Solar Talk 🌞

[WillBrink]

I'm currently having Solar added to my house with battery backup. The insane price increases for electricity in FL, wanting to be less dependent on the grid, big improvements in the tech, rebates, etc, made it worth it to me.

On a global scale, solar is an interesting topic, that looks great "on paper" but reality has a habit of ignoring that, and smacking the pie in the sky "free energy" crowed down hard. This is an excellent vid on that topic:

[WillBrink]

Excellent vid on renewables by someone who ended up doing a 180 on the topic:

[THCDDM4]

Self generated energy is the future, however wind and solar is not the answer, they aren’t viable.

I have several neighbors with solar. We had a 4 day power blackout a few months back.

I have a geni switch on my house, plugged in the generator and hummed along as if nothing happened.

Two of my neighbors had battery back-ups two did not. Day one and two none of them had much power at all as it was snow related, 2 feet of snow covering panels only allows a fraction of the energy to get captured.

The two with back up battery systems could only power unsubstantial items during non sun saturated hours and the battery’s got bled dry quickly.

2 of the four went out and bought gas powered generators on day 3.

In order to have a battery back up significant enough to power a household, you’d need a separate structure and cooling system to house and manage it.

Wind doesn’t always blow.

It’s just not viable, even with the subsidies trying to force the illusion of viability.

I’ve had solar in the past and knew not to need to rely on it, the return on investment angle almost never adds up and it can’t really take care of day to day needs without going truly minimalist.

I designing a new system and was going to procure/build and install it, but nothing added up when I did the real math- not the solar company math.

It’s just a feel good money making scheme funded by the government stealing from the tax payers.

[WillBrink]

Self generated energy is the future, however wind and solar is not the answer, they aren’t viable.

I have several neighbors with solar. We had a 4 day power blackout a few months back.

I have a geni switch on my house, plugged in the generator and hummed along as if nothing happened.

Two of my neighbors had battery back-ups two did not. Day one and two none of them had much power at all as it was snow related, 2 feet of snow covering panels only allows a fraction of the energy to get captured.

The two with back up battery systems could only power unsubstantial items during non sun saturated hours and the battery’s got bled dry quickly.

2 of the four went out and bought gas powered generators on day 3.

In order to have a battery back up significant enough to power a household, you’d need a separate structure and cooling system to house and manage it.

Wind doesn’t always blow.

It’s just not viable, even with the subsidies trying to force the illusion of viability.

I’ve had solar in the past and knew not to need to rely on it, the return on investment angle almost never adds up and it can’t really take care of day to day needs without going truly minimalist.

I designing a new system and was going to procure/build and install it, but nothing added up when I did the real math- not the solar company math.

It’s just a feel good money making scheme funded by the government stealing from the tax payers.

The simple lesson there is like everything, never rely on one thing, have back ups to your back ups, and layers. Individual solar is very viable if you understand and accept its strengths and weaknesses. Those 100% reliant on the grid are no different, and also often buying a generator after spending a few days or more without power.

My solar, being FL, costs of the panels coming way down, efficiency gone up, etc, estimated to cover 110% of recs, so should be adding juice into the grid, and further lowering my costs. Battery backup will run the entire house for approx 2-3 days, which should be sufficient for all but the worst storms we have, in which case I fire up the Generac whole house generator, which has another 2-3 days of juice, and I have another 3 days of gas for it.

[markm]

Solar is much like the electric vehicle fantasy. I was just discussing this mess with our Lennox A/C territory manager in the context of energy efficiency requirements.

In typical American Mediocrity fashion, the first wave of Solar panels have aged out, and are worth nothing to recycle. They're apparently going straight to landfill. We'll see this nightmare with shitty American designed EV batteries soon. American companies only care about the quick buck and not long term life of any product. These junk EV batteries are going to be an environmental nightmare which is ironic.

[WillBrink]

Solar is much like the electric vehicle fantasy. I was just discussing this mess with our Lennox A/C territory manager in the context of energy efficiency requirements.

In typical American Mediocrity fashion, the first wave of Solar panels have aged out, and are worth nothing to recycle. They're apparently going straight to landfill. We'll see this nightmare with shitty American designed EV batteries soon. American companies only care about the quick buck and not long term life of any product. These junk EV batteries are going to be an environmental nightmare which is ironic.

I'm using Panasonic, but like most things, it's about feelz over facts and science. That second vid is great, not just for the info, but the fact dude started out as feel good "solar and wind gonna save us all" to realizing it's wrong, and now supports nuclear. Really tough jump to make for many, especially to do a full 180 like that, so credit to him. That's like one of us doing a full 180 and supporting a ban on all firearms for civilians level of mental turn around in his world, so I respect him bigly for that. Few people can do that.

[Lowdown3]

Been producing our own power since the late 90's. Started with just 1,600 watts of solar- back when solar was $6.25 per watt (you read that right). Back then we would run the 12KW diesel genset a couple times a day to pump water, top off the battery bank, usually about 30 minutes in the morning. Around 2009 we added more panels and currently still run 5KW in solar through a bank of 28 L16 batteries.

My initial array of now 23 year old Kyocera 130 watt panels are still functioning well. The batteries are the only "moving part" in a true off grid system. We get on average about 8 years on L16s. Just replaced most of our bank this spring and they were from 2014 with just a few not worth saving- the others went into a smaller solar project near one of our wells.

We are not "grid tied", this is a stand alone system. Back in the 90's no one knew WTF about any of this, so grid tying then would have been a PITA with a bunch of bubbas from the electric company standing around questioning everything they didn't know about. Not honestly worth me giving the electric co an easement to get a few dollars back occasionally.

[ChattanoogaPhil]

Electricity is relatively cheap here, power outages are rare and short duration. That said, there's enough prepper in me that I do like the idea of solar as a supplement to the grid.

My 2000 Toyota Tundra is getting a bit long in the tooth. I've been considering an EV for local driving (We have a Sienna for travel). Using solar panels to keep the battery charged intrigues me.

[Todd.K]

IThe insane price increases for electricity in FL…

You do understand that “you” are a big part of the price increase, right?

I’m not blaming you for making a financially advantageous decision, but subsidies are always bad for price and availability of a product.

[WillBrink]

Been producing our own power since the late 90's. Started with just 1,600 watts of solar- back when solar was $6.25 per watt (you read that right). Back then we would run the 12KW diesel genset a couple times a day to pump water, top off the battery bank, usually about 30 minutes in the morning. Around 2009 we added more panels and currently still run 5KW in solar through a bank of 28 L16 batteries.

My initial array of now 23 year old Kyocera 130 watt panels are still functioning well. The batteries are the only "moving part" in a true off grid system. We get on average about 8 years on L16s. Just replaced most of our bank this spring and they were from 2014 with just a few not worth saving- the others went into a smaller solar project near one of our wells.

We are not "grid tied", this is a stand alone system. Back in the 90's no one knew WTF about any of this, so grid tying then would have been a PITA with a bunch of bubbas from the electric company standing around questioning everything they didn't know about. Not honestly worth me giving the electric co an easement to get a few dollars back occasionally.

Sounds like you were a pioneer on that one. I'm assuming you're on a larger property and more secluded. If I were similar, likely not even bother being connected to the grid. As I'm in a suburban area, already connected to the grid, systems are designed to work with the grid, etc, makes sense to simply stay that way. I also have no doubts the town, state, county and or power company would made sure it's a real PITA to disconnect from the grid, making sure it's more hassle then it's worth. That I will have 3 ways of getting power, an approx 50% drop in electrical costs, and increase the value of my house, is all win in my view. Until this recent big rate increase in FL happened, I would have been approx break even for monthly costs, now it's a clear savings.