]

Peru and Australia have plenty of lithium.

I thought you all hated mining. Oh.....I get it.......it's ok to fuck up other peoples land.....

 

[surada]

I thought you all hated mining. Oh.....I get it.......it's ok to fuck up other peoples land.....

Why would I hate mining? You're in your own head.

 

[Leo123]

Peru and Australia have plenty of lithium.

Let’s go dig ‘em up!!! NIMBY

 

[alang1216]

I would say the Sun is there in the sky but, you need technology to harness and use it. Petroleum is just sitting there in the ground, you need technology to harness and use it as well but, you don't need banks of batteries to store it.

No just tanks and pipelines, all of which eventually fail.

 

[alang1216]

You have to buy the panel that converts the photons into electrical current. You have to buy the converter that turns the electricity into a useable mode, and you have to buy the control panel that runs it all. Full up cost for a system that will run your average house, DURING THE DAY, is 18,000 dollars. More if you want to actually read at night.

$18K today, OK, what was it yesterday? What will it be tomorrow?

 

[alang1216]

Hydrogen is not a natural gas.

What gas is more natural than the most common gas in the universe?

We are not remotely ready to completely change our main source of energy in the world.

There we agree. For now.

 

[alang1216]

I agree. See? I'm not a monster.

You still scare me on occasion