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Posted by Edgar on July 20, 2007, 11:34 am
> Remember me saying I wanted to take my office off the grid?
> It ain't gonna work.
> The fact is that the up front costs are way too steep and the payoff
> period is way too long.
> All I have in my office is this:
> 1 60watt lamp, 1 30 watt fan, a computer system.
> I had an accomplice figure the rough numbers and here they are:
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> Making a rough guess that your fan consumes 30W and your
> computer/monitor/etc about 150 watts when working; and that you replace
> your 60W incandescent with a 15W CF, your daily consumption will be about
> 2940 W. Once you factor in the various inefficiencies and losses,
> including inverter inefficiencies, you'll probably need panels rated at
> about 900 Watts. Depending on how good a deal you can obtain, figure
> $4-$5/watt just for the panels. Mounts, wiring, controller will add
> another $1,000-$1,500. An inverter will add another $200-300.
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Looks like about $6k right off the top and thats if I do the installation.
>
> Our light bill is roughly $100 per month and I'll guess 10% of that is for
> my office though I believe it is much less.
> So using $10/mth as the usage that equals $120/yr and to equal the cost of
> the solar stuff it would take me 50 years to break even, so whats the
> point?
>
> Several things have to transpire almost simultaneously for this solar
> stuff to work.
> 1) The cost of the stuff has to come way down.
> 2) The efficiency of the stuff has to go way up.
> or
> 3) The cost of the grid has to go into the stratosphere.
>
> BTW: To get 900 watts I'd need (4) sheets of plywood sized (4'x8') solar
> panels and those aren't easy to hide on your roof, or you need some place
> to put them where they can access the most sun and be able to be serviced.
> Something I just noticed missing in the statement above are the deep cycle
> batteries which aren't cheap either. sigh......
>
> Oh well, back to the drawing board......I don't give up THAT easily!
>
Don't know if people are blowing smoke up my ass, but I have been told it
would be about 10K to power my small home on solar (not fully but for most
of it). We are in a very sunny area so it might have to do with that. I've
used a few solar calculators online who show about the same, though that
includes tax credits and rebates from utilities (which I think Cali has a
lot). I would think for a small office it would be much cheaper.
What kind of wind do you get on your property? Ever considered wind power?
Lots of DIY ones online, not to mention the commercial stuff.
--
Edgar
--
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