 |
US $85.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Monday Feb-08-2010 18:21:12 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
This book is very easy to read with wonderful and useful information. If you want to start thinking "green" then this book is a great start.
The book spans a wide range of topics - including beauty products, cleaning products, linens and mattresses, and home improvement. If you are going to make any large-scale eco-friendly investments (on-demand water heater, organic mattress, hybrid car, solar panels) youre going to need to do much more research than what is in this book. If youre just looking for a primer covering a lot of topics and dont mind it when it states the obvious (bring your own bags to the store, recycle your trash) or hawks products, then you might find this book useful.
February 8th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
How much money will I save with a 150 watt solar panel?
I’m trying to figure out how to calculate how much money I will save each month, to figure out if it is a good idea to get a solar panel now or wait until until next year.
Say I have a 150 watt panel, I get 5.5 hours of peak sunlight, and I pay 5.8 cents per KWH.
What is the equation to figure out how much that will be?
February 8th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
150 watt x 5.5 hours x 365days/year x 1kw/1000w = 301kWhr/year
301kWhr/year x $0.058 = $17.47/year
Hope that helps!
(5.8 cents per KWH is an awesome price! Where do you live?)
References :
Mechanical Engineer for an alternative energy company
http://www.aurorapower.net/
February 8th, 2010 at 9:20 pm
My short answer is that the panel will never pay for itself, for several reasons. I don’t know if you are already involved in renewable energy, have other panels working for you and the various support equipment, such as an inverter, a rack, disconnects, batteries or charge controllers. You can’t take a solar panel and just plug it into an outlet to make electricity unless it also has a microsine controller installed in the back. If it does, it will be a fair amount more expensive than just a panel.
Ericnuts is exactly right on the numbers, all that assuming the sun shines those hours each day, without any clouds to speak of, and you never have snow sitting on the panel either. You do have an awsome electric rate too, do you live in the pacific northwest?
We have a home that is completely powered by a solar array, and we have made plenty of mistakes setting it all up. Even with some grant money and tax write offs, I don’t think it will ever pay for itself in offset electric bills, but that is not the reason we installed it. While it reduces our electric bill, it also provides our power without burning any coal, oil or natural gas. And since we have the power company as a backup, in 10 years, our home has never been without power for even a minute. Those are hard things to put a price tag on.
What I would suggest is you do more research than asking guys online for an answer, there are lots of places to get information on this, I will include some below. You might decide later not to get involved at all, and that’s fine, but at least you will be well informed. Good luck, and take care…Rudydoo
References :
Home Power Magazine..Homepower.com
Backwoods Home Magazine
Midwest Renewable Energy Association
Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association
American Wind Energy Association
Real Goods Catalog
February 8th, 2010 at 9:22 pm
Assuming 6 hours on the average of useful sun radiation, the 150 Watts panel will produce 900 W-hr every day and 328.5 KW-hr every year (0.9 KW-hr times 365 days). Depending on the price you pay per KW, you can calculate the annual saving. Even if you pay $0.2 per KW-hr, the saving is $65. The price you’d pay for 150W solar power generator (panel, inverter, charge controller and a deep cycle battery) can amount to $900.
So, if saving is what you are aiming at, I don’t think it is a good investment. If you however live off grid, or you want it for your RV, your boat or your camping site – this is a better option than a small diesel generator. To get more insight look into http://www.solar-energy-for-home.com/offgrid-solar.html
References :