Here to learn about going green

[greencrusader]

Hi folks, I'm tired of paying a huge corporation for power and I'm looking to go off-grid with my own battery system to save money, and of course help save the planet as well. I was told to register here and ask for advice from someone named "Sun King".

[SunEagle]

Hello greencrusader and Welcome to Solar Panel Talk

Building an off grid solar / battery system is a possibility but unless you are paying way above $0.50/kWh for your electricity you will end up paying a lot more using batteries and the last time I heard batteries are anything but green.

There are a number of Sticky Post in the off grid section of this forum. You should read some of those to get an idea of how to size your system and what it may cost you.

[greencrusader]

Thanks SunEagle. Reading through those stickies, it appears that the cost of the equipment, plus the initial and ongoing cost of batteries, makes off-grid solar a losing proposition in all but a very few cases. Plus, it appears that using batteries isn't "green" at all since, if i read correctly, it takes more energy to manufacture them than the energy they provide. I will instead look into reducing energy waste and increasing efficiency, which I'm sure will be the most cost-effective option of all. After all, energy I don't use is the best savings of all. Off to do some more reading...

[SunEagle]

Thanks SunEagle. Reading through those stickies, it appears that the cost of the equipment, plus the initial and ongoing cost of batteries, makes off-grid solar a losing proposition in all but a very few cases. Plus, it appears that using batteries isn't "green" at all since, if i read correctly, it takes more energy to manufacture them than the energy they provide. I will instead look into reducing energy waste and increasing efficiency, which I'm sure will be the most cost-effective option of all. After all, energy I don't use is the best savings of all. Off to do some more reading...

You are going down the correct path. Conservation is the first action to take if you want to save money on your electric bill.

Going with solar can save you money depending on where you live and how much your POCO charges you. And even then usually the best payback is with a grid tie system. The most costly is usually an off grid system.

[Logan5]

If you want to go greener, consider upgrading appliances and replacing light bulbs with LED's. An old flat screen TV can consume 4X what a newer LED TV and better picture. That old refrigerator in the garage likely uses 10X what your new one does. Have your HVAC inspected and upgraded if necessary. Check your insulation and windows, Upgrade if necessary. Get a watt meter and check for power spiders, use power strip to power on and off or replace the appliance or device. This is just a partial list, there are more ways to save and live a greener life.

[Sunking]

Hi folks, I'm tired of paying a huge corporation for power and I'm looking to go off-grid with my own battery system to save money, and of course help save the planet as well. I was told to register here and ask for advice from someone named "Sun King".

I would just rip you to shreds. We have a member right up your alley, ask for Dan. Wile you are at it look up a Separately Derived System ha ha.

[Mike90250]

Thanks SunEagle. Reading through those stickies, it appears that the cost of the equipment, plus the initial and ongoing cost of batteries, makes off-grid solar a losing proposition in all but a very few cases. Plus, it appears that using batteries isn't "green" at all since, if i read correctly, it takes more energy to manufacture them than the energy they provide. I will instead look into reducing energy waste and increasing efficiency, which I'm sure will be the most cost-effective option of all. After all, energy I don't use is the best savings of all. Off to do some more reading..

Being off grid myself, it was a choice, many thousands for power lines to be run, or about the same thousands for my own system, that I maintain. (along with my water plant)
If I had an easy tie-in to the grid, I'd still have to have a backup generator, since the area has many winter storm induced outages.

[DanKegel]

Hi folks, I'm tired of paying a huge corporation for power and I'm looking to go off-grid with my own battery system to save money, and of course help save the planet as well. I was told to register here and ask for advice from someone named "Sun King".

Hee hee. SunKing can give you good advice about lead-acid batteries, and this forum is great at explaining how (and whether) one can save money using solar.
But this is a very red state forum, it seems; anyone who talks about science, environmentalism, or policy gets yelled at by two very loud members.

Batteries can still be green -- I don't think it's been shown they're a net loss environmentally.
(See e.g. lowtechmagazine.com/2015/05/sustainability-off-grid-solar-power.html )
But they're not at all cheap, so keep going down the energy efficiency road, grit your teeth, keep paying that big corporation ,
and consider grid-tied solar at some point.

[J.P.M.]

Hee hee. SunKing can give you good advice about lead-acid batteries, and this forum is great at explaining how (and whether) one can save money using solar.
But this is a very red state forum, it seems; anyone who talks about science, environmentalism, or policy gets yelled at by two very loud members..

And B.S.'d by some others who see the world through rose colored glasses and don't know spoor from shoe polish. Hee hee my butt. Not everyone who tells you things you don't like, mostly it seems, because you don't understand what's being said, is from a red state, whatever that means.

Dan: your stuff is rude and inconsiderate in that it usually misinforms people, or simply wastes time for anyone reading it while you seem unconcerned or unknowing about the effects. You are a reprint service for stuff, that if not useless, is readily available elsewhere, selected in a way that shows little connection to reality or usefulness, and mostly tends to perhaps make it easier for people looking for straight and technically correct information to fall into the traps and scams you parrot and so waste time and money while you offer little in the way of caution and real advice. Sometimes some of us spend as much time cleaning up crap from the likes of you and calling B.S. on you junk as anything else.

[Sunking]

Me thinks no one gets the joke being played on you.

[DanKegel]

Sometimes some of us spend as much time cleaning up crap ...

I could post "The sky is blue" and J.P.M. would bloviate for pages about how it wasn't, and how anyone who said the sky was blue was indulging in junk science

[J.P.M.]

I could post "The sky is blue" and J.P.M. would bloviate for pages about how it wasn't, and how anyone who said the sky was blue was indulging in junk science

Not anyone Dan, only you. I bet you don't (or won't until you look it up) have as much as a clue why the sky is blue in the first place, or what scientific principles explain why, or why and how the frequency distribution of sunlight may be altered when greenhouse gasses are present, or how real science - the kind you're ignorant about - uses such information.

When and if you choose to learn such things, come back and I'll test you, because, unlike you, I do know a bit about such stuff. Until then, stop stinking up the place with your junk. It lowers the quality of the forum's content.

[DanKegel]

Not anyone Dan, only you.

And regardless of what I post, too. It's quite the vendetta.

Re sky being blue: physics is hard I read Cuckoo's Egg recently, and it had a lovely anecdote about that question: books.google.com/books?id=0q1_5QkqV8EC&pg=PT398&lpg=PT398

[Sunking]

Dan you just do not get it. No one here likes you and think you are full of chit. Not even the moderators or admin want you here. Get lost.

[jflorey2]

Dan you just do not get it. No one here likes you and think you are full of chit. Not even the moderators or admin want you here. Get lost.

I like him. I think he's usually wrong, but he's a likable guy.