Quote:
Originally Posted by skyking
Then I looked at the EU1000i generator I paid $400 for, and realized I was beating a dead horse. The money is just not there for what you get. I could get gas for that honda for decades and still not spend as much as a 200 watt panel and hardware.
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That generator is going to cost you around $0.40 to $0.50 per hour to run, so after buying the solar panel, charge controller, deep cycle battery and small inverter you'd have spent enough to run your generator for about two hours per day for a year and for anyone who wanted to buy that same generator new today it would cost them $800, so right there the solar set up is cheaper without factoring in the cost of gas.
If you were installing this on your house and wanted a grid tied inverter then getting panels with micro inverters that get wired right in to your house electrical system would be the way to go, $2 per watt and your only extra costs would be wire, disconnect switch and hard ware to put it on your roof, then you let it generate electricity for the rest of your life without any other added costs and if the old 10 year warranty that the panels my parents bought 30 years ago and moved twice (are still putting out more then their rated output) say anything about the current 25 year warranty then your solar panels might outlast your grand kids... and people want to put them on the roof of their car?