[SilentNight]

sooooo... I'm thinking of investing in solar panels all along my roof... I've contacted APS for a quote and more information.. but in the meantime, I'd like to see if anyone here has any comments or suggestions...

that would be your cue to reply... starting...................................... now!..

[Solar]

Well.. I'm currently in the process of finalizing solar on my business... $390k later. There are several companies out there, all do pretty much the same thing. I would say look at your local power company and see if they have any program/rebates for this kind of thing (ours did, we'll get back 40% from them) also talk with your CPA about what kind of tax credits your state and fed. government give you for it.

The company we used was United Sustainable Energy http://www.usesolarenergy.net/ they've really got to work on their customer service AFTER the sale though to be honest with you before I would recommend them again (unless price is the ONLY object, they were cheapest by about 20K for our project but ours is a little larger than most)

REC Solar http://www.recsolar.com/cm/Home.html & I can't seem to remember the other one we looked at ...

Hope this helps,
-J

[Djimnik]

If you can, look into a totally off-grid system. Most on grid systems have major problems with overloading when the grid power fails. And having to replace a on-grid inverter every couple of years would just blow all the savings you made out the window.

[nothing]

Solar, do you know if your installation is Sunpower or FirstSolar?

Just wondering...

[Solar]

I'm not following what you are asking nothing... can you elaborate?

[FutbolDude21586]

We COULD always just feed Solar only RedBull and caffeine... and hook him up to some cables to power our homes... Yannow what, where's caffeineavatar? He'd do well!


To do this in Florida would be brilliant, but uber expensive! $390,000? Holy crap, Solar!

[Solar]

It's for a commercial business Jim, 8.5 acre self storage facility, office, residnetial manager house (3 bed, 2 bath) plus 10000 sq feet a/c building of storage ( two 3-phase 15 ton heat pumps!)

our electric bill is about $3k this time of year

-J

[FutbolDude21586]

Okay, not so scary anymore. (8-1/2acres? Holy crap, man!)

[treehugger]

If you're thinking of using solar panels for either hot water or electricity, you should check with your local by-law people as well as your utility company. Here in Ottawa, it's only been legal to install solar panels since a year or 2 ago and there are still several hoops you have to jump thru first before they'll let you do it.

[SilentNight]

I believe that other than paying a boatload of cash.. there is no hoop jumping in the states... what with this gas "crisis" and what not..

[Jkirk3279]

It's for a commercial business Jim, 8.5 acre self storage facility, office, residnetial manager house (3 bed, 2 bath) plus 10000 sq feet a/c building of storage ( two 3-phase 15 ton heat pumps!)

our electric bill is about $3k this time of year

-J

Well, the first thing to consider isn't the solar tech, it's efficiency.

For example, you have a 10,000 sq ft building you want to keep cool.


Consider adding on a Steel Roof over your existing roof.

A hundred years ago, before refrigeration, people used to store blocks of ice in ice-houses. The blocks were sawn from rivers in the winter and stacked in a well-insulated storehouse all summer.

To keep the sun's heat from melting the ice, the storehouse had what's called an ice-house roof�.

It's just a second layer of roofing, with a 1/2 inch air gap.

Today, you can get shingles stamped out of steel, with a 75 year transferrable warranty.

As long as you don't already have three layers of regular shingles on your roof, the installer doesn't need to strip the roof: they will lay down 1/2 inch plastic shims over the old shingles and attach the steel shingles on top.

Thus creating an ice-house roof� and insulating the building. That way the heat your equipment needs to pump suddenly drops, along with the electric bill.

We're going to do something similar at our business: we have a bid out on putting in a dropped ceiling, so this winter we won't need to heat the air up around the rafters. I expect the project to pay for itself the first winter.



The second thing to consider is harvesting some of that heat. If you put in a solar hot water system you can have free hot water all summer and into the fall at the residence.

And for the future, on Science Friday this week there was a mention of a new material that can absorb infra-red light. The developers hope to find a way to magically split this infra-red light into electricity.

If that works out, businesses like yours and mine will be able to cut our electric needs drastically.

This post has been edited by Jkirk3279: 23 August 2008 - 07:09 PM

[Solar]

Considering we have sun 350+ days a year it was more practical to get a reverse meter setup (no batteries necessary.

By next week we should be relatively off the grid