solar power

[glenn kangiser]

I think the payback is really about to begin. What happens if the peak oil guys are right? How much will propane cost you then, the delivery charge might be more than the propane. I have also been reading in the wall street journal that solar panels are becoming more scarce, not enough supply for the demand.

While I haven't done it yet, I hope to one day build a methane digester - stop putting money in the pockets of the oil guys.  I have saved a several plans for working digesters as used in India.  Some can be fairly simple.  As a new batch of material is added the used materials are expelled out the other side to be used as fertilizer.

As of recently, solar panels are taking a couple of months to get in quantity.

[glenn kangiser]

Just a reminder - Gary Reysa has a great solar site that he keeps adding information to.  Not many collections of free information like this one.

http://www.builditsolar.com/

We have it linked here along with other information.

http://www.countryplans.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1142868865

[GaryGary]

Hi,

Just thinking about your original question of using solar power, I think you will find you can do a lot better as far as payback goes on solar space heating and solar water heating projects.

I use these two solar collectors listed at the top of this page to heat my shop and shop/barn.  The both cost around $350, and at the $2.10 we pay per gallon for propane now, they have 1 year paybacks.
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/Space_Heating.htm

I'm working on this one to heat my house:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Experimental/InWorkshop/SolarShed/solarshed.htm
Its more complex than the others, and it won't have a one year payback, but there is no way it will be more than 5 years.

This is a good free download book on simple solar water heaters:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterHeating/ISPWH/ispwh.htm

I think that solar sunspaces (for house heating) can also be very short paybacks if you don't get to carried away with how you build them.

Gary
www.BuildItSolar.com

[Amanda_931]

Certainly space and water heating are (currently) the best uses of solar power.

Not sure that that will continue--i.e., electricity may soon catch up--in the next twenty years at least.  So we might ought to be thinking ahead now.

[glenn kangiser]

A good point, Amanda.  One thing here is that the space and water heating can directly replace much of the space and water heating being done by electricity (or with fossil fuels) right now, freeing some of the electricity for other uses.

[John Raabe]

A good strategy for a new house would be to take advantage of the simple stuff first:
• sun-tempering (orientation of building and windows)
• some passive solar (added thermal mass or sunroom) if climate makes sense (good sunlight during heating season)
• solar water heating by batch preheater or other systems (possible tie-in with wood heat if used)

Then... for the future....
• position roof-line for good solar exposure
• provide wiring for future hookups to panels or solar shingles for PV power production
• for most folks (unless they are far off the grid) a grid-tied system w/o batteries will be the most trouble free and cost-effective PV system.