Going Solar

[Sherri]

We are putting solar panels in our new building in Belize. The only thing that I wondered about was during rainy season if they would get enough sun to provide electricity. Is that a problem in tropical countries? I hadn't even thought about hurricane force winds until I read the post on here.

[RandyWayne]

Originally Posted by Sherri

We are putting solar panels in our new building in Belize. The only thing that I wondered about was during rainy season if they would get enough sun to provide electricity. Is that a problem in tropical countries? I hadn't even thought about hurricane force winds until I read the post on here.

Rainy, cloudy weather is a huge issue. If even 10% of a panel is shaded, the TOTAL output of that panel can drop by as much as 80% due to their parallel nature. I don't want you to stop looking into them but unless you get a lot of sun I would say they are not worth the money -yet.

Now there is technology called micro-inverters on each panel which can increase efficiency quite a bit, so that may be something to look at.

[RandyWayne]

It will be several weeks, but I will post pictures of the install and the final product.

[ILG]

Very cool. I would love to do that. Someday maybe.

[RandyWayne]

Originally Posted by ILG

Very cool. I would love to do that. Someday maybe.

I've been wanting to do this for over 20 years. We're actually putting a smaller system on our home then I would normally consider but I am leaving room to grow and fully see myself putting a couple of extra kilowatts of capacity on the roof in a few years and completely eliminating our Fall, Winter, and Spring bills.

[Hoovie]

It's pretty much a bad investment plan in the Midwest... If one's motivation is long-term sustainability of the power grid, then I would recommend leaning how to do without electricity - solar and otherwise.

[Hoovie]

A big part of a solar friendly home is less consumption by building green. If this can be accomplished without great cost it's a good idea, no matter what the energy source.

[RandyWayne]

Originally Posted by Hoovie

A big part of a solar friendly home is less consumption by building green. If this can be accomplished without great cost it's a good idea, no matter what the energy source.

This is usually referred to as the low hanging fruit. You don't want to spend big on a solar panel system and not tackle insulation, builder grade windows, and other cheaper energy saving issues first. We're actually doing both. On top of putting on the panels were changing three big VERY inefficient single pane windows where you can feel the heat coming off like an electric radiator during the day.

Another thing we looked at and quickly backed off on was using solar to heat our water. There was NO way to make the math work on this one since we would have spent a couple of thousand dollars after rebates (the upfront cost was over 5 grand) and only save about 5-10 bucks a month in natural gas costs.

[pelathais]

Originally Posted by RandyWayne

I actually asked about batteries, which they do supply, but it adds a huge amount of $$$ to the system. The sales guy who came over for our initial estimate told us to wait a few years for the costs to drop before even thinking about it. Right now, with our typical grid-tie system if the power goes out from our utility it will go out in our own home as well. This is actually a safety precaution to keep solar panels from backfeeding into the grid while electric company employees are working on the lines.

So your solar panels do "sell" extra energy back to the utility? Is this "back feed" inhibitor just in place when the grid power is out?

There's a federal law somewhere that states that public utilities must "buy" any extra energy produced by homeowners. I don't know about all of the possible loop holes and such, however. My cousins have a few of these on their property, though they collect a fee, they don't own the power generated:

[RandyWayne]

Originally Posted by pelathais

So your solar panels do "sell" extra energy back to the utility? Is this "back feed" inhibitor just in place when the grid power is out?

There's a federal law somewhere that states that public utilities must "buy" any extra energy produced by homeowners. I don't know about all of the possible loop holes and such, however. My cousins have a few of these on their property, though they collect a fee, they don't own the power generated:

Yes, electricity will only NOT go into the grid when the power is out. Again, as a safety issue for linemen working.

We will never receive a check for any power flowing backwards but we will see credit which will be applied toward the next months bill. Some utilities will cut actual checks but ours doesn't.