Solar Powerd Home Setup

[West OZ Mark]

I am looking at purchasing a property that has a medium size house but is currently used as a holiday home and the power runs on a generator.
I am interested to hear from anyone that has had solar power fitted to their own home. Following questions are just some information that I would like to find out about.

~ Total cost for a setup for a stand alone system (No grid connection)?
~ Reliability and stability (my wife works from home on computer full time)?
~ Due to being in a southern WA area where there is probably more overcast days than sunny is it still a viable solution?

The house will be a 4 bed 2 bath with a gas Hot water,stove and heating by tile fire otherwise standard 240v electrical appliances etc.

Any information would be appreciated so I have a bit of an idea before I talk to some companies about solar systems for my application.

Thanks...Mark

[OBBob]

Hi There

I have never done it but the main concern I have heard with the stand alone setups is the large cost of the batteries and their limited life span. I guess that is only an issue if you don't budget for it?

In terms of overcast days, I'm not sure that is too much of an issue ... direct sun would be ideal but solar hot water (although a very differnt system) still manages to work well in cold overcast areas.

The http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/yourhome/ has some great info on this stuff.

[DavidG]

See for solar info and costings.

If you keep your current appliances it will be very expensive.

If you have a good wind flow you can supplement the system with wind power which has a much lower cost per Kw

[West OZ Mark]

Thanks OBBob and DavidG,

The websites have given me alot of information that I wanted. Sounds good.

Thanks again...Mark

[Gra]

Missed this one first time round. you might also want to talk to www.ata.org.au (The Alternative Technology Assoc of Aust)

[bfx]

Mark,

I currently run two systems on my property.

My current house, winery and wood working shop run on a 24volt system. This started out as a weekender system and has been progressively upgraded as I have added requirements. All works fine except when I power up the bottling line in the winery or the TS10L-1PH in the wood shop. I have to run the generator when they are going. I dumped the original batteries for this system 3 years ago - some of them were manufactured in 1973 so they had lasted over 30 years.

My new house - 750m away on the same property so I had to install a separate system - is a 48volt system with a 13Kva diesel back up. It will have 8 x 165watt solar panels and the generator should rarely be required.

Important tips:
- 48 volts is best for a home that is always occupied with many appliances,
- get a top shelf inverter charger. I use Selectronics and they automatically maintain battery condition, start the generator, shift the load to the generator etc.
- get plenty of panels/wind turbine. More is better to maintain battery condition and minimise generator fuel costs.

Cost: my new 48volt system is costing just over $60,000 including generator, shed, wiring to house, solar panels, inverter charger and batteries. (Cost to connect to grid was quoted as way more than $200,000 because the neighbor insisted the lines would have to go undeground.)

Most important tip: If you are going to live in the house and it will cost you more than $30,000 to get connected to the grid then the govt has a new subsidy scheme - they will pay for 50% of the system cost excluding wiring to the house and the cost of the generator. Requirements - cost to connect to grid must be more that $30,000, renewable component of the system must be more that 30% of total cost, new system cost must be more than $30,000.

Summary: The systems work and and don't present any difficulties plus it is nice not to be subjected to blackouts or power bills.

Good luck

Bill

[West OZ Mark]

Thanks GRA that information was very handy.

Bill you are what I was looking for in the fact of someone who had a system up and running. Your information has been invaluable thanks very much