Solar Power

[rod1949]

Will be revamping our house later this year and looking at energy efficiency and solar power etc. So my question is has anyone gone down the track of Solar Panels/powering your house? Excess power going back into the Grid has this happened and been of benefit?

Thanks Rod W

[Gumpy]

I have not been down this road myself but have thought about it. The only problem is the cost. Recently I saw a pricing guide on what you want to achieve but cannot remember where it was, it might be in the origin energy link below.

In my own situation I am setting up the house to run as afficiently as possible and maybe in the future when new technology makes the panels cheaper then I can be self sufficient.

Daniel



http://www.originenergy.com.au/home/...php?pageid=174

http://www.ceres.org.au/

http://www.rerc-vt.org/rerc.htm

http://www.ata.org.au/about_renew.htm

[Gumpy]

I meant to add this link as well, go to the links tab for more info on what you want.

Daniel



http://www.ata.org.au/

[HappyHammer]

My Outlaws have solar at their farm and it works really well but wasn't cheap to install and had some teething problems at the start, they also have a windmill for those infrequent cloudy days. The panels, batteries and the windmill are on / in the shed and a small monitor / control panel is in the house about 150m away.

HH.

[jackiew]

the ATA ( link already given above ) have heaps of info on this stuff. It really is worth giving them a call.

You may be lucky and find that your local library already subscribes to RENEW which is the ATA magazine - if they don't you could always suggest it to them.

If you are thinking of going down the solar power line it may well be worth your while joining as they have negotiated discounts with various suppliers, you get your RENEW magazine subscription included. If you are going to make a major capital investment you need all the discounts you can negotiate. End of Advert

At the moment no-one goes down the grid connected solar power route with the expectation of breaking even anytime in the near future. Its more an ethical (? maybe there is a better word than this ? ) decision. Depending on your local power company you may find yourself groundbreaking the forms and processes for getting grid connected or you may be lucky and find some other unlucky soul has done the hard yards for you.

[fxst]

www.tasmanenergy.com.au
is a good site as well has some examples as well
we are moving to our bush block within 12 months (25 acres of heaven) well we reckon it is and as no grid power is available cheap we are going down the alt power route. will cost about the same to connect to the grid but no quarterly power bills. Sun .Wind and a gen set for the really bad years
Pete

[Slavo]

My cousin-in-law has a great set-up on his property. 48 volt system with 2 large solar panels that track the path of the sun, 2 wind generators and a diesel generator for back-up. He didn't qualify for the Govt rebates because he said their requirements were too inefficient. He runs all his tools and all the usual househols stuff off it and it hasn't missed a beat (he built the power supply first then built the house).