12 K solar system?

[StillHope]

My builder has someone who can install a solar system for my house for 12K.
He also mentioned that it,probably,will not allow to use the electric dryer,but I can live with that.
My house is less than 800 sq ft.
It will cost me about 3 K to get connected to the electric power.
So that solar system sounds good.But I am not an expert.

Any thoughts?

[David M]

Depends on what you get for $12k. Both you and PW would need to know about all the equip - panels, inverters, batteries, etc to make intelligent comments and a decision. You'd also have to know you load/usage to determine if adequate. SF has little to no value - a 800sf house could use more power than a 3000sf depending on what was in it.

David

Ninole Resident

[StillHope]

Thank you,David.
All I know at this point is my usage.It's very minimal - about 100 kwh or less.
The rest I am going to post when I have this information.

[David M]

Hmmmmmmmm, not too sure about that. You need to know your DAILY usage. Also need an idea of regular spikes in usage. You can get a rough idea by looking at your current electric bill and dividing those kw by the number of days. If your 100kw divided by 30 days means approx 3.33 kw per day, then you would need a system that generated on average 3.33 plus whatever you lose to inefficencies, so maybe 5kw per day for example if 70% efficient. I know in my own case, I need to average about 15kw per day to keep even, but since Jan 1 this year, I have only averaged 12.7kw - with low of 2.3kw on Mar 7 and high of 23.0kw on Mar 15. That's where my generator comes into play. Does that $12K figure include a backup such a a generator? A generator may be important on those high usage days also.

Search the archives - a treasure trove of info already posted.

David

Ninole Resident

[StillHope]

David,I really appreciate your help.
I am following the topics on solar.
But I am still too far from understanding all that man's realm of engineering .
When I posted this question I thought that 12K system is something well known...

[john the architect]

Why not convert your electric dryer to solar? I did one in HPP. Starting with an electric is best, however. First remove the circular heating element in the back. Now get a coil of copper tubing that fits in the same place. If you want to do this right then do heat calcs for the perfect design. Then you connect this coil to a heat source. You will probably need very high temperatures, something hotter than the boiling point of water, so do not use your domestic solar water system. Use a fluid like a high temp oil and run it through an evacuated tube collector. You can get these cheaply from a source that imports from China, I believe. There you go. Free drying and no dangerous and expensive high voltage. This was Ray Peters idea, the basic part of it anyway, and you can look up where someone has already applied for a patent on this.

quote:

---

Originally posted by StillHope

My builder has someone who can install a solar system for my house for 12K.
He also mentioned that it,probably,will not allow to use the electric dryer,but I can live with that.
My house is less than 800 sq ft.
It will cost me about 3 K to get connected to the electric power.
So that solar system sounds good.But I am not an expert.

Any thoughts?

---

[Daniel]

Stillhope, can you email me a list of what this 12K package includes? I can tell you if youre getting all the bang for your buck. I also just remembered that I didnt respond to your last email, sorry, i'll get on that.

Daniel R Diamond

[StillHope]

Thank you,Daniel!
I really appreciate your help.
At this point all I don't know much,because my builder is busy.
All I know that it generate 110 Wt,the inverter is Outback,no generator.

[StillHope]

John,thank you for the suggestions.
I can,probably,survive without dryer.
They say Seaview is the sunniest subdivision.

[robguz]

Why not just do a gas dryer? Also, why not do grid tie in where you sell back your excess towards credits from HELCO for when you need power. Then you can run whatever you want with minimal bills. I assume you are having solar hot water too.