Solar Panels?

[Snook]

Any 'solar experts' here? Anyone have experience with solar panels or wind turbines to off-set electrical expence. I listened to a guy selling solar pannel 'plans' to build your own., like this one.

http://www.power4home.com/MakeElectricity.php?hop=bleyis


but my track record is not one of 'immediatly' starting/finishing projects. Then maybe professional installation? Opinions?

 

[Billy Liar]

Not an expert, but they are very worth while investing in.. in the UK, the government give a 'feed in tarrif' so you get paid per KwH as an incentive, but get to use the electricity you produce too.. your energy provider is obliged to buy any surplus electricity from you aswell...
most of the panels I've seen can produce 200watts, so a 10 panel system on you roof would run a nice little grow room through out the day..
peace
BL

 

[RoomRaider]

200w, 8 hours full sun if ur lucky, so 16kw hrs for 10 panels. That can run a 1kw light and some fluros for veg .

Its ~$600 a pannel, so it would cost you 6 grand not including an inverter, batteries or cables.

Your going to need batteries to store extra energy on good days and provide reserves on bad days. A 6volt 400ah battery cost $325 and provides 2.4kwhrs stored, you need 2 batteries in series to provide 12 volts for the inverter/charge controller. Wire the rest in parallel. Thats at least 8 batteries, another $2,600.

So you will be looking at roughly $10,000 to run a 1kw grow. Can pay for itself in a couple good harvests. For large scale grows its not really feasible. Even with the 200w pannels a 5kw grow is going to need something like 1600-2500 square feet of panels...... sounds good on paper, but in real life that is alot of fucking panels and batteries to keep track of and maintain. (5kw continous, 10kw flip flopped)

 

[Hundred Gram Oz]

They are far too expensive at the minute I'm looking forward to a hydrogen run garden in the future.

 

[Billy Liar]

the feed in tarrif is what makes it pay for its self... you just need to make sure the electricity you produce is getting used...
the UK government are paying around 43pence per KwH (ATM) whether you use it or not...

peace
BL

 

[Hazyfontazy]

the feed in tarrif is what makes it pay for its self... you just need to make sure the electricity you produce is getting used...
the UK government are paying around 43pence per KwH (ATM) whether you use it or not...

peace
BL

as a newly qualified electrican i been looking into this for a job ,i want to become a photo voltaic installer (sounds good dont it lol),,according to people i spoke to in the industry its more of a eco friendly gimmick than a profit maker ,the average return off the panels would take 15 years to pay for itself ,by which time the panels are fucked ..

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

People buy computers today, knowing full well there will be better computers tomorrow. Every one of us recognize progress, never mind the fact we rarely have the latest and greatest hardware.

We could all benefit from our own renewable energy systems. Everybody wouldn't have to have the same degree of investment. The oil and coal lobbies will continue to argue they can't be replaced. Who cares? I get the impression they can be considerably phased out and keeping that genie in the bottle is what they're all about.

It's just like electric cars. We don't have to be 100% electric to see the benefits.

Over time, we'll see more and more interest in renewables. The oil and coal industries will still be around, like they always insisted. But they'll no longer be the only game in town.

 

[GP73LPC]

200w, 8 hours full sun if ur lucky, so 16kw hrs for 10 panels. That can run a 1kw light and some fluros for veg .

Its ~$600 a pannel, so it would cost you 6 grand not including an inverter, batteries or cables.

Your going to need batteries to store extra energy on good days and provide reserves on bad days. A 6volt 400ah battery cost $325 and provides 2.4kwhrs stored, you need 2 batteries in series to provide 12 volts for the inverter/charge controller. Wire the rest in parallel. Thats at least 8 batteries, another $2,600.

So you will be looking at roughly $10,000 to run a 1kw grow. Can pay for itself in a couple good harvests. For large scale grows its not really feasible. Even with the 200w pannels a 5kw grow is going to need something like 1600-2500 square feet of panels...... sounds good on paper, but in real life that is alot of fucking panels and batteries to keep track of and maintain. (5kw continous, 10kw flip flopped)

wow, i knew startup costs were pricey, but damn

i've got a friend of a friend who has some land in the country. he's built himself a 2 room cabin, with indoor bathroom (well water supplied) and kitchen. he has a chicken coup and a work shed. he powers everything with solar and wind. he runs almost everything on 12V DC. he has 12V Led lighting. not super bright, but sufficient to do the trick. he can run a small tv, laptop with cellular access, stereo, etc... he does have 2 A/C window units but these are only running when a generator is running, so they are not solar powered. not sure about his well pump, but i believe it's solar powered.

i have seen his system and had no idea he had that much money tied up in it

 

[Snook]

200w, 8 hours full sun if ur lucky, so 16kw hrs for 10 panels. That can run a 1kw light and some fluros for veg .

Its ~$600 a pannel, so it would cost you 6 grand not including an inverter, batteries or cables.

Your going to need batteries to store extra energy on good days and provide reserves on bad days. A 6volt 400ah battery cost $325 and provides 2.4kwhrs stored, you need 2 batteries in series to provide 12 volts for the inverter/charge controller. Wire the rest in parallel. Thats at least 8 batteries, another $2,600.

So you will be looking at roughly $10,000 to run a 1kw grow. Can pay for itself in a couple good harvests. For large scale grows its not really feasible. Even with the 200w pannels a 5kw grow is going to need something like 1600-2500 square feet of panels...... sounds good on paper, but in real life that is alot of fucking panels and batteries to keep track of and maintain. (5kw continous, 10kw flip flopped)

Thanks for the numbers, sounds prohibitive and I've seen similar numbers before but in the link (post#1),, the guy talks about making a more efficient pannel DIY. Possible, not possible, rediculious? of course, the batteries and electrics are a given, I guess. I guess I'm asking: can a 'handy' person accomplish DIY solar pannels? without a big work shop, in a resonable amout of time?

 

[Crusader Rabbit]

Here is a link to threads discussing solar powered grow rooms.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/forumdisplay.php?f=65579