you guys are lucky. the way it works here is you get absolutely no credit or deduction on the initial cost, you can forget about selling the extra back to power company, (they will take it happily from you for free though), and since you now buy less from them, they put you on a higher $$/kWh plan!

it still pays to do it though, as even though we're a major electricity exporter, our own utilities prices are fuckin' expensive. running AC all day long on a big house in a hot summer is a luxury average family can barely afford

Dude this is very cool, I know in the next year or so there is a new solar panel system that uses a lot less space and is 80% efficient in converting light to energy which is much better than the 50% ish or less that we get currently,I forget the exact number. The other thing is you can install more in the same space because of the way the new panels are created, they basically reflect light from multiple angles to give increased sun collection along with better conversion rates.

Maybe something to check out

=HPSF=CannonFodder wrote:

Dude this is very cool, I know in the next year or so there is a new solar panel system that uses a lot less space and is 80% efficient in converting light to energy which is much better than the 50% ish or less that we get currently,I forget the exact number. The other thing is you can install more in the same space because of the way the new panels are created, they basically reflect light from multiple angles to give increased sun collection along with better conversion rates. Maybe something to check out

Link?

Most panels today are between 15% and 16% efficiency. The Kyocera panels I am getting are 16% efficient.

I could have spent an extra $10,000 and gotten 20% panels from sun electronics that would have given me 8KWH in the same space as the Kyocera panels.

It just wasn't worth the extra cost.

If there were 50% efficient (or 80% efficient) panels it would rock the solar industry, so I suspect you might have mis-gauged what is coming onto the market in the next 12 months.

Yea maybe it's not coming in the next 12 months then lol. Lemme find the link...

Yea sorry I guess i read it and thought it was coming out soon, seems it was just proven in a lab.

www.technologyreview.c...24665/?a=f


btw if you have cows, check this out
inhabitat.com/2010/04/...lds-power/

Oh this is also coming lol.

www.inhabitat.com/2010...ar-panels/

Thanks for the information. There is a ton of cool innovation being worked on in the lab right now that will probably take at least 10 years to make it into the field.

There are people who are even working on cheap solar power supplying shingle/roofing material that would just interlock together and provide power without having to put an array on the roof since the roof itself would be the panel.

A lot of these things are either very very expensive (best for commercial), or they are very cheap but inneficient (good for developing countries who don't have much money to spend and don't consume a lot of electricity).

I don't see anything ground shaking on the horizon for residential US stateside in the next few years although panel efficiency will continue to creep up, to the point where a panel that puts out 215 watts today will be putting out 300 watts with the same footprint a few more years from now.

Doh well least yours will pay for it self in 10 years so that's good But yea lotta exciting tech coming out but not quite in production yet

=HPSF=Gunfighter wrote:

I don't see anything ground shaking on the horizon for residential US stateside in the next few years although panel efficiency will continue to creep up, to the point where a panel that puts out 215 watts today will be putting out 300 watts with the same footprint a few more years from now.

I do:

Bloom Box

The Bloom Box is a nice idea, but it's just a more efficient use of natural gas. It's still based on a limited resource, where as our sun isn't going away for millions if not billions of years.

are you sure? cuz i heard someone was gonna blow it up. Mayans? Incans? Aztecs?

=HPSF=Lookback wrote:

=HPSF=Gunfighter wrote: I don't see anything ground shaking on the horizon for residential US stateside in the next few years although panel efficiency will continue to creep up, to the point where a panel that puts out 215 watts today will be putting out 300 watts with the same footprint a few more years from now. I do: Bloom Box

The Bloom Box is very interesting technology but it's probably a good 10-15 years away from being available for residential use. Also, as pointed out it really requires fossil fuels such as natural gas. It does produce far less pollution and is more efficient than sending power over long distance transmission lines.

I believe that it will be a long time before we see a Bloom Box that costs under $20,000 for home use and the break even point on it will be longer than solar since it really just generates electricity more efficiently from fossil, whereas solar pretty much provides power from the sun itself.

It's here finally my homies!

Final inspection tomorrow, then just another week or so for Xcel to put the new Net Meter in for the energy credit to the grid and I can flip the bitch on!

Fricking A your house is huge.

Fricking B why only one side? is that the side with the most sun therefore highest return?

=HPSF=CannonFodder wrote:

Fricking A your house is huge. Fricking B why only one side? is that the side with the most sun therefore highest return?

House is 3400 sq ft, yes it's big, but I deserve it dammit, my first one was like 900 sq ft.

The side it's on is the south facing side of the roof. Panels on the other side would be terribly inefficient, especially in the winter when the sun is much lower in the sky.

AH very nice and congratz man, that is a really nice house

Yups that's wut i figured