Solar Powered Home Brewery

[Brandt]

In the US 2012 the light bulb will be gone unless they changed it. Buy a KILL a WATT meter to find out how much power things in the house draws. My power usage is down 100 KHWs from 210 KWH last year. For a cost of $21.60 mo. and $9.00 of it is service charge. I have a gas hot water heater and gas furnace. With a blower motor that is electric. The point is you can save lots of power if you shut stuff off like that cable box that sucked $10 a month changed to the 22w laptop from the 175W desk top saving around $8 month.

+1 on the Kill a Watt. It really shows you how much electricity your appliances/gadgets/vibrators/etc. are wasting. A really cheap solution is to put all your tv/ computer/ electronics on a surge protecter and turn it off when not in use. Same goes for clocks, microwave ovens, and just about anything else you can think of that only gets used occasionally. All battery chargers (eg. cell phone) should be unplugged when not in use. Televisions use 2w-15w even when they're turned off. Just by shutting off these phantom loads, you can reduce your bill by 6%- 20%.

Also, the jury is still out on this, but I've been hearing about power conditioning to make your appliances mre efficient. Something about the shape of the sine wave... A little over my head really, but there are those who say it can really reduce your consupmtion by quite a bit. The system is affordable to a homeowner, just a few thousand dollars.

[bcmaui]

Wow - you would think in the middle of summer I would have a higher electric bill with 7 refrigerators/freezers for regular use and brewing, but just received my lowest (in terms of kWh, not dollars) power bill ever yesterday. 7 kWh a day - and we are now up to 0.324 per kWh ($68.49 / 211 kWh), so break even may be even faster than 7 years which was based on $0.30 per kWh.

Here is 2010 so far

Here is 2009 (solar was added mid-October)

It does not look like I am making more power than last month - maybe some new conservation efforts are helping as well.

We should hit 3 megawatts of power produced early next month - and should be over my original estimate of 3.2 megawatts per year with this system.

[foomench]

Wow - you would think in the middle of summer I would have a higher electric bill with 7 refrigerators/freezers for regular use and brewing, but just received my lowest (in terms of kWh, not dollars) power bill ever yesterday.

Congrats to you. It is so sunny where I live that wish it made more sense for me to try solar, but with my electricity costing less than $0.06/kWh, I can't get the payoff like you. Instead I pay a little extra for wind power.

[bcmaui]

Congrats to you. It is so sunny where I live that wish it made more sense for me to try solar, but with my electricity costing less than $0.06/kWh, I can't get the payoff like you. Instead I pay a little extra for wind power.

Wind is cost effective and helps as well - we have a large scale wind farm that makes about 10% of the island's power when the wind is blowing. I'm pretty sure a solar hot water (thermal) system would pay for itself in a short period of time even with your low electricity prices and it is the way to start with renewables. If you have sunny winters and radiant heat it could be a way to supplement that energy expense as well.

PV has a longer payback and may just be a break even where you live if you assume electricity will remain at $0.06 in your area for the next 20 years. Summer in Colorado actually has a greater potential to produce power - your elevation is higher (less atmosphere to block sunlight) and your daylight period is longer. You also can produce more power in a single hour on a sunny winter day than a summer day - the cooler these panels are, the more efficient they are and more power they produce - a clear Colorado winter day would be optimal conditions for maximum power production from a panel.

[Thure]

Wauw! That is really nice BC. I really enjoy following your ventures into solar and alternative energy and energy saving.

I would say that if you over time had the money to buy new and more power efficient house hold supplies like a "greener" fridge and washer/dryer not to mention being able to shut the appliances compleatly off so they dont use StandBy power, you might even be able to cut that bill down even further.

We are going to move soon and I've been looking to get rid of the old fridge and buy one that only used 1/3 of the kWh/yeah of what the old one uses now. Best one I found that meet our needs is at 310 kWh/year. It will have earned it self in within only 3 years compaired to if we kept the old one and with current prices on power.

[codewritinfool]

Hey Bill,
How about an update on the solar stuff?

[spiderwrangler]

Waaaaaaooooooo waaahhhaaahhooooo aaaaooooo... Dummm buddadah dum dudadah dum...

Also would be interested in a update though.

[Bobbie Dooley]

I'd love to hear about it too. I don't know if I'll go back to Maui while I'm here but if I do I'll hide in your bushes and watch you shower!