Solar cell panel prices to drop soon..

[Axaday]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

I don't really understand this statement

Electric here is $0.11 per kwhr
$1 per watt means $1000 per kwhr capable panel 1000watt an hr =1kwhr
$1000/$.11 = 9090.90 hrs to payoff

9090.9090 / 8 hrs of light a day / 365 = 3.09 years to payoff

Obviously assuming there is no inverter, battery packs, ect.

What am I missing?

When you are buying solar panels, a 1 kw system does not generate 1 kwh/hour. It generates 1 kwh/day. At $1 per watt, 1 kw costs $1000 and generates 365.25 kwh/year. Electricity costs 9 cents here, so the $1000 system generates $32.87 worth per year. That's a 30.42 year payoff.

Where you live, it is a 9090.9 DAY payoff, not hour. So 24.89 years.

[BrianAbington]

But keep in mind how much it may add to the value of your home. Green home building is just starting to really take off. So if you build/remodel a home to Leed/energy specs and add a solar system this could potentialy add more value to your home than you spend on the system.

[MazdaMatt]

I know nothing about panels, but i know my watts... and that statement makes no sense. Producing 1 watt for 1 hour is 1Wh. Producing 1000W for 1hr is 1kWh.

I assume that panels are at peak efficiency when perpendicular to the sun... so you won't produce peak power for the entire daylight time.... 8hrs is probably a good estimate, if that's what you were doing (unless you only get 8hrs of sunlight due to living in a valley)

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by Axaday

When you are buying solar panels, a 1 kw system does not generate 1 kwh/hour. It generates 1 kwh/day. At $1 per watt, 1 kw costs $1000 and generates 365.25 kwh/year. Electricity costs 9 cents here, so the $1000 system generates $32.87 worth per year. That's a 30.42 year payoff.

Where you live, it is a 9090.9 DAY payoff, not hour. So 24.89 years.

lets just say you are both wrong, one watt of pv will produce one watt in full sunlight, in my part of Wisconsin we average 4 sun hours per day, allowing 1 watt of pv to produce 4 watt hours on average per day, yesterday was cloudy so we didn't get alot of power from the sun but today was clear and bright so our 1.5kw of pv has put out 7.7kwh of power today and still counting.

[dremd]

Subscribed:

[NeilBlanchard]

Hi,

Are you leaving off the "hour"? If a 1,000watt panel produces full power for 1 complete hour, then it is putting out 1kwh, right?

So for your 1.5kw array: if it works at 100% for 8 hours, that would be 12kwh. If it works at ~50% output for 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening, that would add 3.75kwh; making the total for the day 15.75kwh.

Around here (in New England) we pay ~19 cents per kwh, so this would be worth just shy of $3 per day; or ~$1,000 per year.

[Axaday]

Originally Posted by Ryland

lets just say you are both wrong,

Drat, I'll have to go back to the guy who described it to me and rethink my whole numbers on this issue. He's a serious fan of solar power, but he hasn't actually bought some yet like you have.

[cfg83]

Axaday -

Originally Posted by Axaday

Drat, I'll have to go back to the guy who described it to me and rethink my whole numbers on this issue. He's a serious fan of solar power, but he hasn't actually bought some yet like you have.

Try this calculator :

My Solar Estimator
http://www.findsolar.com/index.php?page=rightforme

If you put in your zipcode, it figures out the solar potential for your location. For instance, here's mine in sunny LA :

The solar rating of your area is Great for adopting a solar system. This is based upon a solar rating of 5.81 kWh/sq-m/day.

CarloSW2

[MazdaMatt]

okay, to all of you quoting numbers you really need get your Watts and Watt-hours straight. You can't say "I produced 7.7 watts today"... watt is a rate, watt-hours is a quantity. Its like saying I drove 100km/h today to describe how far i went. km/h * h = km, which is how far. W*h = Wh, Wh is your measurable, quantifiable, cash-related amount of eletricity produced.

Sorry for the rant, i'm trying to learn here and this thread is very confusing.

[MazdaMatt]

Question: does everyone install a fixed-mount system, or are there systems that track the sun for optimal exposure? Are they worth it?