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Where is a good place to look at getting solar panels for my house? I would like to start pricing and planning on this as a project for next year. I figure I could start with a small setup and grow into potential 70%+ off grid. I still have to see if my HOA will approve of it :mad: so I do need to have some information and pictures.


Thanks :D

I had all the paperwork and numbers figured out to add panels to my house. I don't have the website handy but I'll look for it.

Sadly when I had all the work done I applied to my home owners association and they denied my request because "it would detract from the apperance standards of the neighborhood and potentially cause harm to resale values." :rolleyes: whatever...

This is why I'm going to build a new house.. in the country... with NO homeowners association. They are the devil :mad:



EDIT: www.findsolar.com is a good place to start

Perhaps you can find a supplier/retailer in your area?

I know this may not be as helpful, but in my area we have a few. These folks are the (http://www.solarsolutions.ca) better known and their web site may contain some useful content and information.

Cheers;

MSantos

I had all the paperwork and numbers figured out to add panels to my house. I don't have the website handy but I'll look for it.

Sadly when I had all the work done I applied to my home owners association and they denied my request because "it would detract from the apperance standards of the neighborhood and potentially cause harm to resale values." :rolleyes: whatever...

This is why I'm going to build a new house.. in the country... with NO homeowners association. They are the devil :mad:



EDIT: www.findsolar.com is a good place to start

I'm with ya on that. Would love to build a house near where we live now, plenty of sun here in SoCal.

HOA = Bad
Living in the country = Good.

I will be installing a 1400KWH grid tie system early next year. SC and Fed offer some nice tax incentives. I like this site http://www.solarhome.org/

Cheers,
Dave

thetonka,

While I am all for conservation I also try to be realistic about things, and he sad reality of solar power today is that it is very expensive and has a break-even point of roughly 12 years. This dictates either a short term loan with large payments or an extended one with higher interest.

While PV technology is not increasing in efficiency by much the manufacturing methods certainly are. This means that by 2010, 2011 at the outside, panels will be produced at $1/W instead of the $2-$2.50/W they are today, making the retail purchase point around $2/W rather than the $3-$3.50/W they are today.

As such I advocate waiting for a few more years. It will save you a lot of cash and make the overall array more financially efficient.



caryfd227,

I'm going to have the same problem when the time comes but my State and City regulations say that my HOA can't stop me. I will likely have to go to court to press my rights but I'll be willing to do that. You may want to check the laws and regulations concerning both HOAs and access to renewable energy sources in your own locale.

I'm going to have the same problem when the time comes but my State and City regulations say that my HOA can't stop me. I will likely have to go to court to press my rights but I'll be willing to do that. You may want to check the laws and regulations concerning both HOAs and access to renewable energy sources in your own locale.


Its funny you mentioned this... I was talking to the guys at work yesterday and one of them asked me about how my solar project was going. I said it wasn't due to my HOA...


Thats when he looked up an article that appered in the newspaper a couple weeks ago. It seems that there is now a state law that says a HOA can NOT prevent a home owner from installing alternative energy sources on his property. I'm going to send the article to my HOA and see what they say.

This is a place with DIY solar plans (and some materials) for a hot water heater or home heating. They look pretty affordable. This is NOT photovoltaic but would still likely save you tons of money on energy depending on how much sunlight you get.
http://www.jc-solarhomes.com/

I think this is a totally DIY thing and you would either need to do it or have someone build it for you.


--des

One concern of starting an off grid system small and growing it later is the batteries. As batteries age their internal resistance changes. Old batteries and new batteries do not mix well. Just something to plan around.

Here is a good source for info:

http://www.homepower.com/

The battery issue is important because you'll have to eventually replace those at a high cost. Typically off grid systems are less expensive up front... but the replacement costs of batteries changes that...

Plus if you go with an On grid system then you can sell excess power back to the power company for a profit!! always a good thing! :Banane28:

Yeah I am dealing with the battery issue with my toy hauler. I have solar panels for it and 2 6 volt deep cycles. I plan on upping the solar panels and adding 2 more batteries, unfortunately you can't just add two batteries to two older batteries.

BTW, sometimes I get odd ads with these posts, and the other day I got an ad for something called SolarRe. Sounded way too good to be true and as it turns out it is. Anybody heard of this. What it is is that you basically would rent the equipment from the company over anything from a 1-25 year period. As it turns out the company doesn't appear to have anything like the means to do this. Also there are questions about the company being a huge pyramid marketing scheme. (Even though the guy in charge actually has some real credentials-- only good thing I read.)

One thing I didn't see anybody question and I thought of it later, but IF solar technology gets significantly better in say 5-10 years and you did a 25 year contract, too bad so sad. However, I don't think the company sounds like they are actually able to deliver much.
There is some kind of deposit and maybe some people hope to grab that.


--des

Here is a link to an article in Poplular Science about an inexpensive way of making solar cells for as little as $0.30 per watt. Looking at the web site for the company, it doesn't appear that they sell a product yet... perhaps not too much longer.

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/flat/bown/2007/green/item_59.html
Company Web Site
http://www.nanosolar.com/

Solar isn't an option for me. But there are other possibilities for my 8,000 sq ft.
(Inside that yellow square is a 1850's farmhouse somewhere under the canopy.)

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h10/mrbill05/home.jpg

-mr. bill