30
September
2009
Found a piece of really cheap land (a little over 1K/acre) and just wondering the cost it would be to have solar electricity there - no electricity yet in the area b/c it is very rural and about 20 minutes from town.
thank you so much!! :O)
Hey, no thank you! Those websites are not solar related — they’re about appliance repair. Come on people!
It depends on how much electricity you plan to
use, and how many days storage capacity you’ll
require. - Those winters can be fierce.
(If you plan to use electric cooking, heat, or A.C. -
forget it).
You’ll need:
*solar panels to gather a days worth of power in about
4 hours.
*A charger/inverter unit of the proper size for the load.
* Batteries with storage capacity for two days of the load.
Experience has shown that the system will cost
about what you’d pay for 15 - 20 Yr.s worth of utility power.
Posted: solar power home
30
September
2009
How many solar panels would i need to charge 4 AA batteries, each produce 1.2 volts. The solar panel delivers about 0.3-amps at 0.55VDC in full sunlight. How long would it take to charge them with the fewest amount of solar panels?
The batteries get 90ma or 900mah
are you sure about those numbers?
0.55VDC is too low to charge any battery. The voltage has to be at least 2 volts.
The 0.3 amps is enough, more than enough to charge AA cells.
If those are correct numbers, you could put 3 in series and get 1.6 volts, barely enough. If you really get 300ma out of the panels, then it should charge the a battery in 3 hours. 12 hours for all 4. But monitor voltage and current carefully.
Posted: solar panels
29
September
2009
im looking into installing either solar panels or geothermal or both for a home. do they both supply electricty? which would have more benefit (dont mind the cost)? any information or websites you know of would be great
If you haven’t built your home yet yes, theoretically you can do geothermal, but takes a LOT of space & you need a geoteck study to see if its viable where your home is. Never seen it in residential. Go solar.
Posted: home solar panels
29
September
2009
where do u find solar powered pannels, how muchdo they cost, and how do you set it up?
thanks
Most often, you buy them from a solar vendor. Try the link below to find a vendor near you.
They cost between $7 and $10 per watt, and can take anywhere from 15 to 70 years to pay for themselves, depending on how much you pay for electricity, how much sun you get, and what kind of incentives are available in your area. I put a link below to a web page showing all the available US incentives.
Most people pay an installer to set up their system. You’ll need solar panels, a roof mounting rack, wiring, and inverters (to make the power usable in your home.)
Good luck.
Posted: solar power
28
September
2009
If i connect a 9V solar panel to a 12V battery, will it be able to charge the battery up to 9V? Or will the current go the other way and not charge the battery at all?
You would typically have a blocking diode in place to prevent battery discharge (even cheep panels have this).
Your 9v panel is actually at 11.5v when there is no current. So you may be able to very slightly trickle charge a dead battery. I doubt you will be able to witness any results however.
The simple solution is to purchase a 12v panel 
Another solution, if you do not wish to purchase a new panel, is to get a charge controller. A charge controller can boost the voltage to the proper charging values and protects the batteries when they are full.
Check them out at:
http://www.aurorapower.net/products/list/1/categoryid/13/level/a.aspx
Best of luck to you!
Posted: solar panel
27
September
2009
I want to get a training / programme / oversea courses that teach me solar / wind power system setup, knowledge, etc.
did you check websites yet? have you checked schools yet?
Posted: solar power home
27
September
2009
What kind of performance do you get? How much did your system cost and did you do it by yourself?
This probably isn’t the best answer, but here goes. My father-in-law is an electrician at a nuclear power plant, so he knows more than a bit about transmission, generation, and so forth. He told me it was completely impractical to use passive solar panels to heat your home, BUT he has them rigged up in the back yard to heat his water.
So, I’m afraid I don’t really have a solid answer, but I can suggest that you might want to be asking another question.
Posted: home solar panels
27
September
2009
We have forced oil which is not allowed by our loan we received on our new house which is 200 years old. The house is currently 1,300 square feet. Instead of switching to gas, we were interested in solar power. How to I begin the research on this and where to buy?
Also how $$ is doing something like this? We don’t know anyone with solar power so any comments or suggestions would be great.
IN NJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok this is a very large question for which there isn’t enough room here for me to correctly give you the full out answer to it, so instead here’s a website that will most certainly help you out with this and many other question that you may have. www.motherearthnews.com
Posted: solar power
27
September
2009
The solar panel wouldn’t need to be very large, and for the most part could be on the back or top of the street light. At night, they could be powered the same way they are now or by batteries that the solar panels could be charging throughout the day. Please explain to me if you think this is good or bad.
China already does this on all new install in many parts of the country. It is a small panel with LED lights, they work fine.
Posted: solar panels
27
September
2009
I’m doing my science fair project on solar energy and i need to know how to make a solar panel out of household objects. I found a website that said it is possible to build one out of a box, paint, plastic, and aluminum foil but I can’t find out how.
If you are trying to build a solar oven you can get some great ideas and free plans at: Solar Cookers International: http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Solar_cooker_designs
And like the other have said Build it Solar has lots of great solar energy projects: http://www.builditsolar.com/
If you are trying to build your own solar panels that is a little more involved and you will need supplies that are not in your home but this can still be done as a do-it-yourself project: http://www.applied-solar.info/earth4energy-homemade-power/
Posted: solar panel
