Are you thinking about solar?

jtwrace · « **Reply #100 on:** 19 Mar 2015, 01:40 am »

My brother would be happy to see all this positive talk about Solar City.

macrojack · « **Reply #101 on:** 19 Mar 2015, 01:58 am »

Pez - I'm also in Colorado.

If you are going to be grid tied you have to enter into a contract with your energy provider. Xcel Energy will only permit you to install a system capable of producing 120% of your past year's energy use. i'm told that there are people who will run a couple of space heaters in the garage for a year before applying for service quotes. They have everything worked out to keep you from benefiting too much from the arrangement. At the end of the year you may have accrued energy credits which you can either cash in or leave in your energy bank for a cloudy day.

Pez · « **Reply #102 on:** 19 Mar 2015, 02:03 am »

Interesting... I was unaware of the energy contract through xcel. I'll have to look into that a bit more.

macrojack · « **Reply #103 on:** 19 Mar 2015, 02:08 am »

Quote from: Pez on 19 Mar 2015, 02:03 am

Interesting... I was unaware of the energy contract through xcel. I'll have to look into that a bit more.

Here's the Xcel PV helpline # 1-800-824-1688
I've had dealings with two different people there both of whom were very knowledgeable and helpful. Ask for Jordan or Amanda.

Pez · « **Reply #104 on:** 19 Mar 2015, 03:03 am »

I appreciate the info! I'll give me a call tomorrow.

macrojack · « **Reply #105 on:** 19 Mar 2015, 09:51 am »

Very cloudy here yesterday. Never saw the sun all day but the panels still generated 8.45 KWH of power for us. That's about one third of what we have been seeing lately. The corned beef brisket experiment came out great though. Every cloud has a silver lining.

macrojack · « **Reply #106 on:** 19 Mar 2015, 12:06 pm »

For those of you who are afraid of pursuing solar because of the entry fee, take heart and re-evaluate with current data. I just read that the price of solar panels has gone down by 80% since 2008.

And here's a figure I found surprising: New Jersey is 4th in the nation in solar power capacity per capita. N.J. has a hell of a lot of people and not much open space so that per capita figure is amazing to me. BTW, AZ was number 1, Hawaii was 2nd and Nevada 3rd. After that N.J. was 4th, followed by N.M., California, Delaware, Colorado, Vt. and Mass. The list goes on the graph bars start to get pretty skinny after that.

Bottom line is: Solar Energy is out of the bottle and will soon become an unstoppable monster of a trend. Government support for it is still a question but Texas billionaires will probably be trying to corner the market soon and govt. involvement will then appear in some form. Get in early.

Phil A · « **Reply #107 on:** 19 Mar 2015, 01:17 pm »

Here's all kinds of solar capacity stats by State for 2014 - http://www.seia.org/research-resources/2014-top-10-solar-states

macrojack · « **Reply #108 on:** 19 Mar 2015, 01:29 pm »

And here are some states who are candidates for the Hall of Shame:

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-no-solar-20140810-story.html#page=1

SoCalWJS · « **Reply #109 on:** 19 Mar 2015, 01:38 pm »

FWIW.

We recently moved into a planned community and all of the houses have Solar Panels on a 20 year lease from Solar City. You have little/no choice in the matter (they decide on how many panels to put onto the roof during the construction period. This is based on the model of the home with factors like # of bedrooms and the average use for other similar models in the past). You can contact Solar City and talk to them about having more panels installed after you take possession of the house.

We are still in the process of moving in, so we are not here full time, nor are all of our electric appliances running yet. We will get a spa at some point, which will change things. During a typical sunny day, our array produces between 30 and 35 kwh. It is a VERY moderate climate here. AC is not standard and would typically be used 10-15 days a year (as a guess). We do use natural gas for heating, hot water, and Range.

Our first electricity bill was under $5. I liked that part.

macrojack · « **Reply #110 on:** 19 Mar 2015, 01:41 pm »

Hey Phil - After my last post, I remembered you are in Florida, which is famous for discouraging solar installs. Did you have any difficulty with red tape or protectionist laws? It's funny how the private sector/free market guys are always busy trying to buy themselves a legislated monopoly.

macrojack · « **Reply #111 on:** 19 Mar 2015, 01:47 pm »

Quote from: SoCalWJS on 19 Mar 2015, 01:38 pm

FWIW.

We recently moved into a planned community and all of the houses have Solar Panels on a 20 year lease from Solar City. You have little/no choice in the matter (they decide on how many panels to put onto the roof during the construction period. This is based on the model of the home with factors like # of bedrooms and the average use for other similar models in the past). You can contact Solar City and talk to them about having more panels installed after you take possession of the house.

We are still in the process of moving in, so we are not here full time, nor are all of our electric appliances running yet. We will get a spa at some point, which will change things. During a typical sunny day, our array produces between 30 and 35 kwh. It is a VERY moderate climate here. AC is not standard and would typically be used 10-15 days a year (as a guess). We do use natural gas for heating, hot water, and Range.

Our first electricity bill was under $5. I liked that part.

That situation sounds like it falls somewhere between reasonable and enlightened. May turn out to be heavenly since it suggests a like minded neighborhood.

Having to go to Solar City for modification after purchase doesn't seem too burdensome. In my area of Colorado we go through an application process that includes engineering plans and evaluation thereof if we want to join the grid. Once you are approved and installed and operational, any modification requires a repeat of the entire process, which really isn't as bad as I made it sound.

Where is this place? I probably can't afford it but you never know.

SoCalWJS · « **Reply #112 on:** 19 Mar 2015, 02:29 pm »

Quote from: macrojack on 19 Mar 2015, 01:47 pm

That situation sounds like it falls somewhere between reasonable and enlightened. May turn out to be heavenly since it suggests a like minded neighborhood.

Having to go to Solar City for modification after purchase doesn't seem too burdensome. In my area of Colorado we go through an application process that includes engineering plans and evaluation thereof if we want to join the grid. Once you are approved and installed and operational, any modification requires a repeat of the entire process, which really isn't as bad as I made it sound.

Where is this place? I probably can't afford it but you never know.

South end of San Luis Obispo County California, the community is Nipomo.

http://www.trilogylife.com/communities/california/monarchdunes/?gclid=CMbu5Z_QtMQCFQiNaQodpz4AIw

Phil A · « **Reply #113 on:** 19 Mar 2015, 03:04 pm »

Quote from: macrojack on 19 Mar 2015, 01:41 pm

Hey Phil - After my last post, I remembered you are in Florida, which is famous for discouraging solar installs. Did you have any difficulty with red tape or protectionist laws? It's funny how the private sector/free market guys are always busy trying to buy themselves a legislated monopoly.

No - not at all - no issues whatsoever. The builder was great all around and worked with a competent solar (http://321gosolar.com/homepage/) company (and the builder has done a bunch of homes -http://www.buildingalifestyle.com/2014/06/lifestyle-homes-builds-sebastians-first-solar-powered-zero-energy-home/ - http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/publications/pdfs/building_america/ba_bc_lifestyle_hot-humid.pdf ) . The builder is a closely held company that has been in business since 1984 (and the solar subcontractor over 20) and the construction managers have weekly meetings. If a subcontractor isn't doing the job, they get rid of them. Yes it was a few dollars more but it was done during the construction phase. I have all kinds of audio wiring and while I was back and forth lots, it was almost 900 miles from my other home. They did a great job of coordinating everything and called me if there were any issues. I posted their gallery of solar powered homes earlier. There's only a bit more than 70 lots in my little subdivision which is part of a bigger community. There's probably 4 or 5 builders (the developer is one of them - not my builder but probably built the most - still have about 20 lots to be built on which the developer kept for themselves so my builder is done with this community) and they all have (regardless of builder) solar assisted hot water heating and my builder has a few more solar houses in the development as well. One can see the solar panels on back of the house (in addition to the ones on the side I previously posted from Google Earth:

Phil A · « **Reply #114 on:** 19 Mar 2015, 03:08 pm »

I like my quiet neighbors in back of the house too

- they come and go

ctviggen · « **Reply #115 on:** 20 Mar 2015, 09:36 pm »

Where I am, they have a minimum bill of $16 (now $19, I believe). So, if you make more energy than you use, you still have to pay. Also, they do an accounting once a year and anything you've accumulated will be paid at the going rate (think half price). I don't have to worry about that, as we're not making enough electricity.

Tyson · « **Reply #116 on:** 20 Mar 2015, 09:44 pm »

If you go solar, couldn't you get a hybrid car and cut down on gasoline usage at the same time?

JLM · « **Reply #117 on:** 20 Mar 2015, 10:03 pm »

Quote from: Tyson on 20 Mar 2015, 09:44 pm

If you go solar, couldn't you get a hybrid car and cut down on gasoline usage at the same time?

To be totally correct, you mean a plug-in hybrid so your sunlight can (partially) power the car, right? Good idea!

MtnHam · « **Reply #118 on:** 20 Mar 2015, 10:06 pm »

If you need an around town or short to moderate commute car, a pure EV would most certainly make sense now.

SoCalWJS · « **Reply #119 on:** 20 Mar 2015, 10:20 pm »

I'm hoping for something along these lines....

http://cleantechnica.com/2015/02/21/tesla-home-battery-way/

There may soon be a day where you charge up a Tesla Battery (or similar) with solar during sunlight hours and it holds enough of a charge to power the house overnight and non sunny days. The existing Battery technology tied to Solar isn't very efficient.

Would be nice if the whole thing produced enough electricity to that long with charging an EV/Hybrid for running around near your home. Still got a ways to go for distance driving.