[Homestead] Shaking the grid
Leslie
cayadopi at yahoo.com
Thu Feb 4 14:04:11 EST 2010
2000 watts is not going to going to provide much electricity. That is 2k for an entire day. There are some "solar generators" available for low cost that provide that kind of KW. They are similar to a backup gas generator for short power outages, except instead of an engine they have a deep cycle battery, and a solar panel. The ones I've seen have wheels and a handle to make moving them around easy.
Step one look at your monthly bill, and divide by 30 days to find out your avg KWH usage.
KW and KWH aren't the same, as some appliances use a fairly steady amount of KW per hour, and others cycle on and off throughout the day (i.e. a refrigerator).
Coffee pots are electricity hogs. Microwave ovens use more wattage, but often it is just for a few minutes at a time.
Heating, hot water, stovetop cooking most refrigeration, isn't cost efficient on solar.
Solar Oven is one economical change that can be made (about $225 bux), but requires a lifestyle change.
Think of it as a solar crock pot.... although oven temps can get to 400 degrees, for baking, etc.
The least expensive set up is to grid-tie, so that you are feeding any unused electiricy back to the power co, and you get a credit on your bill, or an actual check.
Odds do not favor electricity prices getting lower, so today's price for solar is relative to today's cost per KWH, but not against tomorrow's increased cost of KWH.
Google used solar systems for sale. There are a number of people who are cash strapped who are selling entire systems.
I too would love to get into this, but the costs are so high. Does anyone have sources for less expensive voltaics? What's a practical/optimum setup for generating 1800 to 2000 watts? There are a lot of resources on the web, but which ones work?
Tim
_______________________________________________
Homestead list and subscription:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead
Change your homestead list member options:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/homestead/cayadopi%40yahoo.com
View the archives at:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/homestead
________________________________
From: Tim Oppenheim <timopp at gmail.com>
To: mark at transvantage.com; homestead at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Thu, February 4, 2010 12:29:33 PM
Subject: Re: [Homestead] Shaking the grid
More information about the Homestead
mailing list