Buying a home with active solar panel lease
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kevin9408
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powering a heater with solar panel
Comments (37)I'm sure you are going to laugh at me but what is vacuum tubes and what do they do for heating? Not to chance the subject but i was on another forum and they were talking at cheap seed starting heat mat. Most of them were taking Xmas rope lights (indoor/outdoor use)and putting them into sand ( just enough to cover them) and then setting the flats with potting mix and seeds on top of the sand. This was to help heat the soil the seeds were in. Theses light were to help maintain 70-80 degree needed to germinate seed. What i want to know is can these rope light really put out that much heat? They just seem so small and inefficient to me. and maybe this is a down right stupid thing to be think but if those rope lights work like they say. why couldn't i used them in my raised bed (like the soil cables). I'm only going to primely use the raised bed to start seeds in because i can't grow in them in the winter. Does my thought seem WAY out of this world or is it workable. East...See Moresolar lights with solar panel in Florida
Comments (3)you can consider using 12V LED lightbulbs or 12V florescent light bulbs. 12V LED light bulb would not be as bright as 12V florescent bulbs, but take much less power. you can power it with a 12v battery and have some panels charge the battery. im also thinking of doing that....See Moresorry that this not kitchen related: very excited: solar panels
Comments (9)IÂm in MA. Our system = 5.588kW. Even with the cloudy days and we still have one big tree blocking our panels until 10am), I think we generated over 640kW in May. The time is now for us to get solar panels because: 1. We qualified for 2 big MA credits, which took $10,500 straight off the total cost, which was a BIG helper toward reducing our break-even to just over 6years. 2. The Federal 30% rebate has no cap for solar/etc, which will take almost another $10K off our bill. 3. (KITCHENDETECTIVE) MA does net-metering, which means that on the days that we produce more than we use, the electric meter turns back (to reduce our bill from when we donÂt generate enough and have to buy off NStar electric company). 4. We are locked in until 2016 for SRECs, which are money generated from selling our green credits on the energy stock market (for those who need green credits to offset their horrible carbon footprint). It may/may not continue after year 2016, at the same/lower/higher rate, not sure. 5. And weÂre not moving so after break-even, we could possibly make money (instead of paying over $300/month on our electric bill). And we want to install central air (my husband use to give me a hard time when I want to turn on the window A/C). 6. Lastly, we have a great home equity line with ~2.24% interest rate. 7. And our house faces north, so no one can see our panel (on the back roof). The installers noted that itÂs like our house was built w/ solar panels in mind, in terms of the orientation. Note: we had to take down 10 big trees to allow more light (which we would have done because our backyard was all moss due to lack of sunlight). We actually want to take down 6 more next winter. BUT I have a nursery growing 9 pine saplings ready to replace some of those trees. We chose a turn-key solution from a local company who did it all for us. We even had to upgrade our electric panel from 100amp to 200amp, and we can include that in the Fed rebate. They quoted us 3 different panel brands; we chose Evergreen, the 210 panels. ThatÂs like getting a nice base level Audi (the price for the value = efficiency level), vs. the Lamborghini or the Kia. Florantha: 1. "brag as you have bragged": I hope you do mean in a positive/supportive way because I donÂt mean to upset anyone. IÂm just excited. 2. Where are you located? We looked into geothermal and for our land (only 1.1acres), the cost of digging and the system would be over $35K and the break-even would take over 13years, so it doesnÂt work for us, and we would still need a back-up system for when it gets really cold (often)....See More"Efficient" use of solar for home heating and car charging
Comments (43)@mtvhike: the problem is, you don't get your 1200 watts continuously. In cold weather / short days of the year, your 1200 watts rated panels might only produce that much (total) for a couple of hours worth. (You can look up calcs depending on how far north you are). So let's be generous and say 3kwh for an entire 24 hour period. About the same as two 60-watt lightbulbs running all day. Don't trust me, do your own plausibility checks. So I just don't think it's going to make a meaningful dent. And at a relatively high price. Also, I think you'll find that solar, installed, with wiring, etc., will cost several times the cost of the panels. But again, check with local cost and installers. To throw out some ideas: for bang-for-your-buck, it may be possible to add extra heat storage to your hydronic system (e.g. an extra tank of water, although there are more technological solutions). Then you'd get the extra heat delivery from that stored heat by getting enough reserve power (battery or generator) to keep the circulation pumps going. As above, a generator would give more ability to ride through long outages - and also may be able to provide enough power for partial load of the boiler. (Some might suggest wood stove for backup - I'm not getting in that discussion...) Yes, can be hard to find air-to-water systems. Hope the thoughts above help....See Morekevin9408
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