For the home. Solar, wind?

And this supposed power company "buyback" of your excess generated energy. (Insert elves and smurfs frolicking, with fife and flutes playing in the background).

Depends on state law. Used to be a good play here in Floriduh, they changed the law, so not too much anymore.

I have a number of neighbors that live off the grid (solar, water, batteries, nothing) in Idaho but I do not know the specifics.

I’ve mentioned before I’ve lived off grid now for almost 15 years relying on wind and solar and just sold my log home .

Very expensive, maintenance is a pain and not super reliable.

Without heavy govt subsidies which are being phased I would never consider it.

To be honest I would not do it again even with subsidies and neither would my neighbors, who have relied on wind and solar over 20 years, but sure others have different opinions especially after reading an article on on the internet as to how wonderful it is.

That's one of the things I was wondering about, Ed. Storing excess energy, instead of selling it back to the power companies. Fox had an "expert" on last week saying a lot of the power companies are ripping consumers off on the "buy". Their accounting being usary.

ribka, your long experience speaks volumes.

.gov subsidies have waned here, and it's such a pita to get them.

I have a solar hot water system that supplements our cabin and keeps it warm enough to keep the pipes from freezing. Saves about 20% of propane costs over the winter. But we're not there full time. Good design, architecture and construction on passive solar homes can save a bundle too.

My solar clothes dryer in the backyard works great!


It's a clothesline.

Too much rain here to do that.

My gravity filtration system works great in the garage.

I thought about getting a windmill some years ago to supplement our electric bill. The cost of the windmill was $20,000 with $500 annual maintenance bill. So didn't see an advantage in doing it. We have bought solar panela that are placed at the electric co-op. That has benefited it.

Windmills would't work here, anyway. First good storm would take care of them.

Irma would have toasted most. Never mind a Dorian.


Who does the math on the solar panels? You, or the co-op?

Don't know that I'd trust them.


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One of the best ideas I've seen or heard lately is what Mannlicher's son is doing with a small solar panel "farm".

A small plot of prepared land with the solar panels in a grid close to the ground, where high winds won't be such a factor.

Yes, in the following applications:

Solar
1. Charging an electric stock fence.
2. Charging farm gate batteries.
3. Charging batteries for security lights distant from AC power sources.
4. Charging travel trailer battery at campsite.

Wind
1. Powering wind mill water pump on farm and ranch property

Don't forget the cost of the land when calculating the the cost of such an arrangement.

Got a friend that lives in NW Louisiana. Has 2 solar panels in his yard. Got rid of the battery backup, it's a pain. When he produces more power than he uses, the power company issues him credit. When he uses more than he makes, the power company uses his credits to pay his bill. The special meter he has to have cost him $6/mth and that he pays monthly. In a normal year, he gets 2 bills, in the winter, when he uses more than he produces and has used up his credits. These 2 bills are usually around $35 each. His yearly power bill is less than $150.

He got his solar panels several years ago, when the gov. would pay just about all the cost. It's not that way now, from what I understand.

Not technically "alternative" energy source, but I had good service from a home made oil burner that ran on used motor oil - of which I once had a bunch. Made the cannister with three big steel truck wheels welded together after cutting out the centers, used small copper tubing for gravity feed of fuel and made the "jet" nozzle by crimping the end of a .223 brass case. Only "run" cost was small compressor to push the fuel through the nozzle - 15 or 20 psi as I recall. It was excellent for the uninsulated garage.

We have great results in the winter time with solar energy, sometimes even when it is 20 below zero.

In the morning, right around daybreak, we open the curtains and shades on the south windows to get passive solar radiation. About the time the sun goes down, we draw the shades and curtains tight again. Seems to work really good, and has a few thousand year history of working!

We also have had great luck using stored solar energy for powering cars, trucks, mowers, and even our house furnace!

A neighbor thout the power company was a ripoff and he was going to solarize on the cheap and save a wad. Spent too much time reading the Internet blogs. No technical skills, told him he was facing a pile of tech issues but he ignored me(unless he had a specific problem to solve). So panels from E-Bay, inverter from somebody, and I don't know where he scrounged the half worn out batteries. Got the garage and basement more or less powered. Power factor got him, (try explaining that to a non-techie) and not nearly enough battery to get him through 3 cloudy days even in summer.

Half the panels are gone and he gave up powering the basement. So he's just got the garage solar powered and with his inverter the power factor problem still keeps him from using anything with a substantial inductive motor.

And this is all in summer with long days and high sun angle. Doubt he could reliably open a garage door in winter with snow drifting on the panels.

There's a reason for centralized power utilities..

We had a 7.6 KV solar array put on our house up north when we did some improvements. There were tax breaks involved that allowed us to recoup most of the cost in a couple of years. We had a meter that kept track of what we used from the grid and what we put back into the grid. On an annual basis, it reduced our electric bill down to the 17 or 18 dollars per month charge for being hooked up to the grid. We came away pretty happy with the whole deal. My wife is an accountant. You can believe that if we came out on the losing end of the whole thing we would have been well aware of said fact.

We had some acres up on the mountain where we kept a 34' 5th wheel as our "cabin in the mountains". One Kyocera 120 watt solar panel provided us with fully charged RV batteries whenever we needed them, only time we ran a generator is when the cook wanted to use the microwave or to run the vacuum cleaner. Worked for us for 28 years. Nice thing about solar panels is there are no moving parts to wear out or need lubrication and maintenance.

Our neighbor up the hill from us has a full solar home, completely off the grid, 8 solar panels, big bank of batteries, propane fired generator for emergencies. They live in comfort.

I'm pretty close to the same scenario with my cabin in Montana. I have a small solar system (100 watt) with batteries and that keeps me going for all of my admittedly modest needs. I don't have a fridge or air conditioning, just a few lights, a fan and then all the battery operated stuff, from drills to phones. For heating I use the local trees and if there's ever something that needs more juice I have a propane/gas generator (rarely use it other than to keep it in good operating condition). My brother has a similar setup on his little ranch in Alabama, and he uses air conditioning all the time, which isn't a problem with the size of his solar system.

This is done out of necessity, though, since I don't have power lines anywhere near my cabin. It'd be a lot nicer if all I had to do was flip a switch.

I have a solar vehicle battery maintainer. It works ok. Dont have any of that other shlt.

We installed a 6.6 kw ground mount solar system at our home in 2013. We took advantage of federal, state and utility incentives to cover 2/3s of the cost of the install. We have a great solar site with 98% solar availability, but even with that it will take about 10 years to pay off what we invested. Not a great return, but not bad either. We are on a net metering program where the utility pays us the retail rate (about $.10/kWh). Some utilities are looking to slow down solar installations by paying market prices (about $.003)/kWh and that would change our payback picture.

Pima County owns a ranch, well they own several, but this one in particular is pretty remote. The foremans house is on solar panels. County paid for it so it is a first class system. Cost was not a factor. Has a 10' long storage container for the battery back up. Probably fifty lead acid batteries. No a/c or evap cooling. Can't run anything that uses resistive heat like an iron, electric skillet, electric space heater, toaster, etc. Stove is propane and propane space heaters in each room. Lots of limitations.