Anyone running on solar energy/power?, page 1

reply to post by Ferengi

Hi, I have active solar power for my home. It is not that expensive. about 3k USD for the full set up to run a 2 bedroom house. the power is stored in Lead acid batteries. Lead acid batteries come in sealed and refillable types. With the refillable ones all you need to do is refill them with distilled water every so often. Keep them topped off you don't want to damage your batteries.

Active solar is a life style change (at least in the US) xbox 360? probably not they use too much juice. I have a slimline ps2 and a Nintendo Wii each one draws about 2.5 amps per hour witch is reasonable. Maybe an xbox 360 could work i've been hesitant to buy one because of the amp hour usage. And while we are on the subject of entertainment, small tvs are good. Mine is 19'' and is an energy star model, it uses about 5.5 amps per hour. witch is quite resonable. I had to get rid of my big tv because it sucked too much juice. my dvd player is an engery star model as well and only uses about 1.9 amps. if you want to run a bigger tv and next gen consoles i would recomend a back up generator

Desktop computer is out of the question. Uses too much amp per hour. laptop is fine though only drawing about 3 amps per hour. if you want a desktop computer you need a backup generator.

Electric fridge is out of the question. you need to buy a propane fridge.

Air Conditioning is out of the question. Use a swamp cooler attached to a back up generator (if the humidity in your area allows you to). or you can just have lots of "no shirt days" a personal favorite of mine.

Other things you can't really use on active solar are microwaves, toaster ovens, electric heaters, hair dryers or anything else that puts excessive resistance on a heating coil. I tested a hair dryer one day to see how long it would work it was a 1000 watt dryer, witch is the lowest wattage of hairdryer i could find, most are 2500 watts or more. It took 89 amps to run it and it drained my 6 battery bank (enough for a 3 bedroom house) from 100% full to completely drained in 15-20 minutes. so be careful what you run on it.

also deep cycle batteries are not the kind of batteries that you want to charge and use down to 0. they chemistry of the battery is such that you want to float your charge loads at around 90 - 95 % all the time. this will extend the life of your batteries for quite some time.

it is a great way to live though. my bills are pretty much just propane and occasionaly a cord of wood. that probably totals around 900-1100 USD a year. Remember though that solar isn't a way to "save the planet". It is more like an energy savings bond. It costs about as much energy to manufacture a photo voltaic panel as it will produce in it's life time. luckily for us the panel should be good for 20-30 years.

Anyway i hope you find this helpful.