Solar heat for the shop. ^5's Morris!

[Mark & Juanita]

Tucson Electric Power was advertising their program yesterday, so I took a look at the website to see if things had become more cost competitive. They haven't.

The following web site was the only one that listed prices: Selecting a 2000 kWh system (smaller systems are equivalent), the cost of the system after some pretty large subsidies was $38,200. My estimate for payback with various energy increase estimates ranged from 12 to 16 years. Given the buyback rate you list above, it would exceed the life of the system.

For a system that would be equivalent to the $75/month rate someone previously discussed, the subsidized cost would be $10.2k. To save $75/month?

I really want to see solar power succeed, but a breakthrough is needed in order for it to be cost effective.

[Robatoy]

And this has 'what' to do with passive solar heating?

[Morris Dovey]

I'm guessing that the payback period for passive heating panels might be a bit shorter for a lot of the 1+ million home and business owners in New England who're without power today...

[mac davis]

I think California has a bit more of an incentive, but my brother looks at it a little differently... He wanted to go solar but didn't want to buy or have a place for the batteries... When they came up with the "grid" plan, that cut the cost of his solar system, so he went with it..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[Martin H. Eastburn]

For fun I looked at a grid of cells that covered my roof. It would be about

40x120 feet. It was about $300,000 for the array and I could expect an average of 30-40% for a year from it. Three months of the year - hot summer - less than 50% and winter months - very low.

Payback was very very long. Doubtful the array could last that long.

The biggest issue is cloud cover. Zero power under clouds. They work on long waves. If someone would invent a microwave or rather ultraviolet sensing cell they could clean up. Then it would work as long as the sun was up.

I'd buy it if I won the lottery. Otherwise it is a foolish thing in this area. Yea, I'd help me and all about 35% of the time, but it doesn't break even or pays off.

Mart> >

[Morris Dovey]

If you're located between Terre Haute and Springfield, you could probably heat your 4800 sq ft home indefinitely using passive solar for less than 10% of the cost of your PV array...

...and the solar cooling project is underway. :)

[Mark & Juanita]

That's a totally different mindset. If somebody wants to pay tens of thousands of dollars for the satisfaction of saying, "I'm not paying anything to the electric company [sub-vocal, 'my system will never pay for itself']" then that's a status kind of thing. From a practical standpoint, cost-effective solar just isn't there yet.