Solar Powered Homes

When I penciled out a solar thermal water heater it didn't work out. Those thermal panels have gotten very expensive while PV has gotten cheaper, and It takes so much solar to heat water in the winter here that during the summer I would have to set up piping to dump 1000s of gallons of boiling water.
 
Water is your friend a large tank can go a long way toward a heat source,. you can also dump excess PV power in there also, you can make a thermal heat collector easier than source of current. I used be a struggling Christain, these days I find increasing bouts of "Agnosticism" these days, As the song sez.,"[ God is watching us from a distance]
 
“There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow”
I’ve friends who lived in the Virgin Islands in the 70’s who said most houses had solar hot water . In 1900 pictures of LA you can see them on the skyline .
 
There were even solar water heaters on the roofs of many east coast buildings. The thermodynamics work well, but the economics didn't. Partially that is tax breaks on PV and on heat pumps, but mostly it was the drop in the price of PV and increase in the price of ST panels and plumbing that did it.
 
When I go somewhere for a long trip on my ebike I always take with me a solar generator https://houseandbeyond.org/best-solar-generator/ , I charge it a bit if I need it. In theory, it will run it for about 10 hours. (505 Wh * .85) / 40 watt = 10.7 hours of runtime. So you can calculate your equipment and the time used. But it is not enough for a long time of course, at home my bike is charged from solar panels like my whole house.
 
Sort of inverter related ...the story was some young couple bought a house from the widow of a retired E.E. . There were 15 solar panels on the roof and this was in the basement....
Screenshot_20220913-211344_Messages.jpg
Along with a couple dozen random batteries. All switches are turned OFF and there is no manual...
 
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Lets see how many people die in Europe in the coming months . It's easy to get sucked into all this green nonsense when you live in America . We are far far better off then anywhere else in the world . Europe is in Biggggg Trouble . These Green Wieners want to put us back into the dark ages
 
I have some serious reservations with the many inexpensive (cheap) solar generators, power packs and battery backups. When I did a lot of work from home I had battery backup for my computers and it was an expensive investment, paid for by my employer. Tiny system, just for the PC and peripherals. Today you can see a flood of generators and power stations online, Amazon and Ebay. Its not like the old days when we knew the companies behind products, they had a track record. Who knows these Chinese companies that are making these battery systems? Are they safe? The "brands" are here today and gone tomorrow. More and more battery fires being reported, another over the weekend in NYC killed an 8 year old girl.

Be careful everyone!
 
Zekeer said:
Lets see how many people die in Europe in the coming months . It's easy to get sucked into all this green nonsense when you live in America . We are far far better off then anywhere else in the world . Europe is in Biggggg Trouble . These Green Wieners want to put us back into the dark ages
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I think the thinking was"We have to make this work", except when it cannot work.
 
J.R. said:
I have some serious reservations with the many inexpensive (cheap) solar generators, power packs and battery backups. When I did a lot of work from home I had battery backup for my computers and it was an expensive investment, paid for by my employer. Tiny system, just for the PC and peripherals. Today you can see a flood of generators and power stations online, Amazon and Ebay. Its not like the old days when we knew the companies behind products, they had a track record. Who knows these Chinese companies that are making these battery systems? Are they safe? The "brands" are here today and gone tomorrow. More and more battery fires being reported, another over the weekend in NYC killed an 8 year old girl.

Be careful everyone!
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The new brands of electronics have the same problem as ebikes ... the same basic bike is sold under a half dozen different brands with the same level of risk for most of them. When I started looking at solar again, I was delighted to see my ( German made) inverters are still available and well reviewed. That will not be the case for all brands.
I expect a few years of huge sales b/c of incentives, but there are too many brands that will not make it through the first few years of boom sales. Remembering the PC explosion now whats left.
 
kevinmccune said:
I think the thinking was"We have to make this work", except when it cannot work.
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Yeah It is impossible for it to work . For an additional source . I have a softwash System for my House and Pole barns . I keep powered up with a Solar panel I was given . So it's fun to get it to work and it's free. But for a source of civilizations survival . It's crazy thinking . And it's far worse for the environments then Gas/Coal/Oil . Not to mention the only countries even attempting green are Western lands . The rest of the world thinks this is crazy . Putin is using it to make Europe really suffer . Think about how stupid all this woke-ness is when over a 1/3 of the world doesn't comply at all . But they definitely profit off us : Think about Where Solar /and batteries come from . Smog ridden polluters of the World AKA China . LOL It would be funny if it was not so sad how we ended up electing all these idiots in the West .
 
kevinmccune said:
I think the thinking was"We have to make this work", except when it cannot work.
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Yeah. And of course we do have to make the energy work .. I am pretty sure we will make the economic and environmental impacts work out eventually ... but "only after trying everything else". As Churchill maybe said of the USA once.
Some of that 'everything else' will not work out at all. I wouldn't want to be in the energy industry right now, except for the short run profits .
So I am very glad to have a back up source of energy than just depending on a private company with a monopoly on my area who is suddenly facing both tough competition and regulation at once,
A quote I can't find by Bill Gafes IIRC went "Don't spend time and money to avoid taxes.But make sure the tax hurts your competitors more than it hurts you.
 
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Art Deco said:
Yeah. And of course we do have to make the energy work .. I am pretty sure we will make the economic and environmental impacts work out eventually ... but "only after trying everything else". As Churchill maybe said of the USA once.
Some of that 'everything else' will not work out at all. I wouldn't want to be in the energy industry right now, except for the short run profits .
So I am very glad to have a back up source of energy than just depending on a private company with a monopoly on my area who is suddenly facing both tough competition and regulation at once,
A quote I can't find by Bill Gafes IIRC went "Don't spend time and money to avoid taxes.But make sure the tax hurts your competitors more than it hurts you.
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Aren't we all in the Green Energy Business? If you live in a Western Country you've invested Trillions and increased Inflation LOL Sounds like not very good ideas . And for what ? Global Climate change ?? Seriously if we could make an impact I'd be fine with it . But the only impact green anything has made on the environment is the decrease in Humanoid & Animal Carbon life forms . They are dead .
 
PDoz said:
It's promising technology given the vehicle needs crazy large batteries for infrequent longer trips , so why not use it to buffer the system the rest of the time.

Unfortunately, in Australia the vehicle to home / grid chargers / inverters aren't easilly available ( only recently approved and long wait lists) . I'd consider having something like a nissan leaf plugged into the solar carport as the house battery / occasional long trip vehicle.
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This. I think the majority of Australians like much of Americans lives in car dependent suburbs and one can have the panels and the other has a big battery anyway. So plug them together .... and watch out for sparks...
 
So much for helping the environment. It appears USA just caused the greatest attack on the environment the world has every seen . What fools
 
Zekeer said:
So much for helping the environment. It appears USA just caused the greatest attack on the environment the world has every seen . What fools
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The good citizens not so far from where I reside fought the"Mtn Valley Pipeline" tooth and nail, for whatever reasons( I guess they already have theirs) shutting off the supply of NG on that future route, one of the most benign fuels imaginable( well maybe fracking is not so good) any way you cannot fight the future good of something just because it MIGHT CAUSE SOME HARM AT A LATER DATE) if that's the case abolish all military and anything that moves. Propane and NG are very good fuels if burning anything hydrocarbon can be considered good. The Navy used to have automobiles powered by CNG and the"gas company " had their vehicles powered by propane.
 
Zekeer said:
Yeah It is impossible for it to work . For an additional source . I have a softwash System for my House and Pole barns . I keep powered up with a Solar panel I was given . So it's fun to get it to work and it's free. But for a source of civilizations survival . It's crazy thinking . And it's far worse for the environments then Gas/Coal/Oil . Not to mention the only countries even attempting green are Western lands . The rest of the world thinks this is crazy . Putin is using it to make Europe really suffer . Think about how stupid all this woke-ness is when over a 1/3 of the world doesn't comply at all . But they definitely profit off us : Think about Where Solar /and batteries come from . Smog ridden polluters of the World AKA China . LOL It would be funny if it was not so sad how we ended up electing all these idiots in the West .
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Germany is going to suffer this winter, Europe better hope for a milder winter this year(I can hear the incinerators whooshing and the chainsaws buzzing( all the way over here)
 
kevinmccune said:
The good citizens not so far from where I reside fought the"Mtn Valley Pipeline" tooth and nail, for whatever reasons( I guess they already have theirs) shutting off the supply of NG on that future route, one of the most benign fuels imaginable( well maybe fracking is not so good) any way you cannot fight the future good of something just because it MIGHT CAUSE SOME HARM AT A LATER DATE) if that's the case abolish all military and anything that moves. Propane and NG are very good fuels if burning anything hydrocarbon can be considered good. The Navy used to have automobiles powered by CNG and the"gas company " had their vehicles powered by propane.
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My question is how did we end up putting all these morons worldwide in positions to run things ? Looks like we high-jack the Solar panel discussion
 
Zekeer said:
My question is how did we end up putting all these morons worldwide in positions to run things ? Looks like we high-jack the Solar panel discussion
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Actually its very relevant, because it could be solar vs NG,if you truly wanted a basically clean way to heat your house and domestic water it could be solar( not good for large scale heating-except in summer) or propane, the negative for this economical( NG) system is the potential for asphyxiation or explosion.
A little aside, the resort town next to where I reside used to generate its own power with coal and heat the whole complex, REA comes along, so generator no longer needed, so the whole town is heated with steam( coal fired) the big negative was shipping the coal in and handling it several times, huge unsightly smokestack, the whole town is dirty and grungy.Finally they switch to 'fuel oil', ah its cleaner(than coal) even get to shorten smokestack, however cheaper and cheaper grades of fuel are used in an attempt to save money finally culminating in No.5 grade hauled in on of all things Asphalt tankers, cold weather comes along( oh no) the thick molasses like fuel oil is having a hard time getting o the boiler, blame the asphalt company( too much bitumen residue in the tankers).
So finally ,(light bulb!) switch to propane!, they never looked back, no more cold weather problems even got to shorten the old 19th Century smokestack even more, end of story and you cannot smell any combustion now and its actually clean as far as residue and fallout is concerned.
My grandparents(in law) were on the town gas company(NG) in Waynesboro, VA during the mid to late nineties( winters were colder then for some reason) I recollect their gas bill for heating water space heating, etc, was in the $ teens each month then. Of course the economics are changed now,I postulate we need NG and propane until we can comfortably switch to solar and other renewables
 
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