Solar Power

[X-WING]

http://www.originenergy.com.au/174/Solar-power

I had a look at what it may cost to go solar power looking at the site above would be looking at 40-50,000 Grand to do it that's a new Phoon. I was wondering anyone here done the Going green thing and what did you do?

Edited 14/07/08 10:54 AM by X-WING

[SCRIBR]

no way is it worth it!

Think about the payback time on that... ask you accountant!

[Grudgee]

"A 1kW solar electricity system fully installed now costs only $3,975 (inc.GST and after rebates)"

Scrib, you could get one for your car and triple it's power!

[Iconic Bionic]

I dont care too much for the green aspect but the cost saving aspect is very real. Ive looked into it and to power my home by solar would require an initial outlay of $60k, which woud take over 20 years of energy savings at the current rate.

A very long term investment and if you move homes you lose your solar panels.

I.B.

[ZAP]

I helped a mate install it on his farm as the power company wanted $200k to run the mains to the farm.

We did it for about $20k with a combination of solar and wind. All the lighting, pumps and heating is 12v, but there are a few powerpoints for the TV and microwave.

We are abouts to build a new home and will not be going solar due to the cost, but we must have a rainwater tank for the toilets, washing maching and plant watering taps.

[tab]

Zap did you look in to the life on the panels and batteries etc?

Apparently the useful life on the equipment is less than the time required to generate enough electricity to even cover the amount taken to actually produce them. Which sort of debunks the warm 'n fuzzy tree-hugging world-saving feeling behind them.

If you can get in to govt grants and it’ll save money then I think it’s a great idea – not convinced about it reducing overall emissions though. Bit like hybrid cars.....

[rs2000]

"A 1kW solar electricity system fully installed now costs only $3,975 (inc.GST and after rebates)"

Scrib, you could get one for your car and triple it's power!

it's something I'm looking into at the moment and the out of pocket expenses is $1490 for a 1kw photovoltaic solar system which includes the installation, govt rebate is $8k and is means tested at 100k. I've placed an expression of interest/application with Rezeko Pty Ltd. you can go on there web site for further information, savings are projected to be around $300 a year using the current feed-in tariffs.

[X-WING]

I was looking for any health risk from the panels on your roof from any EMF thay may produce as they say you shouldn't sleep next to the cavity wall your mains feed run dwn I thought about putting them on the roof of my shed and back feeding a feed to the house power

[sixfan]

The into grid system is an OK idea, unfortunately the buy rate for power is way too low,

the advantage of this system is that you use the grid as your battery, when you generate more

than you use, you get paid for the power, at night, you draw back from the grid.

The real benefits of getting a large proportion of the country going solar shouldn't be measured in

"green house emissions" saved per installation, with a 60% uptake we can get a decentralized power

generation grid going and avoid the need to build new power stations.

there are no know heath risks from photovoltaic cells, (except electrocution and fire risk from inept installation ) any emf they produce would be far less than what your exposed to using a blender or a computer...

I thought about installing a system also, in the wet season here power outages are common, but expense wize,

I'm better off getting a $5000 gen set, as the into grid system shuts down in a blackout anyways to stop islanding...

Solar hot water systems are great and really do have the potential to save you money in under 7 years, look at one of these first, though it's probably only worth installing is your std water heater dies....

[ZAP]

Zap did you look in to the life on the panels and batteries etc?

Apparently the useful life on the equipment is less than the time required to generate enough electricity to even cover the amount taken to actually produce them. Which sort of debunks the warm 'n fuzzy tree-hugging world-saving feeling behind them.

If you can get in to govt grants and it’ll save money then I think it’s a great idea – not convinced about it reducing overall emissions though. Bit like hybrid cars.....

The owner of the farm was only conserned with getting power without the needs to pay a fortune for mains power. The farm is only a holiday place so it is only used once a month.

They isolate most of the input when they are not there and only trickle charge the system on solar to keep the batteries topped up. There is a generator there just in case or if they need to use power tools.

It works well, but was done on a budget. All the lighting is LED, waterheater is solar without a booster and the cooking/heating is bottled gas.

I agree with what sixfan said about the grid, but the biggest 2 problems are the government and the cost.

If the government gave people considerably more support to go solar, they might find they do not have to spend many billions of dollars on new coal fed power plants.