I may have overlooked, this is already a long thread and most I could say has been said...but:
You look to be far out of town, any neighbors? A 100 acre (estimate) farm about 15 miles from me put up a large array about 100 feet back from the country road passing by it, and at that point there is a neighbor/home. They complained about having to look at the array… this must have been an array like Hagman’s many $100K investment. I’d think a roof mounted should never be a source of neighbor complaints.
I assume you heat with wood, did you say heat pump somewhere in the thread? I have a geothermal unit and it is efficient enough that a few hundred KWH per month would be a lot of heating or cooling, still your array isn’t enough to handle my electrical load, averages over 1000 KWH per month..somewhere near 1,600 KWH during heating season.
I love the idea of solar power, the one idea that keeps coming up in my mind, especially when I turn on the garden hose on a sunny day and have hot water flowing out until the length of hose if emptied. A simple solar black pipe run along the South side of my house as the feed line to my electric water heater would be a big help, not sure my wife would accept that running along the house behind her perennial flower garden. I believe this type (with a real collector on the roof) of hot water boost is required in places like Israel..and other sunny energy starved (oh, that’s us too these days) countries.
I may have overlooked, this is already a long thread and most I could say has been said...but:
You look to be far out of town, any neighbors? A 100 acre (estimate) farm about 15 miles from me put up a large array about 100 feet back from the country road passing by it, and at that point there is a neighbor/home. They complained about having to look at the array… this must have been an array like Hagman’s many $100K investment. I’d think a roof mounted should never be a source of neighbor complaints.
I assume you heat with wood, did you say heat pump somewhere in the thread? I have a geothermal unit and it is efficient enough that a few hundred KWH per month would be a lot of heating or cooling, still your array isn’t enough to handle my electrical load, averages over 1000 KWH per month..somewhere near 1,600 KWH during heating season.
I love the idea of solar power, the one idea that keeps coming up in my mind, especially when I turn on the garden hose on a sunny day and have hot water flowing out until the length of hose if emptied. A simple solar black pipe run along the South side of my house as the feed line to my electric water heater would be a big help, not sure my wife would accept that running along the house behind her perennial flower garden. I believe this type (with a real collector on the roof) of hot water boost is required in places like Israel..and other sunny energy starved (oh, that’s us too these days) countries.
I live in a community where many (not all, by any means) people strive to live in a community as sustainable as possible. Athens has a local farmer’s market that (at least I am told) has been studied by people across the country. I have an 85 acre farm, and there’s really no way to see my array other than from the road, except if you are on my property “illegally”. Otherwise, it seems to be kind of a tourist attraction. we heat with wood, but I had a heat pump installed about 2 years ago for my daughter. My wife and I didn’t mind coming home to a 50 degree house, but I thought it was somewhat unfair to my baby. It is rarely used, except on the coldest days when it drops below the 63 degree set-point. My favorite new feature is the air conditioner!!! Summer days in Ohio suck, to say the least. I can’t seem to fall asleep when the nighttime temp is 75 and relative humidity is in the 80% range. That’s my splurge. There are tons of designs and manufacturers out there for solar thermal. Do a search. That’s my next project.
I’ve been on a heat pump for 20 years, and it has been geothermal for the last 15 years. We like it, especially since the cost of oil has gone up 400% in that time and the cost of electricity hasn’t even doubled...I’d guess electricity had gone up 50% in the last 20 years. The unit I have is two speeds, and it runs (computer/processor controlled) to maximize efficiency. This causes it to run for long periods in low speed, the most efficient, and it is super quiet at that speed, forced air of course.
But, this is one of the reasons we like supplemental wood heat, a nice hot to the touch warm spot on a cold winter’s night.
Hate to steal the thread here but I have a heat pump question.
I know that below -12 to -15C they don’t work anymore and the electric furnace part kicks in. But can you over ride this and just heat with your wood stove instead? My neighbour has a heat pump but no wood stove and is telling me you can’t do this.
This concerns me as we get maybe two to three weeks of -12C to -18C weather where I am at.
Also, is the ‘central air’ part of the heat pump in summer as efficient as central air?
Hate to steal the thread here but I have a heat pump question.
I know that below -12 to -15C they don’t work anymore and the electric furnace part kicks in. But can you over ride this and just heat with your wood stove instead? My neighbour has a heat pump but no wood stove and is telling me you can’t do this.
This concerns me as we get maybe two to three weeks of -12C to -18C weather where I am at.
Also, is the ‘central air’ part of the heat pump in summer as efficient as central air?
I have had a geothermal hp for about 15 years, and as it uses a ground loop it works fine when the air temp is real low, or real hot for air conditioning. To you point, when I have the insert running I turn the thermostat way down and the hp stays off for hours. Same could be done with an air-to-air heat pump...but maybe that’s not your operational question, d.n.f.
Hate to steal the thread here but I have a heat pump question.
I know that below -12 to -15C they don’t work anymore and the electric furnace part kicks in. But can you over ride this and just heat with your wood stove instead? My neighbour has a heat pump but no wood stove and is telling me you can’t do this.
This concerns me as we get maybe two to three weeks of -12C to -18C weather where I am at.
Also, is the ‘central air’ part of the heat pump in summer as efficient as central air?
Weeelll, since you asked…
It’s not that they don’t work at that temperature, they just don’t provide enough heat, thus the reason for the electric backup. At very low temperatures, you may want to set it on emergency heat and give the heat pump a rest. It will cost you a little more in electricity, but you will get warm. If you bump the thermostat back when the stove is going, it will start the heat pump automatically if the stove goes out. It is possible to set up an outdoor thermostat to accomplish this automatically, but repeatedly starting a compressor when it is this cold isn’t the best thing for it. York units used to do this, but most manufacturers will tell you to just let it run.
The cooling cycle is just as energy efficient as a normal A/C. SOme would argue there is a ssmall loss in the reversing valve, but it isn’t significant.
Yes, ground source is very expensive to install, but is probably the most efficient way to condition a building in just about all circumstances. However, if you have made the investment in a wood stove, the air-air heat pump is a great compromise in cost/efficiency. They are great in the shoulder seasons when it is a little too much to fire up the stove.
Now back to your regularly scheduled thread on solar panels…
we just got our first electric bill reflecting a full billing cycle with our solar panels - $3 and some odd cents. Pretty sweet!!! Of course, we also just got the statement for our solar panel loan
Mike, what happens if you were constantly in the “black” for electricity production? Does the electric company write you a check? Or is it better to size the pv array to your actual use?
The advice I was given was to size the system to produce your annual average, or a little less. The reason is that the power company only pays you half (or less) of what they sell the power for.
I have “net metering”, meaning that the company will bank excess usage on a rolling 12-month basis. In other words, if I produce an excess of say 500 kWh in June, I have through the following May to use that power. After that time, I get a credit on my bill at the reduced rate.
I want my BLACK METAL roof (aka,, massive solar gain ) covered in PV and collectors. But I didn’t know the utility pays a heavy discount on your elec. If that’s true shouldn’t they be subsidizing these installs (as in pick up the 1/2 that NYS won’t cover)? Think about it for them. They are getting free electric, with no maintenance or overhead.
Now let’s think about this. The power company is in the business of making money, but they are letting you use their infinite sized battery, aka the transmission network, to store your power for free. After a year, rather than make you take the power off, they are buying your excess. Be glad they pay half, some power companies just keep it and pay nothing at the end of that year, and in California some folks are finding themselves paying MORE on a net metering plan (look up the E6 net metering plan) and generating 90 percent of their own power than they would if they were on the grid, ON TOP of the expense of buying all that equipment. And it’s not like you aren’t getting a benefit here, instead of having to buy, maintain and dispose of a large, expensive battery bank, you are using theirs and they are maintaining it. How much would enough batteries to hold the excess cost over the course of a year?
Sounds to me like you have a pretty good deal here. You get almost free use of the power company grid, less work to do, less real estate taken, less environmental hazard, AND money back on excess power.
) covered in PV and collectors. But I didn’t know the utility pays a heavy discount on your elec. If that’s true shouldn’t they be subsidizing these installs (as in pick up the 1/2 that NYS won’t cover)? Think about it for them. They are getting free electric, with no maintenance or overhead.
