Currently we can receive a government rebate of up to $7000 for installing solar power for domestic use.

Today I received brochures from three solar power companies, offering me panels producing 1.5 kw for for between $2000-1500.


What does that mean? How long does it take such panels to produce that power?

How many kw (approx) would I need for an entirely electric house for one person? EG ;storage hot water system,oven,hotplates, 3 stand alone RC a/c., PC running 8-10 hours a day, large screen plasma TV, fridge,deep freezer.'

I'm confused.


Currently my electricity bills are around $600 a quarter

1.5 KW isn’t going to get you off the grid. At least not if you don’t cut way down on typical consumption. It’s not going to run a hot water heater. It probably won’t run a single element hot plate. What it will do is probably average about 8000 watt hours a day. That should go a long way towards lowering your bill. You’ll have to look at how much power you use, subtract the 8000 watt hours a day to see what you’re looking at for payback time. With the rebates that might not be too bad.

Can you sell power back to the grid? Sometimes you will be generating more than you use.

And this is taking into account that you have constant clear skies. Solar power is inherently unreliable especially because our bloody weather in this particular country is crap.

Right now, the visibility is so shit I can't even see my neighbour's house across the road anymore.

We have 1.4kw solar panels on our house.

And we got our quarterly power bill yesterday.

$8.42 in credit.

(May 10, 2012 at 2:05 am)Welsh cake Wrote: Solar power is inherently unreliable especially because our bloody weather in this particular country is crap.

padraic is in Australia, I don't think that will be a problem.

(May 10, 2012 at 6:36 am)Tiberius Wrote:

(May 10, 2012 at 2:05 am)Welsh cake Wrote: Solar power is inherently unreliable especially because our bloody weather in this particular country is crap.

padraic is in Australia, I don't think that will be a problem.

Come to Perth, after a while you start looking forward to rain for the change of pace.

(May 10, 2012 at 6:02 am)Zen Badger Wrote: We have 1.4kw solar panels on our house.

And we got our quarterly power bill yesterday.

$8.42 in credit.

That answers my question about selling it back to the grid.

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That does make me curious though if you and Kicki use all electric or a mixture of gas and electric? Do you have a solar water heater too? We seriously considered solar about 10 years ago. Unfortunately this part of the world doesn’t get that much sun. Startup cost per watt was a lot higher then too. We were looking at a 20 year pay back on our investment. That was about the life expectancy of the system so it would have been a break even investment a best. The cost of panels has come down quite a bit since then though.

(May 10, 2012 at 8:34 am)popeyespappy Wrote:

(May 10, 2012 at 6:02 am)Zen Badger Wrote: We have 1.4kw solar panels on our house.

And we got our quarterly power bill yesterday.

$8.42 in credit.

That answers my question about selling it back to the grid.

---

That does make me curious though if you and Kicki use all electric or a mixture of gas and electric? Do you have a solar water heater too? We seriously considered solar about 10 years ago. Unfortunately this part of the world doesn’t get that much sun. Startup cost per watt was a lot higher then too. We were looking at a 20 year pay back on our investment. That was about the life expectancy of the system so it would have been a break even investment a best. The cost of panels has come down quite a bit since then though.

The last quarter the bill was about 90 bucks because we'd been running the A/C pretty much 24/7 over summer.

But because the bill before that was 67 dollars credit we only had to pay about 20.

I love my solar panels.

And we also have gas boosted solar hot water.

When you think about it, it's the best form of fusion energy there is.

(May 10, 2012 at 8:52 am)Zen Badger Wrote: And we also have gas boosted solar hot water.

I thought as much. I am surprised though that you use solar/gas for the water. When we were looking the only option was solar/electric for water. In any case it sounds like something Pad should seriously consider. Even if his place isn't as efficient as your new home it sounds like something that will save him a lot of money over time.

this page explains how to think about it.

http://www.solarquotes.com.au/how-big-a-...-need.html