Solar Panels for Garage 110 volt

[DannyD]

anyone know about doing something like this. My electric co-op is being un coop about a facility charge of 15.00 per meter. I am thinking solar for the 110 volt in the garage, to save this and the electric bill.

Also would need something for the pond, small pump filter combination.

 

[farmerpsv]

Danny,
check out www.homepower.com, great mag, has anything and everthing to do with alternative power. mother earth also has some good stuff.
paul

 

[slowrev]

Give us some more info on what you plan on doing with the electricity in the garage. ie just lights, lights and a few light power tools, or big stuff like air compressors ?

Cost will be VERY high to set up a useable higher powered solar /110vac system. If you just want lights and a small pump go with a solar/12vdc system, still not cheap though. If you are thinking of setting up a solar electric system to run powertools/welders, etc., think many thousands of dollars. And you do have the maintenance cost of replacing all the batteries perodically.
A solar system for just lights will not be too high in cost, might get by with 200.00 or so.

Ben

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Danny, you will likely spend THOU$AND$ of dollars on the solar set up. Solar panels generate DC, you will need to store that in batteries, which are very expensive and take up a lot of room, and then you will need a large inverter to turn it into AC. I looked at going off grid on my house when I built it. It is not cost competitive if you have easy access to utilities.

Now if you want to keep the electric meter, so you stay on the grid, then you can skip the expense of the batteries, and run power from your panels to the inverter and then backfeed your utility. In theory you can spin the meter backwards and the utility will buy your excess energy. Problem with that is they buy at "wholesale" and they sell it to you at "retail" so you will find the payback will take FOREVER.

Hate to sound like such a pessimist about this, but it is the reality for most folks who already have utility service. Now if you are miles away from the grid, then things figure differently. But you are already hooked up.

 

[MossRoad]

Why do you need a second meter? Is it too far to run a sub panel off the house?

 

[DannyD]

Thanks Guys,

I will check into the links etc. Yes it is for lights and power tools. I would not put a lot of $$ into this, as 15.00 a month would take forever to get my value out of it. My electric at the barn is that way because of the way my house electric is setup, and no way really to get a feed to barn without tearing up drive and concrete. Thought of doing just that, but have since decided not really worth it.

Comes down to the electric company having a monopoly on us and we have no choice but to use them or do without. Would like to see some action by local government to put that back in our hands with a second or third choice.

 

[EastTexFrank]

Danny, like you I got into a tiff with the utility company a few years back and looked into the possibility of going off grid. I did a lot of work on solar, wind generators and combinations of the two. The short answer is that I wouldn't have lived long enough to even get a fraction of the initial outlay back. I was so T'd off at them that I even looked into the possibilty of getting a seperate full time diesel or natural gas generator installed. Unfortunately the power companies have done their economics too well. If you are already hooked up, it's just not worthwhile trying to cut them off.

 

[_RaT_]

<font color="blue">Problem with that is they buy at "wholesale" and they sell it to you at "retail" so you will find the payback will take FOREVER. </font>

Many if not most simply credit you the power, you do not sell it to the utility. If you were ahead on the wattage and actually gave back to the utility company more then you used, you simply get a credit of the number of watts you generated and typically will use those credits in the summer with AC costs. You don't have to be tied to the utility, but in some areas, you do get credit rebates on your purchase. If you look at the link provided in one of the first posts, it does a good job of explaining how solar works.

 

[v8dave]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( . . .
My electric at the barn is that way because of the way my house electric is setup, and no way really to get a feed to barn without tearing up drive and concrete. Thought of doing just that, but have since decided not really worth it.
. . . )</font>

Same problem when I put in my shop. Had to cross a three car driveway or go around the whole house in a trench.

I got electricity to the shop by going UP from the service entrance into the attic, across the house (in the attic) and then down, on the outside of a wall (tucked into a corner) in a 2" conduit that then went into a trench to the shop.

It's easier than you think, but you do have to be confortable with working in the breaker panel box.

 

[MossRoad]

You can tunnel under a driveway with PVC and a garden hose pretty easily. Even if you lay out $150.00 extra for wire to run the long way around or through the house, you'll get that back in 10 months time in savings. How far is it to the garage from the service panel in the house, how many amps service does your house have and how many amps do you need to pull in the garage?

 

[rockyridgefarm]

Like MossRoad said, you can easily teunnel under. You can also go overtop using rigid conduit. It can lay over top or be just under the surface. But the trench would be the best.

Your Co-Op might be the best source for the wire, too. Ours beat the supply house prices by a long shot, my friend who isn't even on it bought his from ours and cane out way ahead...

 

[DannyD]

I wired my barn, completely, even the breaker box, so not a problem there. As for coming from the house, well this box is sort of almost full. 200 amp service at the house, 100 amp box at the barn, with service.

As for tunneling, yeah I could do that, or just take up some asphalt around the shed to the barn. That would incite the wife to kill me, so the problem would be fixed.........

guess I am stuck with contacting my senator about a resolution for some competing electric companies to set things right.

 

[DannyD]

Well when I built the barn, it was going to be 600.00 labor to run the electric from the house to the barn........and the facility charge was 10.00 a month. I dont mind the 15.00 if they would check the meters for accuracy etc.

At the time also there was no fee for the hookup of a seperate service, and I wanted 100 amp there.

 

[SLOBuds]

Economics for a small project like this are not compelling. The photovoltaic equipment is indeed quite expensive. However, if you plan to stay in your place for awhile, I would highly encourage you to take a look at a larger project - solar for your entire house.

I am going to explain the setup in California. It is very similar to many other states, so most likely you would be able to achieve the same benefits.

California still has tax incentives for photovoltaic installation. California also has a mandated utility buy-back program. This means that the electricity you produce will be purchased by the utility UP TO the amount that you consume.

This 'buy back' program is called 'on grid'. It means that you do not have to mess around with batteries - I did not want that hassle.

The process is to 'size' the requirements for your site by estimating your kilowatt usage. If you put in a system that is larger than what you actually use, it is a waste of money because you are generating more electricity than you need - and the electric company will not buy it from you.

The tax incentives from California are based on the number of kilowatt hours of your system.

My personal system is not installed yet. However, my friend just installed a 10,000 kwh system for (cash after tax incentives) $45,000 at his ranch. His electric bill before installation was $600 per month. His electric bill after installation is $0 per month.

As we talked through his installation, both of us were a bit suspicious that he may have oversized the system.

The payback period at this time is close to 6 years. But that does not consider increases to utility charges which will continue to move up as time goes on.

The system has a 25 year life span, which gives him somewhere close to a $140,000 profit on the installation.

It's worth looking at.

The lesson for me here in California is to get the system 'sized' as close to possible to your actual use. And at least for now with the tax incentives, the setup looks pretty good over the longer period of time.

Best and good luck,
Martin Petersen

 

[willywildes]

Martin Is his system solar or wind

W.W

 

[gws]

If commerical power is already available on the property, SOLAR is almost NEVER an econoical option.

If all you want to do is power lights then it might be cost effective.