my 2 80 watt Sharp Solar panels
to go with my 6 15 watt Harbor Freight Panels
And my new Xantrex C-40 charge controller
and my 2 new 6 volt golf cart batteries.
I can now start putting together my solar system for my office. I'm hoping by this time next year to have my entire house off the grid. That will save me quite a bit of fundage every month :o)
Mark
4 comments:
I keep reading how it will take 10 years (or more) for the cost of grid electricity to equal what you'll spend on the solar panels, batteries and other components to run your home off-grid.
If that's true, you will never "save" money by taking your office and home off-grid. How many years of KWh can you buy for several thousand dollars? I even read something that said that just the cost of replacing batteries alone will be higher than the cost of buying the same amount of grid electricity from the utility.
But maybe there is a different reason you are doing this besides trying to spend less money?
More power to you.
I am doing this as I can afford it. I have several friends who have pieced together their systems over years and are now to the point that with grid tie, their electric bills are negative or under 10.00 a month.
I am hoping to get a system up on my house here, but my dream is to get some more property in a few years and then build the house I want. And it will be totally off grid.
Right now I'm just learning my way as I go, so when I do build my house I will know how to do it and maintain it. Plus I will know what appliances I'll need and how much energy they use.
I'm not one of those global warming idiots. But I do think I should do what I can to reduce my dependency as much as possible. That way my money stays here in the U.S. rather than going overseas to some other country whose interests may not be close to ours.
I agree with what you are doing and am starting the same kind of incremental installation myself.
My original comment came from hearing so many people talk about how installing "alternative" energy is going to "save" them money. When in actual dollars, it is highly likely that purchasing solar panels, batteries, inverters and the rest will cost them MORE than it would just paying for the power. A LOT of power.
There are many worthwhile reasons to invest in an alternative energy system, including the reasons you mentioned in your last paragraph. But spending thousands of dollars in order to have a $10/month electric bill is not really about saving money, in my opinion.
Good luck with your system. I am happy to be learning from you.
If you want to know more about alternative energy, on my page there is a link to Alpha Disaster Contingencies.
Actually here is the direct link to the section of the website:
http://www.alpharubicon.com/altenergy/altenergy.htm
I am a member of that site and have written several articles for it, and in the campfire chat section I have a few of my shows that have been edited for the site.
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