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Posted by Ulysses on October 3, 2009, 2:16 pm
> I ran across a website that says it's easy to build your own solar
> panels and home made windmills. Anyone actually done this?
From everything I've seen and read by the time you buy a bunch of "seconds"
solar cells and put them all together in a panel you may as well just buy a
panel. Recently I've seen panels advertised for just over $2/watt and there
is speculation that they may go even lower in about a year. Keep in mind
that this "breakthrough" has be on the verge for a long, long time and
hasn't happened yet ;-) There's a recent thread about it on alt energy.
homepower (PV Panels $1.98/Watt? vaughn 9/20/09).
As for windmills, as was mentioned you need a spot with really good,
consistant wind, a high tower, and probably so many permits that it would
never result in a positive gain financially.
I see these as viable options to produce electricity if you live somewhere
where the grid is not available. Otherwise it is almost always cheaper to
buy it from the electric company.
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Posted by AZ Nomad on October 3, 2009, 3:54 pm
>> I ran across a website that says it's easy to build your own solar
>> panels and home made windmills. Anyone actually done this?
>From everything I've seen and read by the time you buy a bunch of "seconds"
>solar cells and put them all together in a panel you may as well just buy a
>panel. Recently I've seen panels advertised for just over $2/watt and there
>is speculation that they may go even lower in about a year. Keep in mind
>that this "breakthrough" has be on the verge for a long, long time and
>hasn't happened yet ;-) There's a recent thread about it on alt energy.
>homepower (PV Panels $1.98/Watt? vaughn 9/20/09).
>As for windmills, as was mentioned you need a spot with really good,
>consistant wind, a high tower, and probably so many permits that it would
>never result in a positive gain financially.
I have this image of the OP using solar panels for windmill blades.
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Posted by Jules on October 3, 2009, 10:09 pm
On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:46:27 -0700, Ashton Crusher wrote:
> I ran across a website that says it's easy to build your own solar
> panels and home made windmills. Anyone actually done this?
Not yet... but I am keen to throw an alternator together sometime though,
with some blades to drive it. The barn roof's about 40' high, so
with a tower atop that it might stand a chance of doing something slightly
useful (I'm very skeptical about wind power, but it'd be a fun experiment
at least)
Machining blades that are both strong, balanced, and with the right
profiles is sure going to be interesting!
Regarding solar, do you mean panels producing electricity, or ones for
heating water? The latter should be pretty easy to do, inexpensive, and be
capable of doing useful things (even if nothing like 24x7). From what I've
read on homebrew PV panels though, it sounds like it's just not worth the
effort.
cheers
Jules
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Posted by Ashton Crusher on October 4, 2009, 1:52 am
On Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:09:29 -0500, Jules
>On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:46:27 -0700, Ashton Crusher wrote:
>> I ran across a website that says it's easy to build your own solar
>> panels and home made windmills. Anyone actually done this?
>Not yet... but I am keen to throw an alternator together sometime though,
>with some blades to drive it. The barn roof's about 40' high, so
>with a tower atop that it might stand a chance of doing something slightly
>useful (I'm very skeptical about wind power, but it'd be a fun experiment
>at least)
>Machining blades that are both strong, balanced, and with the right
>profiles is sure going to be interesting!
>Regarding solar, do you mean panels producing electricity, or ones for
>heating water? The latter should be pretty easy to do, inexpensive, and be
>capable of doing useful things (even if nothing like 24x7). From what I've
>read on homebrew PV panels though, it sounds like it's just not worth the
>effort.
>cheers
>Jules
Electric. Since I'm in the city the windmill is probably a lost cause
and it sounds like the solar thing is iffy.
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Posted by Jules on October 4, 2009, 2:49 pm
On Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:52:09 -0700, Ashton Crusher wrote:
> Electric. Since I'm in the city the windmill is probably a lost cause
Yeah, I suspect you couldn't get enough height to make it really useful
(as useful as they can get, anwyay)
> and it sounds like the solar thing is iffy.
Uh huh. Waiting a few years for costs to come down and then buying a
commercial panel might be the best bet (I'm sure they'll get cheaper;
right now I'm not convinced they save enough over their lifetime to
justify the cost)
I keep getting told that domestic heating's the real expense though, so
anything simple you can do to minimise that is worthwhile (insulation,
lots of south-facing windows etc.)
cheers
Jules
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> panels and home made windmills. Anyone actually done this?