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AndyC wrote: ↑Fri Jul 13, 2018 10:58 am I love the idea of solar and actually have one of those RAVpower 4-panel foldable sets for cellphone/tablet charging, but I can't justify the costs for a house.

I have one of those too. But it strikes me that if you’re going to build a house, that might be a good time to have solar installed, as it would be a relatively small uptick in the price of the finished home.

jason812 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 13, 2018 10:06 am I have looked into this as a way to get off the grid. From what I have discovered, if you want to get off the grid, solar, wind, and batteries are needed. To run a normal home, expect to spend $100k. On top of that, you have to replace and maintain the batteries and if you want the best performance, you have to change a lot of habits and possibly electric devices in your home. Unfortunately it's not as easy as put up some panels and turn the electric meter off. For wind, expect to put up a 30ft diameter windmill on at least a 100ft tower if you want anything out of it. I doubt many jurisdictions will let you do that but I have the luxury of being in the middle of nowhere.

Of course if it were just you and not your family, you could get this done a lot cheaper, I know I could as I could do without certain luxuries in life.

That was a point made by one of the solar companies websites that I read......that for most modern suburban homes, you’re not going to be able to generate enough power to get completely off grid without significantly changing your lifestyle. I like my air conditioning, TV, and my wifi and computing devices. Of course, like most people my age (mid-60s), I remember a time when most homes DIDN’T have all of those things. I didn’t even have air conditioning until I was in my late 30s or early 40s. If I had to, I could adapt to consuming less power. I’d just have to get used to being less comfortable again.

Another consideration..... in the pre-A/C days, homes were designed to be ventilated by means of certain window designs to keep the inside livable in the heat. These days, homes are practically hermetically sealed .... which saves energy for cooling/heating, but makes them more difficult to establish a cooling airflow. My current house was built in 1993 - well within the window of hermetically sealed homes.

Also, happy wife, happy life; and I’m pretty sure my wife would not want to live without A/C and heat So in all probability, I won’t be energy independent .... at least as long as I live in this house. But, I most certainly CAN lower my energy bill. So it all boils down to ROI like strogg mentioned. That is still to be determined.

I’m thinking of adding some kind of solar power array to my home down the road, and I’m just beginning to do some research on it. Do any of you guys have it on yours, and if so, what has your experience been like?

A friend at church recently showed me the SmartFlower Solar system: http://smartflowersolar.com. The attractive features of this system are (A) a small footprint, (B) self-deploys and retracts to protect itself from weather, and (C) is available with battery storage. But it is also a fairly new product without the extensive track record of traditional solar panels, and the equipment cost and installation are not cheap. Therefore, when you amortize the installation cost over 20 years, the projected cost per watt of power over that 20 years is higher. That is balanced against the system’s ability to protect itself from things like hail and high winds, unlike a rooftop system. Also, it is just a lot more complicated than a traditional system by virtue of all of its moving parts. But for now, something like that is probably outside my price range anyway. So if I do something to my suburban home, it will likely be rooftop solar panels.

What about you guys?