Best PV forum?

[bfitz3]

I hope this question isn't treasonous to Hearth.com.

This forum is absolutely wonderful. I've learned so much here letting me make good decisions for my situation and just as importantly, avoid bad ones.

I'm ready to take the next step and want to put in a PV system. While the green room is nice, I'm wondering if anyone knows of a PV equivalent to this forum. For that matter, after what felt like 6 weeks of gale warnings, I'm wondering about wind power as well (is a hybrid system possible?)

Thanks, and my apologies to any mods that question my
Orally to this great forum.

 

[peakbagger]

I post on solar panel talk http://solarpaneltalk.com/. There are quite a few very knowledgeable folks on the forum but there is one major character called Sunking who can be quite abrasive, he knows his stuff but ask the wrong question and he can be quite unpleasant. They have a lot of good stickies. One way to raise his wrath is to ask about a battery based system. Newbies inevitably want batteries but expect for very rare situations (way off grid so far away that its an obscene price to hook up to the grid) its real stupid move. If in doubt lurk and read through the stickies before posting.

Rarely does wind power work out for a homeowner as you need a lot of wind, enough that's its quite annoying, to justify a wind system. The towers have to be quite high and the equipment on top of the pole requires maintenance. If you want to go this way, a firm called PIKA Energy in Maine has a fairly nice integrated wind/solar system http://www.pika-energy.com/.

If you are serious about renewable power its worth getting a subscription to Home Power, I believe a subscription lets you access their back issues. Its gotten a bit glossy these days but there are quite a few good articles about every combination of renewable power.

If you haven't done so go to this website http://www.dsireusa.org/ and see what incentives are available in your area. Given the change in administration I wouldn't be surprised if the trim back the 30% federal tax credit. The incentives and rules vary widely around the US and in some areas they can be real attractive but in other areas it may not be worth it.

 

[woodgeek]

pass on the small wind. They are too expensive and high maintenance for what you get.

 

[bfitz3]

I post on solar panel talk http://solarpaneltalk.com/. There are quite a few very knowledgeable folks on the forum but there is one major character called Sunking who can be quite abrasive, he knows his stuff but ask the wrong question and he can be quite unpleasant. They have a lot of good stickies. One way to raise his wrath is to ask about a battery based system. Newbies inevitably want batteries but expect for very rare situations (way off grid so far away that its an obscene price to hook up to the grid) its real stupid move. If in doubt lurk and read through the stickies before posting.

Rarely does wind power work out for a homeowner as you need a lot of wind, enough that's its quite annoying, to justify a wind system. The towers have to be quite high and the equipment on top of the pole requires maintenance. If you want to go this way, a firm called PIKA Energy in Maine has a fairly nice integrated wind/solar system http://www.pika-energy.com/.

If you are serious about renewable power its worth getting a subscription to Home Power, I believe a subscription lets you access their back issues. Its gotten a bit glossy these days but there are quite a few good articles about every combination of renewable power.

If you haven't done so go to this website http://www.dsireusa.org/ and see what incentives are available in your area. Given the change in administration I wouldn't be surprised if the trim back the 30% federal tax credit. The incentives and rules vary widely around the US and in some areas they can be real attractive but in other areas it may not be worth it.

I'm only eligible for the 30% fed tax credit and am moving this project up in importance thinking that will get the ax soon. Locally, the power co-op allows me to net meter for usage, but not fees. With some research, it seems that kWh rates have been discounted and monthly charges increased. Go figure.

I'm a very low use household, so my ROI/payback horizon is not good, but at some point, my decisions on this planet need to be about more than the bottom line. Plus, zombies!

 

[bfitz3]

pass on the small wind. They are too expensive and high maintenance for what you get.

I hear you, but with the winter winds and perpetual lake effect clouds in November/December.... It's something to consider. Questions to be answered...

 

[Where2]

The ecorenovator forum on solar power is a useful resource. Fellow users just coached a user through the hoops to design and install his own system. His net meter arrived earlier this month. My system is detailed in the thread: "DIY solar/worth the cost?", as are a few others (including a 12.5kW DIY system).

Builditsolar is another DIY oriented solar resource with some good reading material and DIY install write-ups.

 

[peakbagger]

Build it Solar is a great resource, not really a forum but worth spending some time especially for DIY

 

[Circus]

Given the change in administration I wouldn't be surprised if the trim back the 30% federal tax credit.

I wouldn't worry too much about the 30% tax credit expiring. Seems, no matter what, the consumer's wallet is maxed out. High interest rates create lower house prices etc. Nine years ago there was a 30% tax credit on energy star appliances which I didn't qualify for. The day, the very day it expired the price dropped on my refrigerator from $1000 to $650. Then I bought it. Figuring the electricity saved the real cost was $0 about 2 years ago.

PS Now that I think about it I probably would have been a lot happier if I had never bought that Kill a watt meter nine years ago. It's latest victim was my TV

 

[begreen]

I wouldn't worry too much about the 30% tax credit expiring.

It's already happened in WA state due to one fool legislator that keeps trying to kill the bill by attaching a poison pill. The oil and coal industry have been big donors to his campaigns.

 

[georgepds]

Pass on the wind

I know three engineers who put up windmills..me in Ma, a friend in NH, and another in VT

None of us got any really useful energy. Myself, I got nothing but headaches.

If you insisit on doing it build a tall tower and measure the winds for a year... then if you're using a small windmill degrade the potential power due to hunting(overshoot)as the light strcture blows past alignment with the wind


Really..it's not worth the trouble

 

[peakbagger]

As I drive around I keep track of dead and poorly installed Skystream wind turbines. They had a lot of marketing hype and quite a few got installed by contractors with no skills with wind. My favorite are two turbines about 50' apart upwind of a farmhouse that sits on rise. The top of the turbines are below the roof line of the farm. I expect they are kinetic sculpture by now as the company is long out of business and there is no support for parts. I see several old wind turbine towers in VT along I-91 that have been converted to cell towers.

I used to work for a wind turbine company that got its start buying and rebuilding old Jacobs wind turbines built in the 1930s, they ran out of old ones to buy and eventually with federal money built a beefy small wind turbine that ended up at the south pole. Even they couldn't make a buck. Many of the core folks in the team had been wind advocates for years but they all admitted that siting was 90% and usually was done badly. They ended building 100 KW wind turbines for Alaska with federal money where siting is lot more optimal (but servicing is a difficult). They also sell "boutique" turbines for high visibility locations. They are big enough to be impressive but not overwhelming. http://www.greenlodgingnews.com/Wind-Turbine-is-Symbol-Resorts-Green-Commitment/

 

[bfitz3]

Sounds like my money would be better spent doubling or tripling the solar array in lieu of going after wind.

 

[peakbagger]

The rational for wind is that when its cloudy and nasty, the winds normally blowing so it fills in some of the demand in winter. A good front coming through will usually top off a set of batteries. The fundamental problem is few folks really want to live where its constantly windy, they try to avoid it. The wind really needs to crank up to generate much power and ground induced turbulence really screws up potential generation. The solution is a higher tower. The trade off is with a higher tower its full exposed to the all the nasty weather and thunderstorms. Lighting strikes do happen and most owners install load break switches on their towers to shunt to ground if there is lighting in the area. The equipment on top of the tower needs annual maintenance and that means climbing the tower, a task that few folks will voluntarily do. There are tilt up type towers that allow the work to be done on the ground but they have their limits and tend to be a PITA. The vast majority of folks may go in thinking they will be conscientious about annual maintenance but inevitable it becomes fix when broke.

Here is article about my former firms first turbine at the south pole http://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/90s/turbine.html. On rare occasions these come up for sale and are regarded as the gold standard for small wind turbines. Some firm was trying to put them back in production but I don't think they ever succeeded