Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I tried to run my house of of 20kva of solar panels. Wasent even enough to heat my water. Something to remember is that the sun dosent shine all the time. especially when you really need the power. It rains. The panels get dirty.
Sorry Sir but you are perhaps should not take Wiki so seriously..Here is a exersize in power density Attachment 109998
That is power density. That is obvious.
An alkaline battery, hydrocarbon fuels, nuclear, antimatter they all have power densities.
Hydrogen fuel by itself has more energy than fuels like gasoline. You walk outside and you feel the 1000 w/m2 that the sun is emitting, that is the suns power density at our radius from the sun, follows inverse square rule.
I tried to run my house of of 20kva of solar panels. Wasent even enough to heat my water. Something to remember is that the sun dosent shine all the time. especially when you really need the power. It rains. The panels get dirty.
20 kVA huh? Do you realize how much power that is? How much water are you heating?
To give you an idea
wattage = volts X amps
20 kVA = 240 volts x 83 amps
83 amps @ 240 volts.
Now tell me, How did you fit the 80 solar panels on your roof?
An interesting thing about this is that the average residential retail cost of electricity in the United States is 11.4 cents per kWh, which is twice as much as the price at which this power plant will be producing electricity. Also, the typical price of thin-film solar power is 16.3 cents per kWh, which is 2.8 times more.
Not any more. Solar electricity wholesale costs are below 6 cents a kwh now.
I tried to run my house of of 20kva of solar panels. Wasent even enough to heat my water. Something to remember is that the sun dosent shine all the time. especially when you really need the power. It rains. The panels get dirty.
Well, some people use the right tools or equipment for the purpose while others do not.
Using solar panels to harvest sunlight, convert that to electric and then heat water makes no sense unless done on an industrial scale.
Using solar hot water collectors to provide hot water does.
People heat huge swimming pools to temperatures beyond those comfortable to sit in using solar hot water collectors. I doubt your hot water storage system is 10,000 gallons; I could be wrong though.
When the sun doesn't shine, you use either an off-grid storage system to provide power or if your system is grid tied, it doesn't matter, you always have power.
As for panels getting dirty. You mentioned it rains. Rain cleans the panels. Other than that, very little cleaning is needed.
Instead of an Internet search, try actual experience, it works better.
I tried to run my house of of 20kva of solar panels. Wasent even enough to heat my water. Something to remember is that the sun dosent shine all the time. especially when you really need the power. It rains. The panels get dirty.
That's what batteries are for. Panel maintenance is helpful. You don't heat the water with panels, anyway, that's an inefficient use of panels. You get a solar hot water unit that works on a different principle. It's like expecting to run a conventional oven off of solar panels. You use a solar cooker instead. The panels are for electrical appliances. DC appliances are best, as you probably know.
An interesting thing about this is that the average residential retail cost of electricity in the United States is 11.4 cents per kWh, which is twice as much as the price at which this power plant will be producing electricity. Also, the typical price of thin-film solar power is 16.3 cents per kWh, which is 2.8 times more.
The problem with that comparison is that if one tries to simply replace one source of energy with another, things rarely work out well.
If you go to solar power, then you adjust the lifestyle and/or the equipment using power to be more efficient. If you first attack the use factor and make that more efficient to the point where you can use solar, suddenly the comparison is mute, one costs so much more to power the lifestyle, that being utility power.
Of course you can say that the efficiencies can be applied to both but then you are still linked to a recurring cost energy solution where at some point, solar has no recurring costs.
Once you look at solar vs utility power from a different perspective instead of a simply swap of source, things look much different and the solar solution works very well.
20 kVA huh? Do you realize how much power that is? How much water are you heating?
To give you an idea
wattage = volts X amps
20 kVA = 240 volts x 83 amps
83 amps @ 240 volts.
Now tell me, How did you fit the 80 solar panels on your roof?
What are you. Somew kid at school with a calculator.
Try getting some real experience.
I have a big roof.
What people dont ever seem to concider is that the sun only shines 8-12 hours per day. That is if the clouds dont obstruct it or dirt dosent get all over them. They also only reach maximim output when the sun is perpendicular to the panel. If you dont have trackers you will collect much less power.
I averaged about 4kwh per hour and 30kwh per day form the 20kw.
If you feed that into a battery you lose around 20% then
lose it on the way back out thru the inverter and losses in the wiring. I got about 20kwh per day of useful power. Like I said. Barely heated the water.
Cant use solar water collectors where I live. Too cold.
I tried heatpipes but they have the same problem with tracking and snow dosent melt off of them.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
