The old Doctor is going green

[DrBob]

I tripped the trigger and am installing solar panels on my garage and will have a 10 kilowatt solar electric system. I will be grid tied but my electric bill should be a thing of the past , maybe get some money from the power company. I have had a geothermal heating system for 28 years and now I will have the solar electric that I have been dreaming about for over 25 years.

Being an electrician by trade has kept the costs down as all the wiring I can do myself.

I still smoke homegrown tobacco and I still have about 250# of the stuff on hand. Did not grow any this year but probably will grow again next year.

What I have saved smoking homegrown the last 6 years easily paid for the solar electric system.

 

[Knucklehead]

Good job with the solar. Keep us updated.

 

[DrBob]

I will keep ya updated,,, I have all the parts now and have helpers coming today and expect to have the panels all mounted by tomorrow afternoon and have it all completed this week and ready for inspection.. I have the inerter mounted on the wall already so it should go ok.

 

[Smokin Harley]

I tripped the trigger and am installing solar panels on my garage and will have a 10 kilowatt solar electric system. I will be grid tied but my electric bill should be a thing of the past , maybe get some money from the power company. I have had a geothermal heating system for 28 years and now I will have the solar electric that I have been dreaming about for over 25 years.

Being an electrician by trade has kept the costs down as all the wiring I can do myself.

I still smoke homegrown tobacco and I still have about 250# of the stuff on hand. Did not grow any this year but probably will grow again next year.

What I have saved smoking homegrown the last 6 years easily paid for the solar electric system.

awesome Dr Bob, I hope to get off the grid ties myself in about 6 years when I hope to retire by then. Thinking solar, wind , hydro...whatever I can do cheap enough to justify the effort instead of paying "the man"

 

[LeftyRighty]

you go Bob !

 

[DIY Pete]

Excellent DrBob. From my limited research it appears that conservation is a large part in getting off the grid. Any power you don't use is power that you don't have to produce and that reduces the size of your solar array, wind turbine, etc. Which saves money.

Pete

 

[DrBob]

I will still be on the grid, doing it that way eliminates the batteries and all the other complications.. my power company is very receptive of solar power and pays me back full rate even after net... my electric bill is about $2000.00 per year and my panels should do $2500.00 per year give or take 700 bucks a year...

 

[deluxestogie]

At a $2000 per year possible savings, how long before it repays the costs?

Bob

 

[Mrbinx69]

Thats awesome bob! Goodluck!

 

[DrBob]

the power company buys power from me. my gross output should be $2500.00 per year in 2 years 11 months I should break even.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Will you be heating your home/water with electric too?

 

[ProfessorPangloss]

You're a role model for us all. A decentralized grid with net metering makes SO much sense, it's no wonder we don't do it in this country. Heaven forbid we A) harvest power from the sun and B) be far less dependent on fossil fuels. Good for you, man.

 

[DrBob]

being tied to the grid makes so much sense to me. the thought of batteries just makes it too much of a hassle and too expensive.. The power company that serves me is a small family owned company and understands how small generation plants help level out their load especially at peak times. Even my meager 10,000 watt is a godsend to them at peak air conditioning periods. They have to buy power at peak times and it can get very expensive and guess what, it is probably coal fired energy and has to be shipped a long distance with the line losses that are there too.

My guess is that I give them enough power to air condition 10 houses during those times. about a kilowatt an hour per house.

 

[DrBob]

The system is up and running! I started it at noon Monday sept 26 and the startup came with no glitches. I have a Fronius IG plus 10.0-1 inverter and 40 190 watt panels at the present time which is 7600 watts. I will install another 10 panels next spring to bring me up to 9500 watts potential dc output. It is a good feeling to see the meter spin backwards.

I have $5500 in it as of today which aint too bad at all. Yesterday was a gloomy foggy rainy day and the output was low, but it still made 20kw of power, but it was more than I used in the last 24 hours. Unfortunately the days are getting shorter and heating season is coming up but my power bill will be a lot lower than last winter.

 

[Knucklehead]

Sounds good!

 

[DrBob]

Hi mr. Knuck I never got the knack of smoking a pipe and never used the pipe I got from you.. Fortunately I have a good friend that is a pipe smoker and he really admired the pipe so I lent it to him and it now is his favorite pipe. He really likes to show off his genuine Knucklehead pipe. And to top it off he is a H-D rider and has a knucklehead too.

 

[Knucklehead]

Tell him I said howdy!

 

[DrBob]

will do!

 

[DrBob]

will do!

 

[Mrbinx69]

Do you sell pipes knucklehead?