Solar Homes Becoming Practical
Discussion
This is becoming a practical solution nowadays. Especially in my region where hot, sunny days are prevelant. Hoe is solar catching on in your spots of the world?
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/90587154.html
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/90587154.html
I'd be interested how much it cost and how much power the panels create.
Solar panels are just too expensive and you will need to keep them for 15+ years to make them pay for themselves, not including maintenance and repairs. Hot water solar panels on the other hand are great, as they are basic vacumn tubes.
Anyway, I'm in the UK so no!
Solar panels are just too expensive and you will need to keep them for 15+ years to make them pay for themselves, not including maintenance and repairs. Hot water solar panels on the other hand are great, as they are basic vacumn tubes.
Anyway, I'm in the UK so no!
grumbledoak said:
Well, here in the UK solar is pretty much dead before it starts! Possibly some combination of wind, rain, and cold -power will emerge for us.
That or we'll finally build the nuclear stations we should have started on twenty years ago.
We have nuke plants and are building more. Natural gas, while having been around forever, is finding more practical uses. Sun, as opposed to wind, is our great untapped resource in this area. That or we'll finally build the nuclear stations we should have started on twenty years ago.
I understand your wind-up to me about your climate; however, I believe you might be surprised how little sun it takes to see an advantage with the newer technology available. I may be wrong there, but am interested nonetheless. Edited by Jimbeaux on Monday 12th April 14:27
GTIR said:
I'd be interested how much it cost and how much power the panels create.
Solar panels are just too expensive and you will need to keep them for 15+ years to make them pay for themselves, not including maintenance and repairs. Hot water solar panels on the other hand are great, as they are basic vacumn tubes.
Anyway, I'm in the UK so no!
I will be looking into the costs. I do know they are far more affordable than 20 years ago. Many are built here locally, so that helps.Solar panels are just too expensive and you will need to keep them for 15+ years to make them pay for themselves, not including maintenance and repairs. Hot water solar panels on the other hand are great, as they are basic vacumn tubes.
Anyway, I'm in the UK so no!
Edited by Jimbeaux on Monday 12th April 14:24
Jimbeaux said:
I understand your wind-up to me about your climate; however, more practical uses. Sun, as opposed to wind, is our great untapped I believe you might be surprised how little sun it takes to see an advantage with the newer technology available
Obviously you don't as you consider it a wind-up.Seriously, I think you might be surprised how overcast the UK is usually.
Solar for electric generation? On 30 days a year perhaps.
Edited by cazzer on Monday 12th April 15:17
cazzer said:
Jimbeaux said:
I understand your wind-up to me about your climate; however, more practical uses. Sun, as opposed to wind, is our great untapped I believe you might be surprised how little sun it takes to see an advantage with the newer technology available
Obviously you don't as you consider it a wind-up.Seriously, I thin you might be surprised how overcast the UK us usually.
Solar for electric generation? On 30 days a year perhaps.
I just think that tech has advanced to the point that light alone, overcast or not, can be captured. Think of how little light it takes to power solar calculators and the like. I realize a calculator is not a house, but the principle remains. CrashTD said:
Jimbeaux said:
CrashTD said:
Jimbeaux said:
I realize a calculator is not a house, but the principle remains.
Thats the point. In theory yes. In practice no.
Edited by Jimbeaux on Monday 12th April 19:04
Just imagine 9 billion people trapping the sun light and preventing it from entering the soil. No different from 9 billion people releasing a trapped gas from mineral deposits. If you believe man can have a negative impact on the environment, then solar is no better once you extrapolate to a comparable size.
alock said:
Just imagine 9 billion people trapping the sun light and preventing it from entering the soil. No different from 9 billion people releasing a trapped gas from mineral deposits. If you believe man can have a negative impact on the environment, then solar is no better once you extrapolate to a comparable size.
Are you trying to be serious?alock said:
Just imagine 9 billion people trapping the sun light and preventing it from entering the soil. No different from 9 billion people releasing a trapped gas from mineral deposits. If you believe man can have a negative impact on the environment, then solar is no better once you extrapolate to a comparable size.
You sound like your an opposer to Mr Burns' giant sun blocker then
This comes up pretty regularly.
Solar Thermal for domestic water is viable in the UK, so long as you don't get conned by the double glazing salesmen who over inflate the cost of installs. Sure, we have annual cloud cover in the UK that results in only 30% of the 'possible' yield - but that's the average for the whole year and is actually mainly due to cloudy winters. You can size your solar panels to account for the drop, but most people accept that for three months of the year or so, you don't get much 'free' hot water. Increasing numbers of installations use woodburners to provide winter heating and can be quite cost effective. Payback is still measured in years, but as the typical lifespan of such systems can be measured in decades, you have the capital uplift to your property to consider.
Solar thermal for space heating isn't viable - the demand is just too great just when the conditions are poorest for heating.
Solar PV is difficult - you can get a Feed in Tariff so that whenever you're generating, you are saving money - that way you get the most of all conditions, regardless of whether you're using the juice yourself. However, solar PV panels remain expensive. The prices are improving though, and there is talk of a number of new manufacturing techniques that may dramatically reduce the cost in the next few years. Right now, you have to be pretty keen on the technology to want to use it, but as the panels drop in price the break even point is shorter and shorter.
Wind in the UK - at least in domestic scales - is utterly worthless. Small scale turbines cannot generate decent quantities of energy (it's a cubic ratio to blade size). As some of the poorly performing national wind farms are demonstrating, you also need to be in an ideal location to generate useful quantities. Unfortunately wide spread opposition to wind farms and 'helpful' subsidies tends to result in marginal sites being chosen over ideal ones. Blame the government, not the technology.
Water power is an odd one - it does work even at domestic scales, but you need quite a decent head of water so the number of sites that can take advantage are quite small in the UK. Think how many water mills you've seen and you get the picture. It's not a case of putting a little dam in the stream that runs past your house. On a National scale, we're limited to just a handful of sites and the opposition to such schemes is quite large and probably quite justified on grounds of ecological impact.
As with all such things, the best way to save energy is not to need it in the first place. Insulation and airtightness can reduce your need far more effectively than any amount of complex technology can generate extra power.
Solar Thermal for domestic water is viable in the UK, so long as you don't get conned by the double glazing salesmen who over inflate the cost of installs. Sure, we have annual cloud cover in the UK that results in only 30% of the 'possible' yield - but that's the average for the whole year and is actually mainly due to cloudy winters. You can size your solar panels to account for the drop, but most people accept that for three months of the year or so, you don't get much 'free' hot water. Increasing numbers of installations use woodburners to provide winter heating and can be quite cost effective. Payback is still measured in years, but as the typical lifespan of such systems can be measured in decades, you have the capital uplift to your property to consider.
Solar thermal for space heating isn't viable - the demand is just too great just when the conditions are poorest for heating.
Solar PV is difficult - you can get a Feed in Tariff so that whenever you're generating, you are saving money - that way you get the most of all conditions, regardless of whether you're using the juice yourself. However, solar PV panels remain expensive. The prices are improving though, and there is talk of a number of new manufacturing techniques that may dramatically reduce the cost in the next few years. Right now, you have to be pretty keen on the technology to want to use it, but as the panels drop in price the break even point is shorter and shorter.
Wind in the UK - at least in domestic scales - is utterly worthless. Small scale turbines cannot generate decent quantities of energy (it's a cubic ratio to blade size). As some of the poorly performing national wind farms are demonstrating, you also need to be in an ideal location to generate useful quantities. Unfortunately wide spread opposition to wind farms and 'helpful' subsidies tends to result in marginal sites being chosen over ideal ones. Blame the government, not the technology.
Water power is an odd one - it does work even at domestic scales, but you need quite a decent head of water so the number of sites that can take advantage are quite small in the UK. Think how many water mills you've seen and you get the picture. It's not a case of putting a little dam in the stream that runs past your house. On a National scale, we're limited to just a handful of sites and the opposition to such schemes is quite large and probably quite justified on grounds of ecological impact.
As with all such things, the best way to save energy is not to need it in the first place. Insulation and airtightness can reduce your need far more effectively than any amount of complex technology can generate extra power.
cazzer said:
Jimbeaux said:
I understand your wind-up to me about your climate; however, more practical uses. Sun, as opposed to wind, is our great untapped I believe you might be surprised how little sun it takes to see an advantage with the newer technology available
Obviously you don't as you consider it a wind-up.Seriously, I think you might be surprised how overcast the UK is usually.
Solar for electric generation? On 30 days a year perhaps.
Edited by cazzer on Monday 12th April 15:17
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