7 Responses

1. I don’t know about pricing.. But I do know that although solar panels will cut down on your electricity bills.. THey won’t end them.. Or even close.

   Then again, I live in a very cloudy area.. If you live in an area that is sunny all the time, then it could potentially be worth it..

   The plusses:

   1) The hippies will love you! Solar panels are probably the second greenest way of producing electricity (The first being wind turbines, as I doubt that buying the solar panels themselves are good for the planet at all.. But then again, what do I know?)

   2) It will reduce your electricity bills a bit.. I suppose it depends how many you have… According to a site on Google.. A good solar hot water panel system is able to provide an average household with around a third of its annual hot water supply.

   The negatives:

   1) They might be quite expensive.. Don’t really know..

   http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070422113426AAsay3e

   Check out that question, it seems to be exactly what you were after… and has all the technical nerdy stuff that I have no clue about.

2. Well I’m not so sure,I personally think that you should install some medium sized solar panels along with some not very big but medium sized wind turbines,so u can get all of it…when it’s cloudy outside you get from the wind when it’s sunny you get from the solar panels.
   i also think that it would be more expensive so you better don’t try to switch only to renewable sources.
   the idea is that you have to manage them yourself.If you are completely dependent on solar or wind energy and something gets screwed up you don’t have few teams of electricians as electrical companies do…so you’ll live like a caveman or something until you get someone to repair them for you…and that would increase the cost of these set ups.
   if u think u are a kick ass electrician and feel you can do an installation to power all your house up then it can get you cheaper,but it’s very hard still….you will need to buy a bunch of batteries cause we need to remember renewable energy doesn’t provide u energy all day so the batteries will cost a few hundreds of bucks,the panels are pretty expensive too…i think u can make your self about 1 square meter from like…200$ …the wind turbines are also made up of some bunch metal so they will cost you some hunderds of buck too.
   i think it’s harder and more expensive to deal with it yourself.
   even though i think that all of us need to convert to these sources of electricity,they are too expensive and pretty inefficient though.

3. Solar panels are very expensive. A 35 watt panel cost about $250 and you have to start with about 6 panels plus and inverter which will cast about the same. Then you have to have storage batteries which could run $100. each., and you need about 6 for starters. A cheaper way is to heat with Wood or pellet stove. You must be heating with electricity??? I have changed all my light bulbs to the new florescent types. I heat primarily with wood and pellets and some propane. Very little electric. My heating bill over here in Curlew, WA. in about $65.00 and Month. The other thing that is fairly simple is to call the PUD and have them do and energy audit which is free.

4. Solar panels are not for everyone. You need to sit down with several solar consultants and go over the pluses on any system. It’s all about location. The closer you are to the equator the payback time is faster.

   I have a solar hot water system installed in the late 70’s and it has saved me a ton of money on the long run. Yes the cost was expensive during the early years but I am at the light at the end of the tunnel. Our electricity bill is 2/3 lower than others around me that have no system.

5. We had 5 solar panels installed @ 3 years ago and in the summer we get all our hot water for free! in the winter we use less oil on the central heating cos the water is already warm . It cost us @ £9,000 for the instalation and we probably wont see the money back for about 20 years but it all helps.

6. My home is all electric as well so I have been researching the idea of “going green”. For the last couple months I have been collecting information and trying to get the word out that it isn’t as expensive as you think. If you are really serious about making some changes, you should take a look at the site I have created. At http://www.capturegreenenergy.com I have very informative articles that I hope will help you understand what solar power is all about and how you can save on your electricity bill. I have been starting off small with unplugging appliances that I am not using. Even if you aren’t using something but it is plugged in, it is still drawing power. My next step is actually making my own solar cells and panels, which will eventually let me decrease my electric bill dramatically. I have found a great do it yourself guide with step by step instructions, illustrations, and videos to help me succeed. You can gain access to it from my website. I hope this helps you out!

   http://www.capturegreenenergy.com

7. Well the exact question and problem as you right now led me to research for alternative ways to get electricity. I always knew that Solar energy is free itself. To install it you might have to pay anywhere between $1-10000 dollars – highly depends on your needs and circumstances. I mostly was interested to get if for as low price as possible. Came across this step-by-step guide by Ben Ford. He shows not only solar energy as alternative, but also wind turbines which can be great alternative for free energy at windy places.
   I’ve written a review about the picture ebook by Ben Ford.