Solar Panels: Any advice?

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Originally Posted by Gman

I think the blower impact changes once you throw in DC vs. AC.

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Don't big solar set-ups come with an inverter to bring everything to A/C?

Yes. Gas. i guess winter heating would't be a huge benefit from solar.

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Originally Posted by earplug

Do you have a gas water heater and stove?

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I'm talking about variable speed DC blower on the furnace. Startup doesn't take such a big electrical load like the old-fashioned AC blower motors.

There's enough of a power savings that all of our data center CRAC units were changed over to DC at my last employer.

Is that something that could be powered by at a single panel for more of a just in case type of thing?

Beats me. I doubt it would be worth the trouble.

The person that discovers the next big leap in electric energy storage density will make a mint until then in town it makes the most sense to sell the energy back to the grid at a less than wholesale price. I have 300 watts of off grid that I use to power 4 led strip shop lights and have areserve battery capacity to run 3 chest freezers for 1 week in the summer and the blower on my furnace for about the same.

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Originally Posted by T. B. Turner

A couple years ago I had a customer w/ s/p's and they said that the electricity from them is fed back into the grid and they get credited for it. It does not go into supplying their home directly. Also theirs were on the roof. which made me wonder how difficult it might be to replace the roof. There was about 4"-6" of space between the roof and panels. Maybe the the roof under the panels may not need replaced becuase it was not exposed to the wheather?

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They get credited at 1/10th the value of the power they generate. Thank Colorado for selling the power grid to Xcel energy so they can shaft people everywhere.

The panels get removed, stored and replaced in case of roof replacement

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Originally Posted by glocktoberfest

I'm thinking about putting solar panels on my house. I see all kinds of ads saying zero down, etc, but i'm guessing some of them are misleading.

Anybody with solar panels on their house that can give me a head start on how to get going?

Thanks

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What's your monthly outlay for utilities? While in CO numerous solar companies tried selling us on solar. They said the savings (KEY WORDS) Over Time would be beneficial. Over time broke down to 15-20 years, after a monthly lease of $300+.

That was 6 months of electric bills. The numbers didn't and still have not been worth the investment. Down here solar is big, but not as much as one would imagine. The power company guy down the road said don't bother installing solar as the cost vs savings didn't balance out.

If you plan on staying where you live for 10+ years you might see some savings.

My electric bill is under $500 a year, which is what I tell the solar guys when they come to my door. My dryer, range/oven, and furnace are gas and I don't have A/C, so it just doesn't make sense for my house and they immediately understand that. Ironically, I'm very interested in solar, but just because I'm interested in it, and not necessarily for savings.

Now my buddy down in Houston with TWO A/C units (each plenty big enough for my house alone) runs an electric bill of about $450 a month during the summer. Different story depending on your monthly outlay, as referenced above.

https://i.imgur.com/jKPr3Av.jpg