Cielito Lindo WellA little off topic, but just need to air my brain a little. I do not want any comments about “what brain?” or the like either.

So I have been giving some thought to trying to reduce my overall energy consumption. I have come to a conclusion, the best way to use less energy is to die. Excluding death alternatives include eating dyhdrated and salted foods, getting rid of the car/truck, computer and other electronics, switch back to candle light and wood burning stoves, no more hot water showers or hot water at all for that matter, hand wash and dry everything. Even doing all that I would still consumer a certain ammount of energy, especially indirectly in the form of clothing and food I buy. So there is no real way to completely eliminate energy consumption. Using that as a starting point I began looking at practical ways to reduce my energy consumption. The biggest and most obvious being to sell the truck and get a more fuel efficient car.

I like my truck but I would be willing to part with it. The better half and I have already discussed it and will probably be looking for a new car within the next year or so. Mark that one off the list.

This past year we had to replace the AC unit because the old one had a leak. The new unit had a slightly bigger capacity and was more efficient. We have started to use the “air dry” setting on the
dishwasher more and tend to use only cold water in the washing machine. Currently it makes no financial sense to replace the water heater with one of those new on demand tankless water heaters. The cost versus savings is not vesible for the time frame we plan on staying in the house.

On top of that I have been looking at alternate sources of energy. Most specifically at solar since wind power does not make practical sense for the area I am in. To that end I have spent the past few days reading up on and trying to understand solar power, solar cells/panels, and the like. As of right now they make less sense then the tankless water heater. Sure I could save on my electricity bill, but the upfront cost is arround $40,000.00 Let me walk you through arriving at that number. First, I assumed an average monthly usage of 1,000 kWh. Our actual usage is below that, but this is a nice number to work with. Doing some basic math that works out to about 33.3 kWh a day or about 33,300 Wh a day. Assuming about 4.5 hours of peak sunlight/power production a day that comes down to 7400 watts. (where did get that 4.5 hrs and all the other numbers? take a look at: Grid Minimum Size Calculator) If you figure on using a solar panal rated between 160 to 180 watts you need between 40 and 47 panels. Lets just say 45. Now the panels range in price between $750 and $1000 usually arround $800. So for 45 panels providing 100% of my electric needs it would cost about $36,000. Now looking at current rates charged by a local power company depend on the season, so lets look at both seasons. (winter/summer). The first 650 kWh is always 4.675 cents, which equals $30.3875. Now the next 350 kWh are 3.99 cents kWh in the winter and 7.738 cents kWh in the summer. All this comes to $13.965 in the winter and $25.83 in the summer. So the estimated permonth cost in winter is $44.35 and the summer is $56.22. Assuming the panels provide the entire energy need, then the monthly bill for the power company would be $0 so the estimated cost is the estimated savings which comes to a total savings per year of $579.67. Looking back, the initial setup cost of just the solar panels (this does not even include any converters, batteries, or mounting required) we see the number $36,000. More of that annoying math shows that it would take about 62 years for the solar panels to be paid off.

Well sure 62 years doesn’t look that bad, but what about maintenance costs? Or what happens if you have a string of cloudy days so the panels are not that efficient? Note: the panels usually only have a 25 yr warranty so you could expect to replace all the panels twice in that time period, but we will assume that you never do for this example. To keep things nice and even lets just say you could potentially expect the solar panels to be worthwhile after 70 years. Great if you plan on staying in your house that long. On top of that you have to consider the size of the panels. Average size seems to be about 5ft by 3 ft for a total area of 15 ft^2 per panel, or arround 675 ft^2 for the assumed 45 panels. Add in some extra footage for the mounting and other accessories needed and say arrounf 700 ft^2 ( not to mention needing to make sure the roof or wherever they are to be mounted can support the weight as well).

Now the little missus and I do not plan on staying in the house for even 10 yrs, in reality we will probably be moving in about 5 yrs. So all the above just means unless the price of the solar panels drops bellow $400, then no incentive to do it now.

But wait Mr. Retarded Sushi man, aren’t you forgetting about the power company buying back any excess power? Yes and on purpose. The power companies will buy back excess power, but do not actually gurantee that they will buy it back. The company I was looking at only promises to buy back a total (that means everyone selling power back to them) 0.2% of the average peak load from the previous year. And you have to pay them a metering few to track the power. So I basically just ignore the sell back. All this means is that unless you will be staying where you are for more then 60 years, I would not consider adding solar power to your house. I won’t until the price drops, and drops alot. And for those that are wondering about just adding a panel or two, assuming a panel rated for 160 watts, that would be about 2.2% of the total need, so a savings of about $12.75 per year.

So much for switching to solar.