[djohnson]

Does anyone follow any of the advances in solar power? I am really interested in the technology of it and utilizing it instead of fossil fuels for my future home. Any ideas?

[iREZ]

Solar powered night lights.

[d4nth3m4n]

i dated a girl in high school who lived off the grid. in gloomy upstate Ny too. only time there was a noticeable drop in power was in the winter, but even then there was more than enough to watch the x-files and type papers on the computer.

if you think it will even be close to breaking even with the cost- GO FOR IT! it's a proven technology. you know you'll sleep better at night.

[SeSawaya]

a neighboor of mine had a big windmill for power. This was like 25 years ago too and it paid for itself in under 10 years. now batteries are SO much better and I'm sure the overall technology is 1000x better so yah, alternatives of any kind are the way to go. If I had my own house with some cash, I'd do both.

No question!

[the_glassman]

I plan to use solar, thermal and wind power in my future home that will be completely energy self sufficient. All of the left over power will be sold to the power company. The cost is definitely more to begin with, but prices have decreased and the efficiency and reliability has increased.

[d4nth3m4n]

Local look at people "doing" it

[djohnson]

So if I am interested in solar power, does that make me an eco-freak?

[d4nth3m4n]

Originally posted by djohnson:
So if I am interested in solar power, does that make me an eco-freak?

no, you can certainly give it a survivalist spin as well... just think "self-sufficient" and "dont tread on me"

[dcmacdaddy]

My ex-wife is a research scientist with some expertise in thsi field. Yes, solar power has made tremendous gains but it has no where near the level of productive usefulness as wind power (i.e.: the amount of potential energy NOT captured in a solar power system is much greater than in a wind power system). However, any attempts at reducing electrical demand on the power grid is a Good Thing in my book. Congrats to you for thinking about this.

One of the simplest and easiest ways to reduce energy demand is to require new residential structures to have much more exterior insulation than they currently have (more insulation = less heat/AC loss). The laws for this were being renewed several years ago and the construction industry got Congress to actually *lessen* the minimum insulation standard (I will see if I can find the legislation). Increasing the amount of insulation does add cost to a residence, but even by construction industry estimates the average cost increase for a new home would have been only $1,000.

If you can't make the big leap to solar or wind power there are a lot of little things to be done that can lessen your personal energy consumption. Check out a couple of these links for more info.

http://www.homepower.com/

http://www.eere.energy.gov/buildings...mes/index.html

[DBursey]

A few sources of general information here:

Home Power

Advances in solar photovoltaic panels

Alternative Energy Tips

On-site
Solar & Wind Power Systems

My solar power project

I was involved in the feasibility / interoperability study for the 35kW installation described in the latter link. We finished the installation and went live only a few weeks ago.

[drive-thru]

Does anyone know if people who have solar panels installed also use thermocouples to generate some of the electricity? (I think thermocouple is the term he used, but I might be wrong)

One of the PhD students at college is doing some research into this stuff. He explained once about how a thermocouple generates electricity from heat. As solar panels get hot they apparently become less efficient, so putting a thermocouple behind them gets you more electricity and better efficiency.

Just wondered whether this is generally used for 'consumer' panels or does it drive the cost up too much?

[DBursey]

I'm not familiar with any combined solar voltaic / thermocouple technology. As you probably know, thermocouples utilize temperature differential to generate DC voltage across a thermoelectric module. Output voltage and effiency both increase in proportion to the thermal differential across the module.

More pertinent info here:
Power Modules for Converting Heat Sources to Electricity

[macaddict0001]

And here's the exciting part the systems hardly ever break down. you will have power more often than the grid.

[skipjack]

I haven't done price comparisons lately, but a few years ago, some of the best prices I found were here:

SOLutions in Solar Electricity

I would not recommend going off the grid completely. First, many utility companies will purchase excess power you produce. Second, some places have proposed a charge to offset the expense of a utility running and maintaining power lines for residences that completely divorce themselves from the grid. (Sounds perfectly resonable to me, but I had an instructor in college who made a big point about the unfairness of the proposed legislation.)

Assuming you will remain connected to the grid, be aware that there are systems that do not require a storage battery and some that require storage batteries. I have a system in which the inverter instructions specifies that a battery (of course, I really mean a bank of batteries) is required, but if I were to install another system, I probably would choose one without a battery and with a portable generator for emergencies, rather than relying on the battery capacity. (Of course, you can have both, but my current opinion is that the batteries are too expensive to be practical.)

As with the previous reply, I have never heard of a technology combining photovoltaics and thermocouples. I can envision a solar reflector with thermocouples, but nothing related to solar cells.