Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[02ebz06]

Why not Solar ?  Expensive I know, but you wouldn't have to have it for the whole house.
They should be able to power just the circuits you deem critical, with the appropriate # of panels and batteries.

[SmokinHandyman]

Bentley, they also make PTO driven generators you could run off of your small tractor

[hughver]

Why not Solar ?  Expensive I know, but you wouldn't have to have it for the whole house.
They install a transfer switch and just whatever circuits you deem critical could be on it, and install appropriate # of panels and batteries.

I had 35 327W panels installed on our house when we bought here in AZ, but you could never run AC or an electric oven off of these panels. My maximum generation is in May/June and is only 75KW hours/day. For the first 5 years that we had them, we never paid a penny for electricity. Of course, we we in the NW boating most of those summers. This past summer, due to covid and my health, we remained in AZ and had electric bills around $150. IMO Batteries are not a practical solution here; demand is too high.

[02ebz06]

I had 35 327W panels installed on our house when we bought here in AZ, but you could never run AC or an electric oven off of these panels. My maximum generation is in May/June and is only 75KW hours/day. For the first 5 years that we had them, we never paid a penny for electricity. Of course, we we in the NW boating most of those summers. This past summer, due to covid and my health, we remained in AZ and had electric bills around $150. IMO Batteries are not a practical solution here; demand is too high.

I'm no expert, but I have done some looking in to solar and that doesn't make sense to me that you can't run ovens or A/C.
Maybe your system may have been installed wrong or designed wrong.
Most installations feed unused power to the Electric company and you get money from them monthly.
Peak months you may have to pay none or some depending on capacity of the system that was installed.
IMO there should be no reason you can't run ovens or A/C (with or without utility power) unless it was an under-powered system.

That kind of defeats the purpose of having solar if you can't use it.

[Bentley]

Whole other story, VA has no requirements for the power companies to buy excess generated power so we said no to solar!

[hughver]

I had 35 327W panels installed on our house when we bought here in AZ, but you could never run AC or an electric oven off of these panels. My maximum generation is in May/June and is only 75KW hours/day. For the first 5 years that we had them, we never paid a penny for electricity. Of course, we we in the NW boating most of those summers. This past summer, due to covid and my health, we remained in AZ and had electric bills around $150. IMO Batteries are not a practical solution here; demand is too high.

I'm no expert, but I have done some looking in to solar and that doesn't make sense to me that you can't run ovens or A/C.
Maybe your system may have been installed wrong or designed wrong.
Most installations feed unused power to the Electric company and you get money from them monthly.
Peak months you may have to pay none or some depending on capacity of the system that was installed.
IMO there should be no reason you can't run ovens or A/C (with or without utility power) unless it was an under-powered system.

That kind of defeats the purpose of having solar if you can't use it.

The output of the solar panels is feed into an inverter that converts it to house power. the inverter is connected to local utility power. A meter measures how much power that my system contributes to the utility. that amount is subtracted from my house useage and I get billed for the difference. If I contribute more than I use the balance goes into a power bank account that gets zeroed out yearly. I'm paid for any balance at the utility's going rate. Given that an AC unit uses 3-6kw/hr. and here they run 24/7and many houses here have 2 AC units, the majority of the power is provided by the utility company. The panels are a drop in the bucket during high usage periods. Without solar panels, a normal electricity bill is 3-6 hundred dollars a month, depending on the size of the house and how cool they keep it. So bottom line is that in a roundabout way you do use your solar energy for AC and ovens. P.S. Terms of the government and state rebate agreements state that the power cannot be used to heat swimming pools.

[02ebz06]

OK, that makes sense.

[hughver]

Whole other story, VA has no requirements for the power companies to buy excess generated power so we said no to solar!

Here in AZ it appears that individual utility companies made commitments to the government to a target a certain amount of renewable energy in order obtain some other benefits. So, buy back does not seem to be a state policy but is determined by each utility company.

[Hank D Thoreau]

I have a lot more from when I had to deal with unions when I worked at Hughes Aircraft (now Raytheon) in Calif.
It was really difficult to do our work having to deal with them.
Can you tell I don't like unions ?

I used to work for Hughes doing robotics and automation. I would run into trouble with the union electrical technician when I tried to fix or upgrade our equipment on the shop floor.

I had a few grievance warnings. I decided that I would find out what the electrician liked to do. I found out he was a bass fisherman.

I became his bass fishing buddy. I would talk bass fishing with him even though I had never done it before. I would just fake it.

He started to become more responsive. He would jump on my jobs quickly. Then one day he was working on something for me and got an urgent call he had to respond to.

He ended up leaving his tool belt with me so I could finish the work myself.

[BigDave83]

Propane is the only option here in NW Arkansas.

No wood pellets there?

Then again depending on the usual winter temps the upfront cost may make that not cost effective.

I had a Harman P43 installed in 2012 had about $4200 in it installed ans 2 ton  of pellets to start. I go through 3-4 ton of pellets per winter, they were 245/ton this year I believe. I was going to go with a cheaper brand/model but after talking with a few people and some of their experiences I went with the Harman. I have replaced the combustion fan motor twice about $130 each time since owning it. That fan runs 24/7 the way I use the stove. It gets a break when I shut it down once a month to quick clean and empty the ash pan.

The propane heater was nice, but really couldn't heat my whole living space well.

[BigDave83]

I had thought about looking in to solar but I kind of live in a hole. The side of the hill was dug out to build the building I live in. With that and the trees it wouldn't work out well.

[Bar-B-Lew]

Bentley, are you getting more snow this evening?

[Bentley]

Not yet, but it is supposed to start in about and hour!

[BigDave83]

It started here maybe 2 hours ago. I went out to pick up the GF, a few plow trucks out, roads are greasy and snow covered. I made one turn and ended up sliding through in to a driveway and was able to just keep going. Last I saw 8 to 12 by tomorrow night.
 I am in the mountains of somerset county PA. This is the first real snowfall of the winter here.

[Bar-B-Lew]

forecast 1-3" here on the eastern side of PA tonight into tomorrow morning